The fact that a soccer team's hedge against its own relegation to a lower league ended up on Kalshi instead of at Lloyd’s of London is a sign of prediction markets’ utility, not their seediness.
Tens of thousands of California educators joined forces statewide, wagering that they could win more by working together. The result was a wave of strikes this school year that defied narratives of austerity and won better funding.
What would you do if you could get anything that you ever wanted? Not through some act of blood-soaked violence, but simply through the force of your desire. What if you could manifest it, just make a wish for that thing you really wanted more than anything else? What if all you needed to do was tap a button on a screen and any product you could think of would be with you in just a day? What would you rationalize and excuse away? You could do everything and anything you wanted, able to outsource your sense of responsibility or justice to an abstract and impersonal force, able to be a monumental coward and still indulge your own desire.
Public transit has been in a deep crisis since the Covid pandemic. Transit systems weren’t adequately funded to begin with. Then, as remote work increased, ridership declined. Now, emergency relief and infrastructure funds passed during the Biden administration have dried up.