• MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    i have a friend who was doing a twitch fundraiser, right? it was a fundraiser for a good cause. i DO fundraisers for a living. So i pop on, say hi, she doesn’t recognize me, i drop in 50 bucks because fundraiser and i could afford to tighten the belt that month. like, this is a normal donation in the charity world. She Did Not Tell Me that she was eating a slice of lemon for every dollar that was donated. Oh My Gods i have never felt so guilty for doing a fundraiser i tried to stop her. I had no idea this was a huge donation for twitch.

    honestly, i still feel kinda guilty and it’s been years.

    • [object Object]@lemmy.ca
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      1 month ago

      Scalpers aren’t really living off the hospitality of others, they’re taking advantage of illiquidity to create arbitrage and fuck over regular people.

        • LwL@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          They’re the only actual parasites in that list, the rest just provide a service people pay for. Which is closer to the parasitus class described in the OP.

      • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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        1 month ago

        Scalpers aren’t really living off the hospitality of others, they’re taking advantage of illiquidity to create arbitrage and fuck over regular people consumers.

        We shouldn’t act like the consumer isn’t a part of the problem. The scalper can scalp because the consumer will consume.

          • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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            1 month ago

            I’m not victim blaming, the scalpers need someone to sell to in order for there to be a profit. Yes Ticketmaster are scumbags, that doesn’t change the fact that there were plenty of consumers ready and ravenous for a chance to see their favorite artist live (artists making money from the scalpers buying from Ticketmaster, whether for themselves or their label).

            Should consumer protections be put in place? Probably, but I think that’s more or less kicking the can down the road. People need to vote with their wallets, giving money to scalpers is effectively allowing Ticketmaster’s scheme to work. Yes, it is predatory. Yes, it is scummy. No, the consumer is not faultless — they are essential for the scheme to work.

              • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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                1 month ago

                Yeah you’ll have to help me understand why people didn’t have a choice to simply not buy from scalpers. Were they holding guns to their heads?

                • LurkingLuddite@piefed.social
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                  1 month ago

                  Because tickets are a limited commodity. A show’s sold out, but scalpers and shitheads like Ticketmaster with their variable pricing being the only choice by the time anyone without bots is shopping? Guess what price everyone else is paying…

                • Shellofbiomatter@lemmus.org
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                  1 month ago

                  Because people aren’t a hive mind. Voting with the wallet doesn’t really work on limited luxury goods due to population scale.

                  Something like concert tickets or any luxury good is in such a low supply that there will always be enough people with more money or credit than sense.
                  So there pretty much isn’t a choice of not buying and prices eventually getting lower. The prices of luxury goods will always be as high as possible and thanks to population scale and ad campaigns, that’s going to be rather high.

                  Though don’t get me wrong, im not advocating in defense of buying expensive useless shit. I’ve quit quite a few things and at least one addiction because the price rose above some predetermined limit. Just that the voting part doesn’t really work anymore.

    • atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      Roman society is pretty much the basis for the western world. The Romans are largely the reason for the rampant patriarchy we have today among other things, for instance.

  • JayDee@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 month ago

    There’s still examples of people being paid to live in peoples’ homes as sex servants and whatnot, let’s not act like this kind of thing just evolves out of existance. I think I even remember a reddit post of someone talking about how a married couple paid for their tuition in exchange for being a plaything for them while at college.

    • cRazi_man@europe.pub
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      1 month ago

      There are stories in British tabloids every few months about how young women in university are paying for their education by being available at the whim of wealthy sugar daddies.

    • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      my body looks weird. lots of scar tissue. i was a regular model at the art school and they loved me because i’m so fucking lumpy. my mother would be so ashamed to learn i had to take my clothes off for money to get through school, because i also had a full time and part time job and loans and that still wasn’t enough to survive. she’s a prude though, this was art. that one is a secret between my wife and i (who funny enough did it at one of those mormon schools, so she got to wear a swimsuit)

    • Psythik@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      YouTuber since 2006, here: I have not received a single cent. They demonetized me (along with millions others when they changed their rules) shortly before I hit the $100 payout threshold and then kept the money.

  • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    They were called slaves back in the day. Guess thats a tamer term than parasite