Without regard to the question of pricing of ticketing fees, your opening paragraph is not actually accurate. In equalized currency, household income in the US is 25% higher than in, e.g., France, so when you go to Europe, you are using your US income to buy goods and services that cost (in general terms) that much less to produce so it seems like a bargain as a tourist.
Now regarding ticketing fees, there is really no way to explain that in economic terms because they are irrational (on the above basis). I think a lot of economists would say that is a function of some (probably illegal) monopolistic behavior.
And this, in turn, gets us back to Delta and the program fees retrenchment. Unlike theatre tickets (or the shows to which they relate), the Sky Miles program is NOT a monopoly (with very limited individualized exceptions).
What does all of this mean? Overall this is too complex to describe in a message board post, but underlying it all is that ugly word: capitalism. Supply and demand dictates prices. Europe has capitalism too, but it is of a different brand than in the US. That is a far deeper problem than what ticket sellers charge, especially considering that, to most people, theatre tickets are a luxury they cannot afford in any event, even in the non-profit off-B sense.
"You say you want a revolution..." |
