Priceonomics, the site that bills itself as “the price guide for everything” has an interesting economics based post on the business of bicycle theft and why every single bicycle owner in the world will have a bike stolen eventually.
Using this risk-return framework for crime, it begins to be clear why there is so much bike theft. For all practical purposes, stealing a bike is risk-free crime. It turns out there is a near zero chance you will be caught stealing a bike (see here) and if you are, the consequences are minimal. . . Bike thievery is essentially a risk-free crime. If you were a criminal, that might just strike your fancy. If Goldman Sachs didn’t have more profitable market inefficiencies to exploit, they might be out there arbitraging stolen bikes.
Click the link for the rest of the story and remember, bike thieves are assholes so lock your bike
[Link: Priceonomics]
