by Don Hull

Ticket "scalping" is one of those consensual "crimes" (like gambling and prostitution) that shouldn't be a crime because it doesn't hurt anybody or violate anybody's constitutional rights. It's nobody's business what or how you pay for a Lakers ticket anymore than what or how you pay for a bet, sex, or a sport jacket.

Ticket selling to games and concerts should be done in a FREE market where a buyer and seller can willingly agree on price.  The agreed-upon price is the proper selling price and NOT some number concocted by an economically illiterate lawmaker.

So why is scalping illegal?  To ensure collection of TAXES, mostly, but also to facilitate CONTROL over people and give power to politicians to dispense favors to pet constituencies!

When individuals have the TOTAL FREEDOM to buy and sell from whom they choose, the government has a problem collecting taxes from the sellers. So to protect its power and ensure taxes get paid, brokers and ticket agents are given a government-protected monopoly in exchange for a "permit." Then to mask the scheme from the public and fool the public into thinking the government is protecting consumers from "price gougers," the sellers are beset with PRICE CAPS on the commissions they can add to the ticket price.

Laws against selling tickets without the government approved paperwork are then passed. And to elicit the public's help in controlling the selling of tickets, government spinmeisters demonize unauthorized ticket sellers by labeling them "scalpers."

Thus an economically illiterate public inadvertently helps government oversee a private economic activity and collect taxes from it.

(This monopoly that is given to government approved ticket sellers, is another incongruous exercise in government power. While the Dept. of Justice is suing Microsoft to allegedly PREVENT a monopoly from happening, other government departments are PROTECTING monopolies, in this case, the selling of Lakers tickets.  And government officials wonder why the people are cynical about government!!!)

Scalping LAWS are immoral because they violate individual freedoms, thus
the laws should all be REPEALED:

• They violate the freedoms of buyers and sellers to negotiate prices.
• They distort the marketplace by preventing prices from floating to their natural level where supply meets demand.
• They prevent ambitious casual entrepreneurs from making an extra profit by filling a temporary consumer need.
• They criminalize nonviolent behavior between peaceful people.
• They violate a consumer's right to get the best deal.
• They waste police resources by taking cops away from pursuing VIOLENT criminals.

Scalpers actually BENEFIT everyone (except for the tax collectors and power-thirsty politicians, of course):

• Ambitious casual entrepreneurs get a chance to make a few bucks.
• The event producer gets to unload more, maybe even all, of his tickets and spread the risk of his enterprise. If the show is a bust, the investment risk is shared with the scalper and the producer reduces his losses. If the show is a hit, both parties profit.
• Casual entrepreneurs get to test their skills in the marketplace.
• Late arriving CONSUMERS have an opportunity to get a good seat with no waiting in lines and arguing with surly clerks.
• They provide an early warning system to the producers about the likelihood of success. When an event is announced, the producers can forecast the degree of success/failure by the number of scalpers who show up . . . or DON'T show up. This actually amounts to free market research.  So why arrest them???

Bottom line: Scalping laws expose the lie of government "compassion" because they show how taxes not only enrich and corrupt government, but give it tools to oppress the ambitious poor with "permits" and "fees" they cannot pay. This is flatly un-American.

A man has a right to earn a living in whatever peaceful pursuit he chooses.

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Don Hull is an advertising/marketing consultant in Costa Mesa, CA and has run for Congress twice on the Libertarian ticket.

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