rk97;106848 wrote:
the guys aren't getting screwed - but the girls are getting lucky. Same principle applies to "ladies' night" at bars...
is that "equality?" no. But it's hard to argue that a 'discount' is unfair.
at my gym, the first membership is $25/month. the second is $20/month. Everyone thereafter is $15/month.
An apples v. turnips comparison...
Your gym charges less per person because they have the capacity to handle far more people than currently utilize the gym... and ladies night discounts are used to increase the head count of women so as to provide an incentive for males to also attend; again, they have under-utilized capacity.
At the track there are a limited number of spaces and generally sell out due to low availability w/high utilization. This is very different from the gym & bar scenes...
What we are actually discussing in economic terms is called 'price discrimination' and in practice would be very difficult to achieve at a track day.
For an example that most people can relate to - at any event, there are people who can well afford to pay the cost of the event irrespective of being female or riding with a family member (spouse, child, etc) given their income - let's assume that it is fairly evident by the vehicles they roll up in, the RV's, their equipment, bike, etc.
And likewise there are people who can barely afford to do the day, again, assuming it is evident by their old beater bike and that they sleep in their beat up vehicle or tent.
So it's OK to have the people who are scrimping to subsidize those that are can well afford it simply based on gender or relationship? Having a total of 40 bikes on the track is still 40 bikes, irrespective of the DNA of the people riding them...
Obviously this is an anecdotal example, but you can see where it would be difficult to determine who is 'deserving' of a discount...
Using 'head count' to determine price would only be effective if every event was priced like the airlines - the price is continually adjusted based on overall demand up to the date of the event. Clearly it isn't worth the hassle of creating and maintaining such a system...
So, in the absence of having an equitable and reliable heuristic, simply price events fairly to everyone, which already happens - e.g., weekdays are priced lower than weekends because demand is lower and the reduced price provides an incentive.