[FreePaul]

Art, clothes, shoes, jewelry, furniture, computers, beer etc…

Anyone buy "Art" without looking at it?
Don't most people try on clothes and shoes before buying?
Women try on jewelry regularly. Often without any intention of buying.
Would you buy a chair without sitting in it?
Who would buy a computer without trying it first?
Visit a brewery and you can sample all the beer you want.

[elfman2]

"While I don't have any hard data to back it up, I would suspect that people in many of those tribes are actually happier and have fewer psychological disorders than many moderns."

I don't doubt what you suspect. And I don't have any hard data, but I suspect that without our help, they die at exceptionally high rates from illnesses we cure. I also suspect that they clash and war over resources that would be sufficient to maintain more than 10 times their numbers in modern societies, with all our neurosis producing stresses. Additionally, I suspect that the time of many primitive people that where at one time potentially brilliant is taken up by tedious, unrewarding and unchallenging tasks needed to survive, however therapeutic they may be.

[elfman2]

" Anyone buy "Art" without looking at it?
Don't most people try on clothes and shoes before buying?
Women try on jewelry regularly. Often without any intention of buying.
Would you buy a chair without sitting in it?
Who would buy a computer without trying it first?
Visit a brewery and you can sample all the beer you want."

Each of those required that you go to the store and sample them. Music stores allow that now. None of you example allow you to take a sample home.

(Sorry about the cross postings. I'm managing my 8 mo old son -very distracting.)