Ignorance is bliss

I've been trying to sell some old stuff on craigslist recently, and I am amazed at how silly some of the posts are. First of all, most of the stuff for sale on craigslist, aside from furniture and knick-knacks are a scam. Especially computer software. I can almost guarantee that 99% of the software you see for sale is pirated.

Second, the kinds of posts you see in the "items wanted" section are beyond belief. There are posts left and right that say things like "Help me pay my student loans - $1" and "iPod mini 6gb needed ASAP!!". It's hard for me to believe that somebody could have a desperate need for an iPod, and then isn't willing to pay more than $100 for something worth $200. One post was asking people for food to help the poster make it to their next paycheck.

While I sympathize with people going through ard times - I think there are rare cases when someone is working as hard as they can, doesn't spend money on anything but the bare necessities, and can't make ends meet, especially if they are single. I think the greater likelihood is that this person smokes or eats out, has cable or satellite TV, goes clothes shopping at least once a week and rents/buys DVDs or watches movies in the theater every week. I've known people to tell me they can't make the rent when they just came back from a $2000 vacation. It's incredible.

I guess there's just something about an anonymous bulletin board that facilitates such nonsense.