Taking a cut

Some things we used to do for free, without the need for a middle-person:

• Talk to each other on the way home from school

• Eat dinner together

• Drink water

• Pay for stuff

• Enjoy a view of the Thames from the Festival Hall

• Hail a cab

• Go on a date

In some cases a middle-person can add tremendous value – mediating a dispute instead of going to court for example.

All too often though, that new thing we’re all dying to try is just a mechanism for taking a cut of the value others have created.