Nicky Cheese

For those of you who didn’t know, I’m living in Houston now. Tonight will be two weeks. Woo-wee, Texas!

Anyhow, over the weekend, my roommate and I drove a couple hours to Austin to go to a few bars and check out the atmosphere of SXSW. I wasn’t really interested in any of the bands except Digitalism, a German-based act that I really like dancing to. But yo! At over $500, I wasn’t about to buy a festival pass for a mere two hours of enjoyment.

So we went to a (surprisingly) non-celebratory Irish pub and, following that, the club next door, Molotov Lounge. The artist playing there: Nullsleep. See below and notice the tee.

Not one to pass up a conversation with contentious political potential, I asked him about the tee-shirt and its associated message (I figured it was predictable environmental alarmism). He tells me, ‘kinda but more’. Not only did he think that the Earth was environmentally “dead” but culturally, socially, politically and philosophically as well. Yeah, the whole gamut. Whatever. Generally when your critique is that broad, it’s bordering on meaninglessness and not worth getting into.

So I move on and talk with other SXSW enthusiasts, where I learned that — because of the festival’s decentralized, multi-venue format — one can, in most instances, actually see a single show without paying the entire SXSW price-tag.

And that’s all it took. Current time: 12:15am. The time Digitalism took the stage: 12:30am.

I power-walk a mile to the venue in question, the roommate (& her acquired company) trailing at least 10 feet behind me. No diff. I have a goal in mind and altruistic social norms aren’t about to get in the way.

By the time I get there, it’s 12:25am and I have 5 minutes. Sweet. Moreover, I find out that the venue is, in fact, allowing “walk-ins” to trickle in at $20 a pop. Sweet! But argh! I need cash. Quickly. I look around and see an ATM about thirty feet away.

And then the whoa. As I’m working the ATM magic, I receive an unprecedented proposition, an offer that–up until that point–hadn’t ever entered my universe of discourse (…to borrow a term from logic class).

Yes, the highest ATM fee I’ve ever seen: $5.25.

Caught off guard, my immediate impulse was to hit “cancel” and search for more options. But the show, the line, the time! Hell, all things considered, I was pretty lucky–yes, lucky–in finding an ATM so close. So after quickly weighing my options, I decide that, yes, the fee is well worth the convenience because that very convenience consequently enables me to do what I really, really wanted to do that night: to see Digitalism in person and dance my ass off. So, exercising my volition, I choose to accept the $5.25 fee. I owned the decision.

However, as I’m sure you’re well-aware, this is an unpopular view, rarely shared by others. People like to prop up the “victimization” of capitalism and ignore the daily benefits it breathes into our lives. Pretty one-sided.

Yes, free-market opponents will go on and on, and point to situations like my own as evidence that the system is fundamentally exploitative, that it’s always out to get you at your expense. But notice that, as an individual who paid $5.25 for an ATM fee, the system didn’t hurt me. No, it helped me have an awesome night!

Are free-markets opportunistic? Definitely, but so what? It goes both ways. Without a profit-driven market, ATM convenience wouldn’t exist in the first place.

Are they exploitative? Gimme a break. The choice is always in the hands of the individual.

UPDATE: I think Liberty Girl’s gas-station comment (see below) was in some way prophetic. Coming from reason.com, check out I’m Not Going to Pay a lot for that Gasoline. Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter is making gas stations engaging in “excessive pricing” give refunds to customers.

Suppose you pull into a gas station and notice that the price for a gallon of regular unleaded seems awfully high—more than $4, compared to the $3.30 or so you’re used to paying. If you’re in a hurry, you might decide to pay the premium. If you have a couple minutes to spare, you might go to the station down the street where prices are lower. In Indiana, you would have a third option: Buy the gas and call the attorney general…

At the tail end of my post Monday, I referenced Mayor Menino’s opposition to retailers like CVS opening medical clinics inside their stores. His reasoning again:

“Allowing retailers to make money off of sick people is wrong.”

My short response suggested that the overall quality of health care decreases without the profit motive. An argument of consequentialism or pragmatism.

But, to be fair, I think the Boston mayor was less interested in the ends involved (convenient, quality health care) and more concerned about the means used (free enterprise) to achieve those ends, which – according to the mayor – are exploitative. I’m not sure why Menino limited his target to “retailers”, but in any case, for him, personal autonomy is compromised when the free enterprise system attempts to treat illness. When health care becomes a business.

In an article entitled “Hating Free Enterprise“, John Stossel rallies against this line of thinking, defending personal autonomy, and thereby the use of free enterprise, in an area where the support of “government and professional societies” is not: human organ sales. Check it out.

And if this doesn’t satisfy your philosophical proclivities, take a look at John Stacey Taylor’s Stakes and Kidneys: Why Markets in Human Body Parts Are Morally Imperative. I got the chance to see Dr. Taylor speak at an IHS seminar in 2006. Seriously? It changed my understanding of the human condition. Autonomy!