Will the post-plague world be a better place for rich people?

by philg

A year ago I went to Disney World with a rich friend (post). He paid up $8,000 for two days of a VIP guide who enabled us to cut the lines. It still wasn’t that nice, however, due to the Times Square-ish crowds everywhere when we weren’t on a ride. I proposed the idea of a “crowd hater day” at each park each week where the ticket price would be 2X so that there would be some breathing room.

Every aspect of our Disney experience was ideal for spreading coronavirus. Even with the VIP guide we were jammed into crowds periodically. Dining was a mob scene. Shopping was mobbed.

I wonder if the parks will reopen with a capacity set by the tyrannical government at some level that seems unlikely to set off the next epidemic. If so, the most logical method for rationing the remaining tickets will be price. And Disney will have to raise the prices to get a similar level of revenue (since their overall expenses will be similar). So the parks will actually become a lot nicer for anyone who can afford $300/person for a ticket.

How about restaurants? If they have to cut capacity to 25 or 50 percent, as some of the reopened ones in various states are being ordered to do, again it seems as though though they’ll have to raise prices. So rich people will experience a negligible (to them) price penalty and a huge bonus in terms of peace and quiet for conversation, reduced waiting times for a table, etc. (Coincidentally, just as this post went live, a former student posted to Facebook a picture of herself eating wagyu steak in a Taipei restaurant’s private room. Their party of 4 was nicely spread out at a table that, in former times, would have easily held 8-12. As with most MIT students, she was born with an off-the-charts intellectual ability and then she has worked hard for 20 years. (She’s not “white” nor does she identify as “male” so you can’t say this is due to “white male privilege”!))

Getting to Disney? I am dreaming that airlines won’t ever be able to sell the middle seats anymore! As long as they bump prices by 50 percent, though, they can still have the same revenue with somewhat richer customers. Spirit prices are essentially $0 from the perspective of a rich American. It shouldn’t be a problem to pay 1.5 * $0.

Readers: What do you think? If everything has to be de-crowded and prices consequently raised, isn’t that actually a good thing from the perspective of the richest 5-10 percent of Americans?

Related:

12 thoughts on “Will the post-plague world be a better place for rich people?”

  1. The thing is going to Disney parks is so expensive due to hotels/flights/meals that even a 2x raise of prices for the ticket is not going to increase overall price of trip that much. I think that prices actually are not going to go up, since they will try to attract more customers, many of whom will still sit scared at home. They will just reduce number of employees in non-essential roles.

    As for restaurants, the nice dining experience was available before coronaplague – just go to expensive restaurant, so I’m not sure what is the difference here, I why people who could afford expensive restaurant before will pay more for cheap restaurant with worse food in the new times.

    • I.e. my prediction that truly cheap places/chains will stay as take-outs, middle class restaurant will go under, expensive restaurants will continue to flourish.

  2. Anybody left post-plague is going to be willing to work for whatever Disney wants to pay. The people making $12.50 an hour who used to work in the shuttered casinos in Atlantic City are forming up in food bank lines a mile long. I hope for their sake there are enough people in the post-plague world with money to spend on gambling, hotel and resort stays.

    Food Lines a Mile Long in America’s Second Wealthiest State
    https://dnyuz.com/2020/04/30/food-lines-a-mile-long-in-americas-second-wealthiest-state/

    “I’ve worked since I was 14 years old,” said Ms. Wickham, 55, a card dealer. “We’ve never had to rely on anyone else…“I’m just afraid I’m going to lose my house…” said Ms. Wickham, who lives in Egg Harbor. “I feel like a failure right now.”

    “The surge of need is unlike anything seen before by the Community Food Bank…”

    Heteronormative cisgender die hards are finding it tough to take:

    “As the man, I kind of have these antiquated ideas, like, I shouldn’t ask for help,” Richard De Angelis, 45, a poker dealer at the Golden Nugget casino, said as he popped the trunk of his car to accept food. He added, “It wasn’t easy to come.”

    The “Second Wealthiest State in America” is broke:

    “We’ve been crushed and we appreciate your consideration on the financial side,” Murphy said in the Oval Office. Trump responded that the state’s hospitals have been put under strain and he would work with Murphy on that issue. Murphy later said his state may need $20 to $30 billion in aid. “We don’t see this as a bailout. We see this as a partnership,” he said. Trump complimented Murphy’s leadership…”

    https://www.bloombergquint.com/politics/murphy-meeting-with-trump-to-seek-cash-for-struggling-new-jersey

    “It also has the least-funded public pension among state governments, according to S&P Global Ratings, and its credit is second-worst in the U.S., behind Illinois.”

  3. https://nypost.com/2020/04/29/these-new-yorkers-fleeing-coronavirus-vow-theyll-never-return/

    It already is a better place, even in these very early days of the plague, and yes, absolutely: paying a little extra for space and time, peace and quiet, and a more leisurely experience is something they will agree to, because they’re already doing it now. They’ll love it. One thing wealthy (or if not wealthy, at least, “not hurting”) people don’t like at all is feeling “stuck”. Even the least little bit! As soon as things start to get sticky or the least bit icky, they look for the exits.

    For example, if you’re a cultural coach https://www.culturecoach.biz/ from Manhattan with three children who moved to Long Island to escape the plague, you “secured a perch” in beautiful Lloyd Harbor and waited out the apocalypse. After it’s over you’ll be well-rested and socially distanced like crazy! You’ll want to do some traveling to places deemed safe and secure, meet some new people who also don’t have the plague, and if it costs a little more than the pre-plague times, well, of course. They’ll be happy to visit Disney with their 5 year old (maybe he’ll be 7 by then) and pay $0 * 1.5, as long as the experience is good, and safe. And nonstuck.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd_Harbor,_New_York

    “The median income for a household in the village was $380,411, and the median income for a family was $596,650. Males had a median income of $500,000 versus $41,167 for females.”

    Famous current and former residents of Lloyd Harbor:

    Dee Snider, singer for Twisted Sister
    Brad Pitt, actor
    Christie Brinkley, model[9]
    Taylor Dayne, singer[10]
    Robin Gibb, singer[11]
    Billy Joel, singer/songwriter
    Angelina Jolie, actress
    Sean Hannity, political commentator
    Marshall Field III, department store heir

    I predict there’s going to be a very healthy rebound in business being done with those who fled the plague-stricken areas for safer confines. Once they hear the “all clear” and confirm it with their social networks, they’ll be eager to venture out into that big, beautiful, corona-free world of theirs. The key is going to be the connections: knowing who they are and where they are, to sell them the trips!

  4. I can still remember flying back in the days of regulated airline fares, it seems like the planes were often nearly empty. Also I remember there was a piano bar up front in the DC-10 we flew on to Colorado once, and the stewardess gave us kids cards and toys to play with. Truly the golden age of flying.
    I think the airfares must have been like 10x what they are now in real dollars.

  5. I used to fly a 747 from SFO to PHX often in the early 1970s when it was first introduced. My favorite flight left SFO at 9pm. The plane would be 1/4 or so full. I would set in the piano bar at the back of the plane with several stewardess who had nothing to do. The plane made a loop from PHX to ORD to SFO and back to PHX each day.

    Back then that piano bar was a favorite seat location for many of us. I also rode to Hawaii from LAX back there in 1972 and drank and sang and had a ball. We were Congo dancing in the aisles enough to get yelled at by the Captain over the PA. We were making the plane sway.

    Flying was fun then.

  6. bill,
    “Flying was fun then.”
    You left out the caviar on toast in first class and the little pack (of four, or two?) Kent cigarettes, free pack of playing cards, and a couple of shooters of liquor to go. Decadent.

  7. I don’t understand all these bitching about airlines. You can fly Emirates today and get same level of service as back then.

Comments are closed.