joke time

[Brian37]

Just once on the TV game show "The Price Is Right", when everyone is bidding on contestant's row I want to see them bid on a cash prize. 

"What do you bid on $2,000 dollars?"

"Um um I'll bid $1"

The Dollar Auction first appeared in 1971. Today, given inflation, the game is often played like this: A large group of people participate in the auction, say between 30 and 50. A $20 bill is auctioned off to the highest bidder. Bidding begins at $1. All subsequent bids must be in single dollar increments. The “twist” to this auction is that while the highest bidder wins the twenty dollar bill, the second highest bidder must pay to the auctioneer what he or she bid as well. In this auction, there will usually be not only be one loser, one who pays money for nothing, and but two. Read on!

   By the time the auction reaches $19, most bidders drop out. The person who had bid $18 will invariably bid $20 to break even. Presumably, that would bring the auction to a close, right? Wrong! One professor who utilized the Dollar Auction as a teaching tool for more than 20 years said that the bidding will usually continue well past the $20 mark.

   Consider this case in point, a day the professor will never forget.  He used the dollar auction while teaching a course for executives in organizational behavior. At the end, the “winner” paid $54 for the twenty dollar bill. The loser paid $53. The rest of the class watched the futile bidding war with bewilderment and glee. (Proceeds would be donated to charity).

The $20 auction and the dynamics of conflict

I'm confused? What does this have to do with a TV game show and the rules the producers set up?

Yes it is possible to bid on money. But we are not talking about anything outside game show. 

I watch the news, it is possible to bet on the future exchange rate of any worldwide currency or even collectible currency. And the article really really only addressing how stupid humans can get in competition. 

Ford vs Chevy, Bud vs Miller, left vs right, 5 string banjo vs 6. Electric guitar vs acoustic. 

I'd agree though, if the point in the article is that you can sell ice cream to Eskimos with the right marketing, people will trample and murder each other for that Klondike Bar.

"What would you do for a Klondike Bar"