I put a book on a table in a library and every time someone reads it, it costs me a penny.

However, every time someone reads it I am also paid 2 pennies by a dude that wants to tell people about his new book.

People were fine with that, so I also found another guy to pay me 2 pennies to talk about the book he wrote as well.

A negligibly small fraction of those people have started wearing earplugs. How unfair!

So I found a third guy to pay me 2 pennies to talk about the book he wrote as well, and more people started wearing earplugs! What the heck!?!