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Nobody on HN wants to hear this, but REG-U-LA-TION. The glorious free market is consistently failing to solve the growing problem of cloud-tethered and app-teth

Nobody on HN wants to hear this, but REG-U-LA-TION. The glorious free market is consistently failing to solve the growing problem of cloud-tethered and app-tethered products being nerfed by their manufacturers after the point of sale.

tsunamifury 11mo ago
I think those who believe regulation is universally the devil forget the era where products were received DOA and customers had no recourse while companies simply called it profit.
- alyandon 11mo ago
  I can't take anyone that views regulation as universally evil seriously when history is full of stuff like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radithor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radithor
  - tsunamifury 11mo ago
    Evidently HN doesn't like this particular history...
    - dredmorbius 11mo ago
      <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9176267 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9176267> <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44508062 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44508062> The Radithor reference is of course quite apropos, and I'm a fan of effective and principled regulation to avoid that and numerous other market failures.
nine_k 11mo ago
Sorry, but it's CUS-TO-MERS. They buy stuff that can only be controlled via an app talking to the cloud. They buy stuff that cannot be repaired. They buy stuff that openly lies about its specs, for an "unbelievably good price". The customers go for the cheapest, all else be damned. Education in general, and about critical thinking in particular, could help.
- nemomarx 11mo ago
  Customers would buy contaminated food if it was cheaper, too. There's value in having a floor on quality and design for products to avoid races to the bottom?
  - lesuorac 11mo ago
    Not just would, DID! And they got so fed up with eating food that make them sick that we passed the Food and Drug Act! You can vote with both your wallet and _you actual vote_.
    - mrguyorama 11mo ago
      The entire snake oil industry was thriving and customers loved buying stuff that did nothing at all. It took a hundred people, including young children, dying in sheer agony from a 100% preventable poisoning by a "medicine company" who's business was essentially dissolving off the shelf medicine powders in liquid and selling the result to really regulate chemicals meant for human ingestion. It took a president with a sympathetic ear and immense popular support for government in general to be a force for reigning in powerful corporations. That company not only did not test that concoction on any living thing before bottling it up and selling to thousands of unwitting people, but the chemist in charge didn't even check the literature to see that the diethylene glycol he used was already thought to be lethal and had known kidney toxicity. The company DID test its flavor and color and fragrance. Why would they test anything else before selling it? You could be a hugely profitable company selling products that did nothing to the people who took it. Testing your products was a waste of effort and would not get you more business! Your average consumer CANNOT judge accurately whether a medicine works. Your average doctor fails at the task, which is why we have to do blind studies in the first place. What was true of consumers in the early 1900s is just as true today, and applies to all sorts of things that aren't medicine. Consumers will never be experts. Consumers will never be as equipped to evaluate something as the capital rich industry that produces it. There are inherent information asymmetries that make even idealized market theory fail.
      - 11mo ago
deaux 11mo ago
But that's why the EU is so "behind" on cultivating parasitic FAANG-style tech megacorps! If they'd just do away with regulations, the EU could have some of their own, such joy! Move fast and screw society for tasty RSUs!

tsunamifury 11mo ago

I think those who believe regulation is universally the devil forget the era where products were received DOA and customers had no recourse while companies simply called it profit.

alyandon 11mo ago
I can't take anyone that views regulation as universally evil seriously when history is full of stuff like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radithor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radithor
- tsunamifury 11mo ago
  Evidently HN doesn't like this particular history...
  - dredmorbius 11mo ago
    <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9176267 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9176267> <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44508062 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44508062> The Radithor reference is of course quite apropos, and I'm a fan of effective and principled regulation to avoid that and numerous other market failures.

nine_k 11mo ago

Sorry, but it's CUS-TO-MERS. They buy stuff that can only be controlled via an app talking to the cloud. They buy stuff that cannot be repaired. They buy stuff that openly lies about its specs, for an "unbelievably good price". The customers go for the cheapest, all else be damned. Education in general, and about critical thinking in particular, could help.

nemomarx 11mo ago
Customers would buy contaminated food if it was cheaper, too. There's value in having a floor on quality and design for products to avoid races to the bottom?
- lesuorac 11mo ago
  Not just would, DID! And they got so fed up with eating food that make them sick that we passed the Food and Drug Act! You can vote with both your wallet and _you actual vote_.
  - mrguyorama 11mo ago
    The entire snake oil industry was thriving and customers loved buying stuff that did nothing at all. It took a hundred people, including young children, dying in sheer agony from a 100% preventable poisoning by a "medicine company" who's business was essentially dissolving off the shelf medicine powders in liquid and selling the result to really regulate chemicals meant for human ingestion. It took a president with a sympathetic ear and immense popular support for government in general to be a force for reigning in powerful corporations. That company not only did not test that concoction on any living thing before bottling it up and selling to thousands of unwitting people, but the chemist in charge didn't even check the literature to see that the diethylene glycol he used was already thought to be lethal and had known kidney toxicity. The company DID test its flavor and color and fragrance. Why would they test anything else before selling it? You could be a hugely profitable company selling products that did nothing to the people who took it. Testing your products was a waste of effort and would not get you more business! Your average consumer CANNOT judge accurately whether a medicine works. Your average doctor fails at the task, which is why we have to do blind studies in the first place. What was true of consumers in the early 1900s is just as true today, and applies to all sorts of things that aren't medicine. Consumers will never be experts. Consumers will never be as equipped to evaluate something as the capital rich industry that produces it. There are inherent information asymmetries that make even idealized market theory fail.
    - 11mo ago

deaux 11mo ago

But that's why the EU is so "behind" on cultivating parasitic FAANG-style tech megacorps! If they'd just do away with regulations, the EU could have some of their own, such joy! Move fast and screw society for tasty RSUs!