Give me a goddamn break. This morning, my ordinary office routine has been marred by first shrill whoops of excitement, then grumpy bellyaching, from virtually every woman. Why? Because Take That concert tickets went on sale at 9:00 this morning, yet Ticketmaster's website couldn't handle the demand.  Even more disappointing for our ladies, those lucky few that did get through promptly stuck their tickets on ebay in the hope of making a quick buck.

"How unfair!" they cried. Tickets should be for named individuals only and should not be allowed to be resold.

I can take this idiocy no longer. Massive demand like this can mean only one thing: the tickets are too cheap. The tickets should all have been auctioned from the start, so that demand could be better matched to demand. It would also mean that more of these gains would accrue to the band and organisers instead of to touts.

But they didn't see it that way. Apparently it's "fairer" to allow only the lucky few who can get through the website without it crashing to get tickets rather than to let those who really want to go to pay more than those who don't care so much. And apparently the organisers are so clever that they have perfectly predicted demand;  touts are just skimming off the top. These women believe not only that Take That fans are completely price inelastic - that they'll pay any price, come what may. But also that there are no other people who might want to go to the concerts if prices drop.

These are illogical views and totally at odds with the way people behave. Touts can't exist unless there are more fans than tickets and tickets are underpriced. It's just a fact of life. To stop touts, raise prices to suppress demand. Otherwise you're just going to have to accept they will be there trying to make a profit.

Composed on my Android mobile phone. Article may be edited later.

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Filed under: Current issues, Economics with tags free markets, idiots, price elasticity, take that, touts