Tuesday's Assorted Links
Tourist fees, restaurant reservations, cookie monopoly, line skipping, and vet bills
Hi y’all! Here are five stories from this week that contained some neat applications of economic principles or are related to teaching:
Venice will start charging a small fee for day-trippers visiting the historic city after realizing the city’s infrastructure cannot support the over-tourism it’s experiencing [The Guardian]
Bots, mercenaries, and table scalpers have turned the restaurant reservation system inside out [The New Yorker]
An antitrust lawsuit may be on the horizon for Oreo’s parent company, Mondelēz [Food Dive]
New California bill would restrict line-skipping service Clear at airports in the name of equity [Fox Business]
Corporations and private equity funding may explain why your vet bill seems so high [The Atlantic]
The U.S. Department of Justice is currently looking into Apple for practices that may unfairly restrict competition within the tech industry. This investigation highlights concerns about Apple’s approach to its App Store and device ecosystem, which could be creating significant barriers for both consumers wanting to switch and new companies trying to enter the market.
Hey Siri, Is Apple a Monopoly?
Many of us have smartphones that double as our digital sidekick, buzzing with updates, apps, and, of course, text bubbles from friends and family. If all your close friends and family have iPhones, your chats are full of blue bubbles. But every iPhone user has that one person who sends them important information via a green bubble. If you’re tired of the blue vs. green bubble debate, you could easily switch from your iPhone to, say, a Samsung Android, right?
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