Continuing the conversation from http://www.akiba-online.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23899&page=4 because redrooster is right about off-topicness. Relevant posts to read before you're ready to start here are: (1) (2) (3) (4)
(my reply to redrooster begins here)
Any poor person who sees an electronic device as big and heavy as a PS3 knows he can get good money for it well in excess of the $20 that might buy a few meals or some heat for the night. He doesn't have to know what it is to know that it is expensive. -_-;
If you're going to claim that someone has no use for a PS3 either because (a) the locals are entirely ignorant of what it is or because (b) the locals have no use for a PS3, my response is fairly simple: neither have they any use for the lump of coal. -.- Because the only countries on Planet Earth where you're going to find zero market for black market electronics for either of those two reasons are those undeveloped or underdeveloped countries located in equatorial Africa, East Asia, and the Pacific, i.e. some of the warmest regions of the world all year every year.
Let me put it this way: if the homeless guy can find food in a garbage can, he's in an urban environment and thus in a place where he can sell electronics. If he can find food in a supermarket, he can find customers in that same supermarket willing to buy electronics from him at a remarkably low price (for them). If he's out in the middle of the Saharan desert where he can't find food of any kind, sure, the PS3 is useless to him -- but so is the coal! Because he's got nothing to light the coal with in the cold, dark desert night.
I don't know why you insist on convincing me that I'm wrong that the typical homeless person would rather have a 5¢ rock over a $500 home entertainment system just because the home entertainment system isn't a source of nourishment, warmth, or shelter from the elements. I realize that it's not edible nor a source of heat for homeless people. Nor do I understand why you seem to insist that I am wrong for suggesting that 99.99999999% of homeless people who are capable of putting coal to good use (i.e. have access to a lighter and a tin paint can with some scrap paper) would also be capable of selling black market electronics.
And yes, I do realize that this has sort of spiraled out of proportion from the original one-liner joke I made.
(my reply to redrooster begins here)
Any poor person who sees an electronic device as big and heavy as a PS3 knows he can get good money for it well in excess of the $20 that might buy a few meals or some heat for the night. He doesn't have to know what it is to know that it is expensive. -_-;
If you're going to claim that someone has no use for a PS3 either because (a) the locals are entirely ignorant of what it is or because (b) the locals have no use for a PS3, my response is fairly simple: neither have they any use for the lump of coal. -.- Because the only countries on Planet Earth where you're going to find zero market for black market electronics for either of those two reasons are those undeveloped or underdeveloped countries located in equatorial Africa, East Asia, and the Pacific, i.e. some of the warmest regions of the world all year every year.
Let me put it this way: if the homeless guy can find food in a garbage can, he's in an urban environment and thus in a place where he can sell electronics. If he can find food in a supermarket, he can find customers in that same supermarket willing to buy electronics from him at a remarkably low price (for them). If he's out in the middle of the Saharan desert where he can't find food of any kind, sure, the PS3 is useless to him -- but so is the coal! Because he's got nothing to light the coal with in the cold, dark desert night.
I don't know why you insist on convincing me that I'm wrong that the typical homeless person would rather have a 5¢ rock over a $500 home entertainment system just because the home entertainment system isn't a source of nourishment, warmth, or shelter from the elements. I realize that it's not edible nor a source of heat for homeless people. Nor do I understand why you seem to insist that I am wrong for suggesting that 99.99999999% of homeless people who are capable of putting coal to good use (i.e. have access to a lighter and a tin paint can with some scrap paper) would also be capable of selling black market electronics.
And yes, I do realize that this has sort of spiraled out of proportion from the original one-liner joke I made.
