But when the product/service is functionally mandated by the infrastructure (you need an internet connection to do everything from paying bills to applying for jobs / you need a car to survive in a society full of car-exclusive paved roads) and the commercial seller has a functional cartel/monopoly on production, the manufacturer has less and less reason to treat you as a potentially-loseable client and more as a potentially-saleable commodity.
Turning these high value durable goods into extensions of the lucrative police state surveillance network is appealing to a monopolized industry that’s heavily integrated with the domestic regime.
And if you, as a consumer, don’t like it… what are you going to do? Go without basic appliances? DIY retrofit everything in your house? Or just suck it up and toe the line, because this is “normal”?
But when the product/service is functionally mandated by the infrastructure (you need an internet connection to do everything from paying bills to applying for jobs / you need a car to survive in a society full of car-exclusive paved roads) and the commercial seller has a functional cartel/monopoly on production, the manufacturer has less and less reason to treat you as a potentially-loseable client and more as a potentially-saleable commodity.
Turning these high value durable goods into extensions of the lucrative police state surveillance network is appealing to a monopolized industry that’s heavily integrated with the domestic regime.
And if you, as a consumer, don’t like it… what are you going to do? Go without basic appliances? DIY retrofit everything in your house? Or just suck it up and toe the line, because this is “normal”?