This hits the nail on the head. I agree ebay and Amazon are also sometimes the only option for finding obscure stuff, but most of the world now buys most of the

This hits the nail on the head. I agree ebay and Amazon are also sometimes the only option for finding obscure stuff, but most of the world now buys most of the mundane stuff from them, and then we act surprised when they become international empires, richer than countries, and more powerful than most of them, and only getting bigger and bigger. Society is simply not equipped to deal with the cascading effects of consumerism and 'free' market, be it privacy, data mining, social security, or the environment.