The difficulty of selling a Wii

[sinha]

NJ5 said:

sinha said:

 

You're creating a false dichotomy. It's possible to "help people" (indirectly) without having an "altruistic motive"...

In fact, it happens all the time and is essentially the basis of the free market economic system that has proven to be quite effective at getting goods into the hands of those who value them.

Heck, Nintendo has a completely selfish and non-altruistic motive for making the Wii and selling it for $250, yet they are helping millions of gamers by doing so.

I think twesterm's point is that in terms of "helping", he's helping someone and unhelping someone else at the same time (the person who would pick up the Wii from the store if cdude didn't). So those factors either cancel out, does cdude think that the person who has access to Ebay has more right to the Wii than the other person, who might not have more than $250 to spend?

Personally, I think that the person who was going to the store but has potentially less money, is the one who should get the console. 

And that's where you and I disagree.  I think whoever is wants a product the most should get it.  But we can't just ask people "How bad do you want a Wii?" because everyone who wanted one would have the same answer ("A lot" "More than that other guy" etc.).  Therefore whoever is willing to pay the most for a product should get it.  Does that favor the rich to some extent?  Of course, welcome to real life.  But in this case there are still plenty of Wiis available to people with less money to get from stores for the listed price.  And some of those poorer people are probably the same people who are picking up the extra Wiis and selling them to rich people for a higher price.  Or do you think wealthy people like to make a little extra cash selling Wiis on ebay?