On Fri, 2005-06-03 at 13:10 -0700, Bruce Byfield wrote: > On Fri, 2005-06-03 at 21:00 +0100, Ian Lynch wrote: > > > Yes but do you really need to pay for them? > > It's called manufactured needs. In a consumer society, people whose > basic physical needs are already met are encouraged to spend money on > things they don't especially need.
Yes. I appreciate there is a demonstrable market. It just isn't intuitive to me - my youngest son is a participant though ;-). > Whole categories of merchandise fall into this category, including SUVs, > microwaves, Well microwaves I think are damned useful :-) > cell phones, Ok but a lot of the features are froth. > and laptop computers. Hampered by old legacy technology unfortunately. > All these things are > useful for certain people, but millions buy them for no better reason > than they can or because they have a vague but persistent fear of being > left behind. Yes, mabe that is something we have to instill in the sphere of OOo :-) > That's one of the things I like about FOSS -- it undermines the > foundation of the consumer society. :-) There is a lot to be said for subversion :-) -- Ian Lynch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ZMSL
