Good capitalism vs. bad capitalism

I consider myself a fine, upstanding capitalist. Profit is good! But I also think that the key reason capitalism is better than socialism is that the people making a profit are actually providing a valuable service; profit in and of itself is great, but profit from actually doing something valuable is even better. This is one of the reasons I was struck by the New Yorker’s article (subscribers only) this week on Ticketmaster — author John Seabrook has managed to turn Ticketmaster into a (relatively) sympathetic protagonist! He does this by contrasting Ticketmaster — a company that has made buying concert tickets incredibly easy and pain free (which would you rather do: refresh their website at 9 in the morning or camp out for a week in an uncertain quest for tickets?) at a markup of roughly 20-30% — with ticket scalpers, a/k/a the worst people in the world.

The difference between scalpers and Ticketmaster is the difference between bad and good capitalism. Scalpers produce nothing: they simply scoop up tickets at below-market rates, vastly mark up the price, and resell them to the highest bidder. I’m not saying it should be illegal, I’m just saying its parasitic. Ticketmaster, meanwhile, has made life better for both concert promoters and fans, even if the fans are wont to bitch and moan about the service charges and fees and “convenience” charges (lord knows I’ve done that from time to time). Sure, they sometimes get a little overzealous — the kerfluffle with TicketNow during the last Springsteen concert reeked of collusion and unseemliness — but Ticketmaster has been, on balance, a force for good in the world.*

In short: Greed is good, but greed with purpose is even better.

*I know that sounds like a pitch to Slate — “Why Ticketmaster is the best thing to happen to concerts since the electric amp” — but this New Yorker piece is quite persuasive.