Is Gustaf a masochist?

[Gustaf]

Since you (like so often) have turned to rambling and irrelevant incoherence, I'll just note that Opebo was the only one who was cheering for the murder of innocent civilians. In fact, I can think of very few posters (or people in general) I've ever come across who think that the government shooting down women and children is a good thing to be cheered and hoped for. Don't try to pretend as if anyone else on here is a blood-thirsty barbarian on that level.

Saying that the revolution in Egypt and Libya might cause more trouble than the old regimes did because they will give way to Islamist movements is a respectable opinion. I disagree with it, but I understand it. It's very removed from what Opebo pushes.

[opebo]

k...let me slow this down.  Here's the quote

Well, let us not forget, deadman, that the capitalist system in the west also guaranteesb very little choice in entertainment.

He is blaming capitalism for us having very few choices in entertainment.  Not that most of our entertainment is crap.  He isn't blaming "megacorps" because American Idol is popular.  He is blaming capitalism for limiting our choices in entertainment.  Capitalism, good or bad, isn't doing anything to limit the amount of entertainment that is available to people in a given society.  You can keep defending it by changing the subject if you want, but its just going to make you look as dumb as that quote.

Dude, capitalism obviously always reduces choice - just look around you!  Standardization, competition eliminating choices, economies of scale obliterating non-mass choices.  For god sake man even a lot of major corporate 'choices' are getting hard to find (like 7-Up), and all the small local products are simply gone.

[opebo]

Opebo said once that the reason there are so few entertainment options in the west was because of our economic freedoms.  It might not be the dumbest thing someone has ever said on the internet, but it's the dumbest thing I can remember.

Think about it buddy - everything become centralized, standardized, and dominated by big capital, who then seed the mass market.  The small, the localized, the culturally different, etc, etc. simply are squeezed out by capitalism.  Capitalism has always been a force for homogenization and standardization - to call capitalism 'our economic freedoms' is the dumbest quote on the internet, I'm afraid.

[Gustaf]

Opebo said once that the reason there are so few entertainment options in the west was because of our economic freedoms.  It might not be the dumbest thing someone has ever said on the internet, but it's the dumbest thing I can remember.

Think about it buddy - everything become centralized, standardized, and dominated by big capital, who then seed the mass market.  The small, the localized, the culturally different, etc, etc. simply are squeezed out by capitalism.  Capitalism has always been a force for homogenization and standardization - to call capitalism 'our economic freedoms' is the dumbest quote on the internet, I'm afraid.

But those things were only available for the owners, Opebo. The poor farmers could only go to the one local shop.

[opebo]

Think about it buddy - everything become centralized, standardized, and dominated by big capital, who then seed the mass market.  The small, the localized, the culturally different, etc, etc. simply are squeezed out by capitalism.  Capitalism has always been a force for homogenization and standardization - to call capitalism 'our economic freedoms' is the dumbest quote on the internet, I'm afraid.

But those things were only available for the owners, Opebo. The poor farmers could only go to the one local shop.

But a very picturesque shop it was!

But seriously, you're just being silly, Gustaf.  Poor Thai farms have for hundreds of years gone to various local markets which typically have dozens of sellers of myriad items - and the best part is many of those items, particularly the food items, were locally produced.  Your statement is just plain baseless - I can go out the door tomorrow morning and within a 20 minute motorbike drive in any direction can find several such markets, all stuffed to the brim with local farmers, as well as other low-income people, buying (and also sometimes selling).  And don't get the idea I'm in some special area - I'm in a normal part of Isaan, and the distance to a market is normally just half an hour or so for the vast majority of rural people

(I will admit that those few people who live in more sparsely populated areas of Thailand may have slightly less choice historically, or slightly higher costs, and in less technologically advanced times they probably only went to market once a month instead of once a week, since they were walking or riding a buffalo instead of riding public transport or a cheap old motorbike, but they still went).

However if you are talking about individual Chinese stores bonding farmers through credit, that's a different story - any monopoly wasn't about choice of products or supply, but about power of capital.

It costs only 30 cents to ride this to a market:

[Gustaf]

lol