Corruption is a system of concentrated gains and diffused costs: cheaters make a lot of money, and their victims each lose a little. The cheater has a much larger pool of money to spend on keeping the scam going, and the victims need to pay *again* to fight the cheater.
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/03/aoi-aoi-oh/#concentrated-gains-vast-diffused-losses
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/03/aoi-aoi-oh/#concentrated-gains-vast-diffused-losses
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/2
But in order to fight back effectively, the victims need to band together - it doesn't make sense for one victim to pony up to counter the cheater, because the cheater stole from a *lot* of people and can therefore spend *far* more than the victim lost and still come out ahead.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/3
But actually, it's *even worse*. Because most corruption isn't just dishonest, it's *incredibly wasteful*. Corruption involves stealing ten dollars from you to make a dime for the cheater.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/4
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Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/6
All of this is why we have governments. A government is (said to be) a democratically accountable way to meet the concentrated power of the corrupt with the concentrated power of the victims of corruption.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/7
But it's also a matter of efficiency. While it makes a certain kind of selfish sense for the cheater to liquidate our dollar to make their penny, from a societal perspective, it's a catastrophe.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/8
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Cory Doctorow
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https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/06/clarence-thomas/#harlan-crow
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/10
https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/13/taxes-are-for-the-little-people/#leona-helmsley-2022
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/11
https://armandalegshow.com/episode/medicaid-enrollment/
All this in the midst of a corporate crime-wave that is not only unpunished, it's utterly unremarked-upon:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/12/07/solar-panel-for-a-sex-machine/#a-single-proposition
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Staying on Medicaid seems tougher than it should be - An Arm And a Leg
An Arm And a LegCory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/12
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Cory Doctorow
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https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/30/posiwid/#social-cost-of-carbon
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/14
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Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
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https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/pearl-jam-taking-on-ticketmaster-67440/
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Pearl Jam lost their battle against Ticketmaster in court but the fight against the concert giants isn't over.
Eric Boehlert (Rolling Stone)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/17
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Nation_Entertainment#History
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/18
https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/20/anything-that-cant-go-on-forever-will-eventually-stop/
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/19
https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/30/nix-fix-the-tix/#something-must-be-done-there-we-did-something
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/20
https://chokepointcapitalism.com/
As soon as we raised Ticketmaster/Live Nation with club owners and other events industry insiders, they'd go pale and quiet and tell us that they didn't feel comfortable staying on the record.
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(no title)
chokepointcapitalism.comCory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/21
With the DOJ Antitrust Division chasing Ticketmaster through the courts, we're starting to get a rare, on-the-record glimpse of TM/LN's operations, as its internal documents find their pay into court records.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/22
In his BIG newsletter, Matt Stoller offers a spectacular, must-read breakdown of these documents and the ensuing spin:
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/is-ticketmaster-telling-the-truth
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Is Ticketmaster Telling the Truth About Its Finances?
Matt Stoller (BIG by Matt Stoller)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/23
Far more damning is a comparison between the price of a Ticketmaster ticket in the US vs the EU.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/24
> An American could fly to Paris, spend a few nights at a nice hotel, see a Taylor Swift concert, and fly back, for less than it costs to see that same show in the U.S.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/25
Start with the fact that Ticketmaster has *three* businesses, not just one. They sell tickets, but they also promote concerts (that is, front the money for personnel, travel and marketing), and they also own a bunch of the largest and most profitable venues in the country.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/26
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/explosive-new-documents-unearthed
But this presents a problem for Ticketmaster. They're a publicly traded company and their investors demand high returns.
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Explosive New Documents Unearthed On Live Nation/Ticketmaster
Matt Stoller (BIG by Matt Stoller)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/27
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/28
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/29
at $139m/year (that's eight times the Fortune 500 average). His sidekick Joe Berchtold is America's *highest paid CFO*, at $54m. The total AOI for TM/LN is $732m/year - and 19% of that is being paid to two of its execs.
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Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/31
But when they talk to the investors who decide whether to pay them 800% of the S&P500 average, they are more forthcoming.
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Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/33
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/34
> I don't think Concerts AOI per fan is a logical way to look at it. I think if you look at how we've talked about our business, we've talked about our business across the multiple pieces. So you have to look at it, what's the concerts plus sponsorship plus ticketing AOI per fan.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/35
But Stoller points out a curious fact that isn't captured here. Remember when I told you that TM/LN's NOI is $732m/year? What I didn't mention is the company's gross revenue: *$16.7 billion*.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/36
This is where understanding corruption helps clarify our understanding and cut through the bullshit.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/37
This is concentrated gains and diffuse losses. In order to command the highest salary of any American CFO, Berchtold has to cook up and maintain this process.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/38
These two men take home a fifth of Ticketmaster's net income because they possess a rare and valuable skill. They are able to obfuscate a corrupt arrangement, enrobing it in layers of performative complexity, until the average musician, concertgoer, or lawmaker, can't understand it.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/39
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/40
> Live Nation has a giant capital intensive unprofitable division of putting on concerts, from which it skims for its real cash flow. But this leverage among different subsidiaries means that it has an incentive to push up the cost of concerts overall, not just for its own profit. This incentive operates in two different ways.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/41
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/42
It assuredly does. Understanding how Ticketmaster's shell-game works is critical to understanding the similar shell-games played by many other kinds of monopolists, who have wrapped their tentacles around all the *other* parts of our lives.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/43
https://prospect.org/economy/2024-06-03-age-of-recoupment/
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The Age of Recoupment
David Dayen (The American Prospect)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/44
> Today, everywhere consumers turn, whether they are shopping for groceries at the local Kroger or for plane tickets online, they are being gouged.
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Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/46
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Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/48
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/eof
https://media-ecology.org/convention
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Media Ecology Association - Convention
media-ecology.orgbm IS MOVING
•Also, here's a quote for all the MEGO artists and scalesplainers today:
> "If you want to hide something in the 21st century world, you don't need to create a James Bond style plot. Just cover it in acronyms".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qtnz
BBC Sounds - Word of Mouth - Available Episodes
BBCCory Doctorowudostępnił to.
Calicoday :gamedev:
•Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/7
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Sensible Crone
•Cory Doctorow
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