The Vegas Point
“Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down.”
Well, maybe not.
There was a time when you could get a hotel room in Las Vegas for five bucks and even adjusted for inflation that would be about $40 dollars today.
Of course, there have always been “whale” penthouses and suites, but the lumpen gambler – if they played their cards right – could “Do Vegas” cheaper than any other tourist mecca would cost.
No kids of course, but that was kinda the point then – everything that happened in Vegas stayed in Vegas, except maybe for accidental child support and/or a bout with chlamydia.
Then larger developers had a thought – what if you actually started charging people rates for food and rooms that were closer to what they would pay in any other large city, any other destination?
So the room rates went up, then the food, then the rooms again, then the things for kids to do were added, then the fancy shops were added, then the rooms went up again and what had been a loss leader intended to get people to gamble turned into a profit center.
And the room rates kept rising and then it stopped and they came back down a skoosh.
Why?
Because the casino owners
Article from LewRockwell
LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
