Wednesday, April 03, 2013

Fractional Reserve Speed Dating

If you don't know what "fractional reserve banking" is, don't worry.

It just means you're successful with the opposite sex.

That being said (and not to ruin your chances with the opposite sex), "fractional reserve banking" is the idea that a bank will take a depositor's money, lend most of it out, while still allowing for the depositor to fully withdraw that money at any time.  Ergo the bank only holds a "fraction" in reserve of its depositors' monies.  The reason this works is because it is very unlikely EVERY depositor will come into the bank at one time and withdraw ALL of their money.  Therefore banks only need to hold a fraction of total deposits to allow for daily withdrawals here and there, while lending out the rest and making money on it. 

There are many criticisms of a fractional reserve banking system.  Most notably that the banks are "creating money" by lending out money that already has a claim on it and technically isn't theirs to lend out in the first place.  But the larger point is that the true amount of money in the economy is only a fraction of what all the bank's electronic records say there is.

Naturally, you would think money is the only commodity that can lend itself (pun FULLY intended) well to a fractional reserve system, but in my trials and tribulations in life as a SAEG (tm) I have come upon another commodity where fractional reserving is done, and it isn't in banking.

It's in speed dating.

Many years ago I gave speed dating one shot.  I walked into the joint, dropped my $35 down along with 7 other men and for that $35 we got to meet 8 other women for 5 minutes a piece.  The one date that I did manage to score out of this escapade brought her gay male friend to chaperone, which prompted me to dance with pretty much every other girl on the floor but her.  Gay-chaperoned dates aside, the point was there was an equal number of men to women.  8 to 8.  For if there was a shortage on either end you would have too many of one gender chasing too few of the other.

But something interesting occurred after the speed dating event was over.  As some people headed to the bar, I decided to approach one of the girls I was interested in and chat her up a bit.  Using a simple approach I said,

"You ever done this before?"

She said,

"Yes, but technically not tonight."

Curious, I said,

"Why technically not tonight?"

And her response was one for the Economics of Dating history books.

"Well, the guy who runs this speed dating thing always has too many men and not enough women.  So he calls us when he has extra guys and we just fill in and act like we're interested.  If women don't show up, he can't sell as many tickets so he buys us drinks as compensation."

Kind of curious about the math, not to mention I just wanted to see how screwed over me and the other 7 men were, I asked,

"So how many women were plants?"

She said,

"4."

I was more or less speechless, but the cynical side of me let out a cynical "Heh, what will they think of next?"  Seeing she herself was a plant, I just walked away, went to my car and left.

Naturally I was somewhat upset at this little bit of trickery.  What was sold as a way for 8 men to meet 8 women was in reality 8 men to meet 4 women.  In short a fraction of the women that were truly available.  But by cheating the system of sorts, the host of the speed dating was able to "create" women just like banks "create" money and profit from this newly created asset.  He just had to pay them interest in the form of free cocktails (and no doubt the ego tinglies of leading poor saps on).

Now, could it have been this ONE speed dating racket doing the fractional reserve dating?  Of course, but unlikely.  No doubt this is the case all over where there is higher demand on one side (the men) than there is supply on the other (the women) and it doesn't take a genius to faux-fill the market to equilibrium, profiting off of such said market manipulation.  The problem this presents men, however, is one of trust and reliability.  Given it is a fact women are less interested in dating than men there will always be that threat and likelihood a significant fraction of the women in speed dating are merely plants there to extract your money.  And given this risk it makes speed dating a losing proposition to the average guy whose $35 would be better spent on groceries, rent, gas, utilities or plastic pigeons.  So once again learn from the experiences and mistakes of the ole Captain.  Don't bother with speed dating.

Besides, even if you're one of the lucky few to land a date, the best thing you'll manage is one of them highly-coveted and much-sought after "Gay-man-chaperoned dates."

You can follow the Captain on "the twitter" here.

25 comments:

Unknown said...

I can't tell whether you're inherently against fractional reserve banking or not. I think in a truly free market, fractional reserve banking would likely to occur anyway in some form regardless of whether fiat money or hard money were used. Despite what the Bible has to say about these things, interest and usury itself don't seem too bad if you're able to have enough income to pay the fees off when taking out a loan.

Free banking with the latest technology out there is still something I'd like to ultimately see, but as of currently, I don't think there are too many countries who would want to radicalize their system overnight like that. There would need to be a gradual transition towards such a system.

beta_plus said...

While I like the idea, I think that the article needs to address opportunity cost.

How long would it have taken to approach 8 women? How many of a random sample of 8 women would be single when you approached them? How much is that time worth (I recall you estimating in the past at least 15 minutes an approach so 2 hours) compared to the cost of speed dating?

Jim Riley said...

GREAT analogy!
A scam is a scam.
If the scam is about our money, it matters.
If it's about what we buy with our money, same difference.
Of course, it's an even "better" scam if we believe it's about "other people's money" when it's not.
MuskegonPundit.com

Anonymous said...

Hah.

Tried "match" for a while. Realized after a while that THAT was massively hopeless, at least in my area. Or I was. Didn't really matter which.

Anonymous said...

Looking for a date often costs money for men. Whether it is a dating site subscription, a cover charge and drinks in a bar, or speed dating. If you want free, try school, work, or church.

The author got a date for $35. That's not really so bad. Just unlucky that they didn't click.

As for the fill ins, the one he talked to seemed to be single since she said she had paid her way before. Just because she wasn't paying this time and was maybe a little jaded by it all doesn't mean he couldn't have smooth talked her.

She was drinking (always a good sign). Chatting with him in an honest and open way, even spilling her drink ticket's secret, and he just walked away. The biggest secret to successful dating is recognizing a chance when it presents itself.

Mark said...

There is so little information available on the success rates of speed dating or online dating sites. They won't let any independent researchers do any studies because they know the results won't look good. That's all you need to know, along with the fact that most of the personal anecdotes you hear are negative like yours.

Drew said...

Entertaining article. But I'm thinking if you would have given a bit of effort you would have been walking out with the "plant" for a good time later in the evening. You are the Captain after all!

Patsplace said...

Anon. @8:47 hit the nail on the head. M'thinks he has a point.

Captain Capitalism said...

The Captain was starting to get sick of the shit and ran out of patience back in those days.

'Reality' Doug said...

@Drew is correct I think, she was interested in you (proving yourself in her eyes). This is the Manosphere. Captain, I get the impression from this and elsewhere in you blog posts that you have some red pill to go: it's a process. Stop courting and start charming/fucking. Relationships and dating come AFTER fucking. This is the new dynamic because woman have political choice with their national treasure resource called vag. You can NOT be first and best friends with a woman; you CAN be first and best partners with you on top if you have enough authority in her eyes (and reality wouldn't hurt either, but we only have Game). Good info on the scam, but it would be avoided by simply accepting the nature of women and what THEY define as acceptable for sex and thus for any relationship worth having from a man's perspective. You want ethics from a woman? You will have to become her authority by seduction and TELL her what her ethics are.

Anonymous said...

Did the gay chaperone have a hat like the one in your "take a class from the captain" picture?

Legion said...

When you snubbed your date by not dancing with her, did you at least tweak her good and dance with her gay friend? Could have been your best patner of the night too.

bluto said...

The best parallel to FRB is multiplexing from electronics most visible in cell networks. There are far fewer lines in the towers than cell phones because most of the time only a small fraction of the cell phones on the ground are in use. By sharing the lines the cost of providing the service is greatly reduced.
However, in rare cases (a great example was 9/11) everyone wanted to use the lines at the same time and obviously couldn't (this is the same as a bank run).

Robert of Ottawa said...

I get a full GFE for an hour for $300. Very pleasant and relaxing. And we bove part happy and friendly.

jabrwok said...

Sounds like a variation on the classic "ladies night". Cheap or free drinks for the women brings them in, and they bring in the men. This speed-dating set up is just a little less transparent about it.

It does add the value that you're *guaranteed* to get a chance to talk to eight (or however many) women, which guarantee you wouldn't get at a ladies night where all the other guys are competing for their attention.

Anonymous said...

A) Anon. @8:47 hit the nail on the head. M'thinks he has a point.

Agree fully.

B) You are however looking at only one segment of the market. After a certain age, (early 30s?) the equilibrium of supply and demand shifts. "The good ones are all taken" at that point as far as women are concerned. The men still on the market are either not marriage material, or either widowed/divorced. If they are "dating material" then they can normally date somewhat younger women with ease. Often they get snapped up fairly quickly.

On the other hand you have a plethora of single Moms, ex-wives (often again Moms) and cat chubby cat owners flooding the market on the female side.

Captain Capitalism said...

Bluto,

You just totally made me bow my head in appreciation for superior experience and knowledge gained.

Cpt.

Anonymous said...

Oops...
http://www.examiner.com/article/largest-dutch-bank-defaults-on-physical-gold-deliveries-to-customers

How's THAT for being stood up. ;)
-DaninVan

yngvar said...

Plastic pigeon?

Anonymous said...

As a divorced guy who's 50 - the tables are DEFINITELY in the guy's favor. Because from what I can tell, so many women have pissed off so many men, that the guys either (a) swear off women completely or (b) make a deal with a 30-something to go to Cabo or Vegas or Vail for a weekend or a week, where everybody has a good time and parts friends.

Apparently, female 30-somethings who don't have much money are a lot more 'practical' on getting to go on expensive vacations...

So I'm told (by women) there's about 8 women for every man on the online dating sites.

Hot Sam said...

Actually, ALL of the money created by the banking system is accounted for on paper. Once the money is created by lending, it either exists in someone's bank account or in a bank's reserve account with the Federal Reserve.

The well-intended but foolish proponents of full-reserve banking don't understand that bank loans are funding real economic value, and hence money supply must grow with it otherwise there will be deflation.

Anarcho-capitalists think there is something "evil" or "criminal" about fractional reserve banking. Gibberish! If they go to the bank, there money will be there 99.9999% of the time, and if it isn't, there will only be a slight delay in getting it. These people run the hypothetical thought experiment of a bank run which doesn't often happen, and they consider it "their money" when they entrust it with the bank. The bank's job is to manage assets and liabilities, not store people's cash. If they were performing a service of cash storage, they'd charge you a FEE, not pay you INTEREST. In fact, you CAN store cash at a bank - in a safe deposit box, and NOT ONE CENT will be loaned out.

Not one cent of insured deposits has been lost by depositors since the beginning of deposit insurance. Fearing the fractional reserve banking system is like fearing an alien invasion.

Fractional reserve banking IS hazardous and must be monitored. In the past, the biggest hazard was liquidity. This problem was mostly solved by deposit insurance, the discount window, and overnight loans of reserves. Liquidity problems can still cause bank failures, but not nearly as frequently as the Great Depression.

The problem comes when those loans fund an asset bubble such as housing, commercial real estate, municipal obligations, and structured finance. As the economic value of those assets deteriorates, the money supply begins to evaporate. It SHOULD evaporate, but the pace at which it declines is too fast for the economy to adjust to, and hence we end up with unemployment.

Market monetarists believe we should pump up money supply to stop a crash. That's all well and good, but it would be much better if we didn't fall into the trap to begin with. And pumping up money supply, as we are now, just creates other bubbles.

Anarcho-capitalists don't want to ban casinos, but they face the same liquidity problems as banks. The probability is very low that a casino will suffer a killer run of bad luck, but it could happen. If hundreds of people hit jackpots and hit blackjack and have 24 straight passes in craps, a casino could go belly up in one night unless they have a lender willing to front them the cash, but not all the winners would be able to get their winnings that night, and the casino's credit would come at a high cost. What if it had another bad run? It's improbable but not impossible.

Other types of businesses go belly up also from lack of liquidity. You don't hear people saying they should be shut down because they are spending your money on wholesale goods BEFORE they have them in inventory.

Positive Thinker said...

I went on a speed dating night and got to meet 20 women of all ages. I thought I was doing well when I got one interested party only couldn't work out why, on our first night out she acted as though she completely didn't want to be there and I called it an early night after only an hour.
I was a bit suspicious at the time as to how many of the women knew the organisers, then it occurred to me that my 'date' also knew the organisers and that they must have somehow convinced their female associates to give every man who didn't get at least one actual callback a freebie to try to keep them interested.
Suffice to say I never went back again, nor did the two other guys with whom I went along with either (they had similar '1st date' experience too!).

Hot Sam said...

This is fraud, and you should start a class action suit. Their defense will be that one of their shills might actually date you. Casinos are required to reveal props and shills upon request. in some states they have to wear badges. The difference is that props and shills can lose money to you. in fact, some are required to tip their hand if they have a monster.

This is FAR different than ladies night where any lady can show up for a discount and they are not pretending to show interest in you.

Some foreign bars hire pretty ladies to chat up men and get them to pay for exorbitantly priced drinks. This is also fraud.

Anonymous said...

Welllllll, regarding the gay chaperone ;-), maybe he wasn't there to fend you off and protect the damsel but to provide great conversation if the date leveled off to a flat liner :-)

Anonymous said...

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