Minor venting on behavior: why would someone say or think this?

[Chan790]

6. To take the obverse position...

if someone wanted to give me $4K for my trash to buy a TV or (assuming now actually that there's a good chance the buyer and seller are the same retailer/person...i.e. a pawn shop) if someone wanted to give me a $4K TV for my trash...I'd also consider the TV free since I paid for it either directly or indirectly with items of no personal or monetary value to me.

It's like in HS when my friend Eric traded me Frank Thomas' rookie card for a pair of shitty $5 sunglasses...each of us were thrilled because we'd given up something that we held worthless for something we wanted.

Cash is a medium, a barter-economy intermediary, it only has value in what it can be exchanged for. It's a legal-tender chit or marker of comparatively-universal acceptance. $4K in cash has no value except that it can be used to acquire $4k in goods or $4k in goods can be used to acquire $4k in cash; the purpose is to allow individuals whose products for sale and products of want do not coincide to engage in commerce.

In effect, he really did get a TV for free...it cost him garbage, either directly or via an intermediary transaction.