Ebay

When I first began bidding on e-bay I expected a barrage of competing bidders. I sat there waiting for about two hours anticipating other bids, but none came. I ended up winning a new pair of Emerica skate shoes for only $25.00, and soon after I won a cool retro videogame from the good old Playstation 1 days called, Wild 9, for only $3.00 with tax. The entire process was so easy, using a credit card in general makes it seem as if you aren’t spending money, and by using e-bay, it makes it easier to spend large amounts of money. Everything is less expensive than it is in stores so buyers feel more comfortable spending money and can easily end up buying more than they had planned. After buying the shoes I browsed around a bit more and found many things that I had not wanted before-hand, and had to restrain myself from buying any more.
I felt limitless, the site had everything that I could ever want at lower prices. It perfectly represents the system of capitalism and demonstrates the microcosmic variables that make up our capitalist society. Individuals auction off their stuff to others through the website like small businesses, but the whole thing is owned by somebody with the money and the power. People operate within the system to make money because anything outside of that system is unreliable. Who do the people trust more, some guy selling his old shoes or good old reliable Nike, a company that assures convenience and perfection. E-bay is even more convenient than shopping at actual stores, for one, you don’t even need to leave your home to buy stuff, you can just open up your laptop and listen to music while you fritter your hard earned money away on more stuff that seems cool at the time.
When I used e-bay I didn’t go in wanting anything, but once I looked at the site and saw all of the crap that I could buy more and more things captured my interest. Like in any market certain items are more scarce than others, so the sellers try to sell non-commodities. This scarcity can also increase the amount of time people spend on E-bay so they feel the need to be hardwired to their computers in search of more stuff.
The ability to buy and sell also gives people a feeling of control, a feeling that they aren’t entirely helpless against the almighty power of the rich business owners. Like the power granted us by the constitution, we have a collective potential only attainable through mass cooperation. E-bay and Pay-pal are both owned by the same group of individuals who just sit back and reap the riches while buyers and sellers work within the system. E-bay perpetuates our lack of power, the individual has no control over the system, but the rich owners of e-bay get progressively wealthier while the general population simultaneously becomes poorer. By operating within the parameters of capitalism we spin further out of control.