I don’t “prefer” to get cheaper options in any meaningful sense. There is no choice of mine involved in what products corporations serve. I have to buy the cheapest option because I have a poverty wage and have to survive.
I don’t “prefer” to get cheaper options in any meaningful sense. There is no choice of mine involved in what products corporations serve. I have to buy the cheapest option because I have a poverty wage and have to survive.
The meaningful sense is when you open your wallet and buy one option when another option is there. Of course you have a budget and choose rationally, which is kinda like a forced choice. But you could always go and buy from the mom and pop shop and you could buy handmade clothes. Well, you don't have the money for it. Neither did people have it generations ago, they just wore worse clothes, went barefeet to school etc. You could still do that, walk barefoot until you can afford a handmade shoe and keep that for decades. It is in fact your preference not to do this, even if you want to claim that social pressure predetermines that you can't go around barefoot etc. At some point we disprove free will and agency entirely. Nobody in any historical era had more choice to express their preferences than consumers today.
I am not allowed to walk into my office without shoes. My shoes have had holes for 90% of my life. I assure you I own fewer things than you are imagining.