JimSwift.net

A few weeks ago, a St. Louis television station posted a story about parking costs increasing during the National League Championship Series.

The tagline asked “Is this price gouging?”  I had high hopes for the comment section, but maybe in this regard I am naive.

Why is this not price gouging? Well, it’s not price gouging because that is usually a myth perpetrated by economically ignorant writers, when in truth, it is basic economics.

Have you ever been to a golf tournament? Ever see people selling parking on their front lawn? These individuals are adding to the supply of parking. However, in big cities near baseball parks, the supply of parking is pretty much fixed. It may slightly increase if some companies rent out their employee parking lots for money, but they may want those spots. However, absent the ability to create tons of new parking spots, supply of parking largely remains unchanged.

Demand, however, changes dramatically. Sure, there are a fixed number of seats in a stadium, but unlike regular season games, this game is sure to be sold out. Additionally, there are thousands of individuals who want to go down to bid on tickets for sale by scalpers. Surely, they too need parking. Then there are individuals who want to be downtown for the atmosphere.

Demand skyrockets, but parking is scarce.

So, how do parking lot owners allocate the scarce amount of parking spots? The answer is price.

This isn’t price gouging, but rather, a functioning economy.

Recently, I parted with my LG flip phone (which served me well) and got a Google Nexus Android phone. Aside from the blackberry I owned in 2005, this one of the coolest phones I have ever owned.

Now, had I waited a month I’d be able to get the new and improved one but I really don’t care. This is a great phone. Rather than tell you about all of the cool apps that I got for it, I will tell you about just one: Wolfram-Alpha.

I was waiting to pick Mary up from the airport and picked up this sucker and boy is it cool. Just tool around the website (which is free) and you’ll see why. This would have solved pretty much every debate ever that we had when we were closing down Humphrey’s. Jay Boehlow, this app is for you.

Friends,

I am still in the process of ensuring my blog is completely up to date, so if you get a malware warning, don’t click through and just come back later. Apparently, in the past 8 months, WordPress has had some attacks and I gotta learn up.

Anyways, I just got back from watching a pitiful Browns win, having defeated Seattle 6 to 3. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy that Phil Dawson — a future Browns hall of famer scored all the points and am mad at the D-Line for allowing Seattle to block his first FG.

The other day I was working a college fair for SLU at Fairfax County’s Hayfield High School. Colleges pay money to be at these college fairs, and they typically provide you dinner as part of it. In the past, it’s been basic cold cuts. Anyone who knows me realizes that I do not like pre-fab sandwiches because of the tomatoes and sauce. They send somebody around to bring the sandwiches to you, and frankly have little incentive to meet peoples’ wants because nobody will refuse to register because the sandwiches suck.

Every year, I only end up eating the chips, cookie, and drink the bottle of water. I never eat the sandwiches at this college fair. I don’t get angry because a.) I am not paying for it and b.) I know I am picky. However, this year was surprising.

Multiple student groups went out and bought a variety of food from restaurants and went around selling it to the college reps. From what I saw, there was Papa John’s Pizza and Chick-Fil-A. It got me thinking about government provided goods and services (like the sandwiches) versus the free market.

Who has the incentive to provide me with what I want? The people who view me as a captive consumer with no other options or the people who take risks and sell their product?

Needless to say, I got Chick-Fil-A and Doritos.

Friends,

Welcome back to my blog. Consider my time away that of an Israelite wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. I have had a lot of things on my mind the past 8 months that I’ve wanted to put here, so I’ll start updating you in short order.

Since that time, google plus has come out. I like it a lot! If we’re not connected on it, stop by here and I will add you. I’ll still be on facebook of course — and while you’re at it, why not “like” bomble.com on facebook?

Enough shameless self-promotion for now, I am going to go play some golf.