It happened again: total hell broke out as the iPhone 4S went on sale. Angered scalpers who didn’t get their phone pelted eggs at the Apple Store.
The problem: The whole system.
As of late, the world’s largest “migration” of sorts — the Spring Travel Peak Travel Season — is in full swing. Thankfully, photo ID is required to get a ticket. This means that those with legitimate needs can get around with a valid ticket. High speed rail has been doing exceptionally well this year, helping get riders to destinations faster and packing in far more riders than regular rail.
Apple needs a similar “real ID” system for at least select new products such as the iPhone. It needs to set up a blacklist (similar to that at the railways) of scalpers, and deny iPhones to them. It needs to give iPhones out to end users, not scalpers. Only a “real ID” system would work here.
The police must be harsher still as well. In a capital where social stability is of paramount importance — indeed, the capital of the world’s most populous country and the second largest economy worldwide. The legislature would do well to enact anti-scalping acts to put the scalpers out of business. On wider topics, we need to make it economically better in such a way that scalpers find that their “biz” just won’t work any more.
We can’t stand here doing nothing. Apple and the whole system, so to speak, have a job on their hands. As the founder of the beimac circle community, and one of the major leaders there, we have to put the interests of the user base at the top.
