But you see, while your argument is true in many cases, there are circumstances where I have paid for a thing or supported a corporation for reasons completely de-coupled from my living standards.
Case in point: Greeting cards. Paying $5 for a folded piece waxed cardboard with a cartoon and glib statement printed on it. My standard of living is unchanged and I am $5 more out of pocket because I have been emotionally blackmailed into taking part in an engineered social convention.
Other cases: Bundled cable subscriptions, fitting e-tags to vehicles for road tolls, 9/11 gas masks sales, etc etc. While what you say is broadly true (and I could have probably come up with some better examples), Corporations are also very, very good at making us pay for things we don't need... Probably better than they are at making us pay for things we do need.
This whole Hi-Def debacle is overrated. We should all be happy watching 12 meg, 90 minute He-Man movies encoded in Realvideo at 320x240. Fullscreened. Anything more is an indulgence.
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But you see, while your argument is true in many cases, there are circumstances where I have paid for a thing or supported a corporation for reasons completely de-coupled from my living standards. Case in point: Greeting cards. Paying $5 for a folded piece waxed cardboard with a cartoon and glib statement printed on it. My standard of living is unchanged and I am $5 more out of pocket because I have been emotionally blackmailed into taking part in an engineered social convention. Other cases: Bundled cable subscriptions, fitting e-tags to vehicles for road tolls, 9/11 gas masks sales, etc etc. While what you say is broadly true (and I could have probably come up with some better examples), Corporations are also very, very good at making us pay for things we don't need... Probably better than they are at making us pay for things we do need.
Later this year it'll be able to run Steam.
This whole Hi-Def debacle is overrated. We should all be happy watching 12 meg, 90 minute He-Man movies encoded in Realvideo at 320x240. Fullscreened. Anything more is an indulgence.