> "Consumer welfare" is also an outdated concept. Anti-features are deliberately engineered to weaken products. The goal of a producer is not to increase 'consu

> "Consumer welfare" is also an outdated concept. Anti-features are deliberately engineered to weaken products. The goal of a producer is not to increase 'consumer welfare'. It is to SELL product. If that means damaging the consumer with a product designed to fall apart, then so be it. The advertising is there to convince the consumer to re-purchase the nearly identical product by attaching perceived value. Modern advertising even convinces consumers to throw away perfectly functional products by creating false perceptions of inadequacy or danger. So basically, "modern" advertising is as beneficial as a viral infection, so it really ought to be criminalized or regulated into nonexistence.