5 ms·

Maybe a fat sales tax (20%? 33%? 100%?) at final point of sale for consumer devices containing at least one Universal machine which executes stored code (it's

Maybe a fat sales tax (20%? 33%? 100%?) at final point of sale for consumer devices containing at least one Universal machine which executes stored code (it's not an ASIC), where the device owner (principally the one "purchasing" the device to "own" in a normal sense in the year 1800) cannot change the code due to some additional artifical means of preventing it (mainly by cryptographic signature check with a public key which can't be changed). A 100% tax would mean double price on your Xbox, your smart TV, your Apple devices, your medical devices like CPAP, your microwaves, your automobiles, etc. Why? Because we need to make open hardware (and by extension open software) a standard cultural principle in The West, and we need to make closed source prohibitively expensive. Because it is a back-door way to intentionally construct ways of extracting maximum cashflow from customers rather than make it maximally cheap for them (printer mfg is notorious here). Because abandoned vulnerable unpatchable hardware is a national security concern and you are a supreme asshole for telling the poor to throw out their 15 year old otherwise perfectly working TV because you[r employer] want to churn them for more money faster. Also profits from "services" should be hit with fat taxes after write-offs but before dividends and buybacks while going easy on manufacturing, so we become materially rich again rather than gaslit into buying vapors with our real efforts! Rentierism is out of control, the ISM services sector needs to run sub-50 while manufacturing hits 70 for a couple years to fix this societal imbalance!

EGreg 2y ago
Not to be the nitpick guy, but you meant 50% tax is double the price. 100% tax is simply taking ALL YOUR MONEY lol
- alwayslikethis 2y ago
  Sales tax is added to the price. 50% means to add 50 cents for every dollar you pay. 100% is double price.
  - EGreg 2y ago
    50% tax on income, for instance, is taking half the money from your income.
    - littlestymaar 2y ago
      Income tax is calculated differently than sales tax (but most of the time it's progressive taxation which means you only pay the the 50% rate on your marginal income and not on the whole: my marginal income tax rate is 41% but I pay only 9% of my income as income tax for instance)
soulofmischief 2y ago
I think a better framing is that all such devices should be heavily taxed, but devices meeting open standards are eligible for tax write-offs.
akira2501 2y ago
A consequence of monopolization is that produced products drift far away from actual market demands. I believe most of what you propose to fix is actually caused by this mechanism. Hardware consoles suck because three (count 'em!) companies make them. They sell them at a loss even because monopolizing the sales and distribution and development channel is profitable enough to make up for this. If you want better consoles you need more companies making them in a market place they cannot fully control.
- beeflet 2y ago
  Consoles used to operate on network effects and exclusivity deals. If you wanted to play halo with your friends, you had to get an xbox and vice versa. It's not clear how you fix that with antitrust. I think PCs have won for gaming in this century simply because of their ability to multitask. The modern gamer has discord and twitch and like 10 other social media apps open. The viral nature of games is key to success. Many (the most successful?) games like minecraft start out as PC-exclusives due to the additional hurdles associated with distributing a console game. Consoles tried to make a cash cow with subscription services, and succeeded for a while, but eventually the whole sub-industry of console gaming kind of lost its edge and croaked. There are hardly any exclusives, hardly any network effect so the unique selling point is gone. It reminds me of how bell labs missed out on the mobile phone because it would not take advantage of their existing infrastructure. The more companies try to tighten their grip on a market, the more inevitable their failure to evolve in the long term. If we are talking about printer companies, the more they build their business around restricting and selling ink cartiges, the less they will be able to adapt to new tech. When the next new thing rolls around (IDK printable holograms or something?) they will suffer because it won't mesh with their ossified business model
beeflet 2y ago
I don't really see why cryptographicially locked bootloaders should be allowed at all outside of military applications. These trusted computing systems represent a massive future political problem that remains too complex for the average voter to comprehend, let alone solve. It is a similar class of problems as net neutrality, except with dramatically greater impact.
- rustcleaner 2y ago
  Because private individuals are still subject to sophisticated attacks by other private individuals and rogue state agents. Evil maids really do exist.
  - beeflet 2y ago
    You can use measured boot for this application, to much greater effect.

EGreg 2y ago

Not to be the nitpick guy, but you meant 50% tax is double the price. 100% tax is simply taking ALL YOUR MONEY lol

alwayslikethis 2y ago
Sales tax is added to the price. 50% means to add 50 cents for every dollar you pay. 100% is double price.
- EGreg 2y ago
  50% tax on income, for instance, is taking half the money from your income.
  - littlestymaar 2y ago
    Income tax is calculated differently than sales tax (but most of the time it's progressive taxation which means you only pay the the 50% rate on your marginal income and not on the whole: my marginal income tax rate is 41% but I pay only 9% of my income as income tax for instance)

soulofmischief 2y ago

I think a better framing is that all such devices should be heavily taxed, but devices meeting open standards are eligible for tax write-offs.

akira2501 2y ago

A consequence of monopolization is that produced products drift far away from actual market demands. I believe most of what you propose to fix is actually caused by this mechanism. Hardware consoles suck because three (count 'em!) companies make them. They sell them at a loss even because monopolizing the sales and distribution and development channel is profitable enough to make up for this. If you want better consoles you need more companies making them in a market place they cannot fully control.

beeflet 2y ago
Consoles used to operate on network effects and exclusivity deals. If you wanted to play halo with your friends, you had to get an xbox and vice versa. It's not clear how you fix that with antitrust. I think PCs have won for gaming in this century simply because of their ability to multitask. The modern gamer has discord and twitch and like 10 other social media apps open. The viral nature of games is key to success. Many (the most successful?) games like minecraft start out as PC-exclusives due to the additional hurdles associated with distributing a console game. Consoles tried to make a cash cow with subscription services, and succeeded for a while, but eventually the whole sub-industry of console gaming kind of lost its edge and croaked. There are hardly any exclusives, hardly any network effect so the unique selling point is gone. It reminds me of how bell labs missed out on the mobile phone because it would not take advantage of their existing infrastructure. The more companies try to tighten their grip on a market, the more inevitable their failure to evolve in the long term. If we are talking about printer companies, the more they build their business around restricting and selling ink cartiges, the less they will be able to adapt to new tech. When the next new thing rolls around (IDK printable holograms or something?) they will suffer because it won't mesh with their ossified business model

beeflet 2y ago

I don't really see why cryptographicially locked bootloaders should be allowed at all outside of military applications. These trusted computing systems represent a massive future political problem that remains too complex for the average voter to comprehend, let alone solve. It is a similar class of problems as net neutrality, except with dramatically greater impact.

rustcleaner 2y ago
Because private individuals are still subject to sophisticated attacks by other private individuals and rogue state agents. Evil maids really do exist.
- beeflet 2y ago
  You can use measured boot for this application, to much greater effect.