The whole idea of Illinibucks is fascinating. Our lives on campus would be completely
different if there were a system such as this one in place. There are many activities on campus that
would fit the Illinibucks system. The
most relevant use of Illinibucks would be for cutting the entire line at any of
the bars. As everybody knows, the lines
at the bars are insane during busy hours.
If you are trying to get into a bar on a Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday
night around midnight, you are going to need to wait a very long time in line
to get in. This is not really a problem
when it is warm out, but when it is winter and it starts to get really cold,
standing in line for the bars is an absolute nightmare because it is usually not
worth freezing yourself to get in.
Another activity that would require the use of Illinibucks
would for sure be registering for classes.
If I could register for classes before anybody else, my schedule would
look one hundred percent different. It
would cause complete chaos because everybody would be allocated the same amount
of Illinibucks and therefore it would be impossible to really gain a
competitive edge in terms of getting more Illinibucks than anybody else. With that being said, since everybody is
equal, I could see registration working out the same way. An interesting thought is to think about
whether or not students could buy additional Illinibucks. This would make the system very unfair and
corrupt because then people who come from more money would determine how
everything plays out.
I would personally use my Illinibucks for getting out of
line at the bars. I have been stuck
outside for 20 minutes while it was five degrees outside and it is not fun. There are not that many other things that I
could see myself using these Illinibucks for.
The prices for Illinibucks would be vital for how everybody
used their Illinibucks. Lets say for
example that everybody is allocated 100 Illinibucks for each year at school
with no layover Illinibucks. Nobody
would ever pay more than about 5 Illinibucks for one event. With this scenario, if a price was set at 10
Illinibucks to cut the line at a bar, the Illinibucks would have no
affect. Since the price would be set
above what the quantity demanded is, nobody would pay the fee and therefore the
lines to get into the bars would operate the exact same way as they do right
now. I could not see this happening
because I feel as though companies would be highly incentivized to encourage
students to spend their Illinibucks because the university would want the
Illinibucks used at a high rate.
On the other hand, what if the prices for Illinibucks was
set to low? In this cutting the line
scenario at the bars, the price being set too low could cause a lot of
chaos. If prices were set too low, for
example at 2 Illinibucks, everybody would want to use their Illinibucks to cut
the line. If everybody is using them,
what can the bar do? They have to let
everybody cut the line and therefore there would be a line to cut the
line. As strange as that sounds, that
would also emit the exact same scenario as overpricing the Illinibucks because if
everybody is trying to use them, then the size of the line would be the exact
same as when nobody was planning on using them.
The bar would need to find a price that would make some kids want to use
the Illinibucks and some kids not want to use the Illinibucks.
Overall, I would hate to see any university use this system
because I feel as though it can create a lot of corruption and unfairness.
"As everybody knows, the lines at the bars are insane during busy hours." No, not everybody.
ReplyDeleteThe use of Illinibucks was meant to be restricted to University function. The bars, while located near campus, are commercial enterprises outside of University control.
The setting of the price for the Illinibucks would have to be done by experimentation to find out what price works. If demand and supply are fairly stable, after a while an equilibrium price can be found from experimentation. If either demand or supply move over time, that makes pricing harder, but not impossible if those movements are too drastic.
I do wish you had come up with some other example to consider its use on campus. One might then get at whether such use promotes efficiency or not.
I thought using the bars as an example was allowed, but I was mistaken. You and I agree on that the setting of price would need to be done over a long period of time with lots of experimentation.
ReplyDeleteDrastic movements in supply and demand could turn out to make any pricing decisions very difficult because it would be very hard to set a correct market price
Another example that is much different would be whether or not students would use Illinibucks to bribe or incentivize other students to do things for them. A good example would be if I offered a student 2 Illinibucks to go to class and take notes for me. I feel as though this would be the main use for Illinibucks. It is weird to admit, but I know tons of kids who barely attend most of their classes. Those students would probably want to give kids their Illinibucks in order to obtain quality notes.
The system we are talking about is hard to imagine because we are so used to how things operate.