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Re: [RC] The Real Reason (s) It Is a False Analogy - Joe Longk s swigart wrote:Joe Long said: ... Joe is not taking into account the fact that seats in a theater are a scarce resource. I.e. there is a limited number of them and the theater owner can, for each performance, sell only a fixed number of the "good ones." And after he has sold them, then they are sold out; and he has a fixed number of the less good ones. Actually, the reason live theaters charge more for the more desirable seats is because they can. ... Additionally (as alluded to above), Joe is also wrong in assuming that all the seats in the theater cost the same to produce. I am going to assume (like Joe did for the sake of argument) that all the physical chairs in the theater DID actually cost the same to construct/install (though this may not be true). However, even if it is true, the "seats" (i.e. a location to watch the performance and production of the performance) did NOT all cost the same to produce. The production of theater seats is almost entirely made up of fixed costs (i.e. it costs the same no matter how many seats you sell); consequently, the FIRST seat you sell costs a fortune, and every one after that costs virtually nothing (this, BTW, is also why airlines perform their absolutely cockamamie pricing mechanisms). The production costs of the theater are not changed by whether one seat or a full house is sold, or where that one seat (or the last seat) is sold. And while it is true that many of the costs associated with putting on an endurance ride are fixed costs, not all of them are; and some of them can be made higher by having and LD ride as well. I have carefully avoided suggesting that 50-mile rides are "better" than LD rides because I don't want that emotional debate distracting from the question at hand. What is undeniably true is that a rider in the 50-mile ride is getting twice as many miles of trail as a 25-mile rider. And about twice as much riding time. Yet you keep trying to find ways to justify charging the same for it. Joe, if he denies himself entry into an LD ride just because somebody else is paying the same price for something he doesn't want (i.e. the 50 mile ride, because presumably, if he wanted the 50 mile ride experience he would enter the 50 mile ride), is being an idiot. He is especially being an idiot if he denies himself entry into an LD ride with an entry fee of, say, $50 because $50 is also the entry fee of the 50 miler, and instead attends an LD ride with an entry fee of, say, $75 which is acceptable to him because the 50 milers will have to pay $100. I am "denying myself" entry into an LD ride that charges the same entry fee as a 50 because it just isn't worth it to me. But also, I admit, because it's a way of "voting with my feet." The question riders should ask themselves, when entering a ride (at whatever distance) is, "Is the experience I am hoping for worth the price that I am being asked to pay for it?" How much other people are paying for a different experience that they don't want is (or should be) totally irrelevant (for those of you who want to better understand this concept, I refer you to the parable of the laborers in the vineyard in Matthew 20:1-8). Yep, sellers love it when they can charge some folks twice as much as others for the same thing, or when they can charge some folks the same but deliver half as much. If you are being asked to pay the same amount for the LD ride that you do want to enter, the fact that you could, instead, get an entry in a 50 mile ride that you don't want to enter shouldn't matter to you. If you feel cheated that you are being offered what you consider to be a less desirable experience (the LD ride) and being asked to pay the same price for it, there is NOTHING stopping you from entering what you consider to be the more desirable experience (the 50 miler) for the same price. If what you want to do is ride a 25-mile ride, why should you be expected to pay the same as the people riding a ride twice as long? People who want to pay less for an LD ride despite the fact that the LD experience is their preference (on that day or on all days) are, in fact, asking to be charged less for what THEY consider to be a more desirable experience. Personally, I consider this to be a totally unreasonable expectation. That's because you're looking at it backwards. You might as well say, if I only want a small popcorn I shouldn't mind paying the same price as a large popcorn because I only wanted the small one anyway. ... p.s. How and why airlines have even more convoluted pricing practices (understatement) also has little to do with the pricing of endurance and/or LD rides; although it DOES have a lot to do with that whole fixed cost/the first seat is the only what that costs anything to produce thing. Doctoral theses have been written about airline seat pricing strategies, and since airlines in the aggregate have lost more money than they have ever made, it is hardly a good business model to be emulating. Although, in recent years, the most successful airlines have been those that DON'T price discriminate based on seat location but allocate seats on the "line up for the movie theater" concept. If you're thinking of Southwest, they don't assign seats but their prices certainly do vary, a lot, for the same flight. Maybe I'm wrong and most LD riders don't mind paying the same entry fee as the 50-mile riders pay. But I suspect there's more discontent about that than you think. The LD riders have been helping cover the costs of AERC events for years. Expecting them to pay the same entry fee as the 50-mile riders is asking them to subsidize the 50-mile ride. That seems to me to be greed, and could kill the goose that's laying the golden eggs. As someone who almost always is in the 50-mile or longer ride, I'd rather pay my fair share than expect the LD riders to pay more so that I can pay less.
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