Milking the Crowd: The Price of Wanting to Be There

“Supply and demand” is the favorite alibi of bad actors.
It’s the phrase people reach for when they don’t want to admit they’re extracting value, not creating it.

Overselling tickets.
Layering fees on top of fees.
Artificial scarcity dressed up as inevitability.

None of this is neutral economics.
It’s a choice.

Demand doesn’t justify exploitation — it just makes it easier to hide behind charts and jargon. When people care, when culture matters, when a night actually means something, that’s when the milking starts. Not because it has to - but because someone decided it should.

Capitalism loves pretending it’s passive:
“I don’t control the market.”
“I’m just responding to demand.”

No.
You’re responding to the opportunity to squeeze.

Culture is not a commodity because it’s popular.
Care is not consent.
And participation is not permission to be bled dry.

If your business model only works when people are overcharged, shut out, or nickel-and-dimed for wanting to belong—then the problem isn’t demand.

It’s you.

photo by Mathurin NAPOLY / matnapo. Paris, FR 2022