She’s discovered that things cost more in the restricted market of an airport. And what’s she doing flying anyway?
In one of the finest self-owns I’ve seen in a while on the worst website on the Internet, the future of the Democratic Party dropped a galaxy brain take on Twitter today.
Where even to begin? Perhaps with the immorality of her utilitarian equation of economic value and human worth? Or perhaps with the fact that LaGuardia is about to enact a $19 minimum wage that will likely raise the cost of these very croissants even further?
Or better, the fact that every airport in the country still has a McDonald’s Dollar Menu if you’re willing to trade in French pastries for French fries, like the rest of us twenty-somethings on a budget?
Let’s start with the very reason why airports can charge exorbitant prices for garbage food: the very absence of the free market, caused mainly by a captive passenger market and government regulation.
Closed venues will always feature higher prices than open markets. On your way to work, you can choose between Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, or even your local bodega to pick up a cup of coffee for a few dollars. Yet, if you’re at a concert venue, a place that you as a consumer have voluntarily chosen, the venue sets the prices because consumer demand is mostly elastic. Sure, you can pick up an 18-pack of Bud Light at a liquor store for less than a buck a beer, but a concert venue knows jacking up the price of a beer from $5 to $8 probably won’t dissuade you buying one during a show.