Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Rocket Science?

Apparently, the following true statements are much less obvious than I would have thought.

1.  If you give something away for free, the people getting the free thing will like it.

2.  If you take money from other people to pay for the "free" thing, some of them will complain.

3.  The people who once depended on selling the (now free) thing will get hammered.

Is this rocket science?  Apparently so, at least in NY.

3 comments:

Tom said...

They say "you can't teach a liberal." Here is further evidence of that.

Anonymous said...

Makes sense, except not applicable to Citibike.

The service was/is supposed to be self supporting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/24/opinion/bike-shares-rough-ride.html

All conservatives should be for subsidized biking. It's cheaper than every other subsidized mode of transportation, even if maintenance is included. Bike mechanics make a fraction of road workers or train/bus mechanics. Also, bike take up so little space that shifting modes makes less congestion for everyone.

cbear said...

Except it's nowhere near free - at $9.95 per day it's way cheaper to buy a bike if you use it even semi-frequently. But obviously you should expect to lose some business at the margin.