I’d say the problem is that, at least in the US, the government was conceived as a democratic republic, but private enterprise wasn’t required to follow the sam

I’d say the problem is that, at least in the US, the government was conceived as a democratic republic, but private enterprise wasn’t required to follow the same conceits, and so all our corporations behaved more like small dictatorships. Now that our corporations are megacorporations, and the government has lost the upper hand, the common people are at the mercy of these dictatorships. There’s no reason for Apple or Google to cede any control that they’ve already established, and we only see them grabbing more and more control as time goes by. Until the government regains the upper-hand, and begins to work again on behalf of actual people (with heartbeats), the firmware in our phones will continue to do the bidding of its true owner. Or if maybe, there’s a revolution or something. Maybe we could take public ownership of the phone lines and cell towers. Fat chance, huh?