Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
This General Chat area started off as a place for people to talk about things that are off topic, however it has quickly evolved into a community and has become an integral part of the GAW experience for many of us.
Based on its evolving needs and plenty of user feedback, we are trying to bring some order and institute some rules. Please make sure you read these rules and participate in the spirit of this community.
Rules for General Chat
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Be respectful to each other. This is of utmost importance, and comments may be removed if deemed not respectful.
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Avoid long drawn out arguments. This should be a place to relax, not to waste your time needlessly.
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Personal anecdotes, puzzles, cute pics/clips - everything welcome
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Please do not spam at the top level. If you have a lot to post each day, try and post them all together in one top level comment
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Try keep things light. If you are bringing in deep stuff, try not to go overboard.
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Things that are clearly on-topic for this board should be posted as a separate post and not here (except if you are new and still getting the feel of this place)
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If you find people violating these rules, deport them rather than start a argument here.
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Feel free to give feedback as these rules are expected to keep evolving
In short, imagine this thread to be a local community hall where we all gather and chat daily. Please be respectful to others in the same way
Rules For the rest of the Site also accessible on the sidebar.
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A common sentiment amongst normies is that private resellers of anything (game consoles, trading cards, etc) are scumbags. I do feel this plays into the idea that the normie has been conditioned into accepting socialism, preferring a system where only the government (or in this case, licensed retailers with larger purchasing power) can provide goods as well as determine their value. Also, the normie has also been conditioned into being a corporatist, since they are at ease with the idea of for example, Best Buy purchasing a million Nintendo Switch consoles at $300 each and selling them for $400 plus tax but are revolted by the idea of a student or dad purchasing 10 consoles at $400 taxed and selling them at $550 each (after haggling)
So in the hypothetical dream scenario of normies, where resellers or scalpers as they call them do not exist, who determines the value of a scarce good? For example, if there were no scalpers for the Nintendo Switch 2, stock sells out instantly only to people who legitimately want one but person A upon receiving one decides they would like to sell it, what price can they sell it for?
Logic would tell you, the console is even more scarce because there are not multiple third parties offering what they bought to resell, and as a result the price is higher by scarcity alone. This makes it so the problem normies were hoping the manufacturer and official retailers would fix, is even bigger than it was before since one cannot simply go and buy one from one of many "scalpers" for $600 but instead only from someone like person A for $1000
And then comes the unreasonable expectation of the normie to avoid this scenario. The normie expects in light of this either
A: Nintendo depletes their cash surplus by producing tenfold the amount of product, to the point that retailers cannot even sell their on hand inventory, because artificial supply has crippled demand, "Why won't they make moreeee???" the normie cries (kind of like how the normie is okay with the fed printing money)
or
B: the original owner who changed their mind is morally and ethically expected to, and by peer pressure forced, to sell it at cost or more realistically, sell it at a loss so that the pool of prospective buyers is infinitely higher than the amount of supply, while keeping scarcity at an all time high.
This is why empathy based policy or systems like socialism and communism do NOT work and will NOT ever work. There are instances of course in which traditional arguments of supply and demand do not work (such as our corrupt and hyperinflated housing market) but for the majority of services and goods, not alllowing a free market and forcing government regulations is a death sentence for any sense of prosperity
Sadly, normies will never get it.