Earlier this month in a post titled, Ticketmaster Goes Covid-19 Evil, I reported that "Ticketmaster has been working on a framework for post-pandemic fan safety that uses smartphones to verify fans' vaccination status or whether they've tested negative for the coronavirus within a 24 to 72 hour window"
A commenter added to the post:
I think the idea is that if Ticketmaster doesn't do stuff like this, the gov't won't allow them to have events (or make onerous rules such as each attendee must sit in his own self-isolated plastic bubble during the concert).
This may or may not have been Ticketmaster's goal but, if it was, it is an absolutely horrific idea.
It strikes me as particularly absurd to add draconian measures against customers to avoid draconian measures by government.
Who is to say what measures the government might demand? Why would you jump the gun to impose measures the government might not even demand?
The smart thing to do is to wait for the government to come to you with demands rather than impose them first. If they are this draconian, how is this preempting government?
Ticketmaster should be thinking about serving its customers by coming up with creative workarounds against potential government mandates rather than imposing the harassment of customers itself before the government orders it to do so. Or the firm should hire top-notch lobbyists to get government to go easy on it or the industry, rather than surveilling its customers in Orwellian fashion.
-RW
I think this situation highlights the role large corporations play in working with government to write regulations to which they will eventually be subjected. While it can be seen by outsiders as "anticipating," it is a way for corporations to control the regulation process by formulating "regulations" that they have determined to be acceptable costs. The interim period is referred to as "self-regulation" until the regulations can be finalized.
ReplyDeleteAlas, another interpretation of this move could be that, like other supposedly "woke" businesses, Ticketmaster believes that this is what its customers want, and is trying to anticipate demand.
ReplyDeleteWhere we live in Florida there are no government requirements to wear masks, but it seems almost every business is requiring them, though some, such as Lowes and Planet Fitness, do not enforce it. At Costco we use Allan Stevo's methods (Target Liberty: https://www.targetliberty.com/2020/11/its-out-face-masks-in-one-lesson.html). Almost everyone we see is wearing a mask, so it seems businesses with mask requirements are responding to customer demand to "feel safe" shopping only in the company of other mask wearers. Those of us who want to ditch masks are vastly outnumbered here, or are mostly silent and just go along. Tonight we will dine at a local restaurant that is bucking the trend and not requiring masking of diners entering nor of their servers. How could we make our preferences known to other businesses short of calling each one?
ReplyDeleteHere are a few ideas:
Delete1. Circulate a petition asking folks who want to eat maskless to sign, and then once you've got a critical mass, distribute it by hand to restaurants at quiet periods (so you can explain it to the manager).
2. If there are a series of restaurants in a row, only one of which is maskless, then on a quiet night in town, organize for a big group to go to that one restaurant; when you leave, tell the other restaurant managers why you all went to that one.
3. Take out a big ad in a local paper telling restaurants that there is lots of demand for maskless eating.
4. If there is a local restaurant association, then try approaching it and making your point known.
5. Leave rave reviews on Yelp etc. for the maskless restaurant.
You all propose good ideas if this wasnt as serious a totalitarian grab that it is. I watched a Corbett video recently in which his quiet rage and purpose struck me at the core.
ReplyDeleteHe convinced me then and there that mass non-compliance is the only way out of this illegal morass!
There are a pair of badass gym owners in New York state that are leading by example and until we add numbers to this courage it will only get worse.
Just say no.
Ticketmaster has a dominating position in the market so they like face no other force against them other than the government. Depending on who their majority owners or or shareholders are these may be an additional pressure to go along with the narrative and participate in the tracking stuff.
ReplyDelete