“The judge seems willing to order structural changes in Google’s ad exchange practices, which may affect Google’s bottom line somewhat, but don’t seem to necessarily threaten its core value proposition as an advertising middleman,” he added.

In an ongoing series of antitrust lawsuits, the US government argues Google and its parent company Alphabet should be broken up - which could include selling off parts of the company such as the Chrome browser.

The US case will now move to a second “remedies” phase, which could also lead to Alphabet being broken up, said John Kwoka, a professor of economics at Northeastern University.

Unless Trump rescues them, I guess.

With all 4.5 children inhaling the lead paint fumes wafting off of it, or something like that. Ahh, the old days.

Yes. They shouldn’t even have to purity test like in the second sentence.

Pfft, look at this person giving an actual answer. Jokes, opinions and political rants only. /s

The metal ones were quite often mass produced by casting, like in claw-foot bathtubs. Probably in imitation of older artisanal pieces, which were already antiques in, say, 1910.

Yeah. That wasn’t a normative statement, just a descriptive one. We should be the customer, we just economically aren’t. I bet you and me buy the same kind of stuff.

The points I was arguing against in OP are that everything is built worse than it used to be, and that it’s because some group can just decide so unilaterally for personal gain. Some stuff is worse, some stuff is better, but it’s true that regulations haven’t kept pace with technology this century.

Yeah, exactly. The early ones lasted a really long time. The debate is about how necessary making them shorter lived was exactly. It definitely happened though, and definitely did so before any of us were born.

There’s probably an even older example, but commercial history before 1850 is pretty niche.

That sounds completely sane, if cynical. Back in the day your salami had rats in it. Now software is the sausage you don’t want to see made.

Regulation is an option, right? And in the EU they’re actually doing it. Because the consumers are dumb, not because someone has a free money bug, let alone one that’s leading to some kind of Platonic inevitable decay of society, which is kind of what feels like the picture being pushed here.

Good for you. What model?

I’d love it if I ever got the opportunity to experience one. It was kind of a significant thing for a while.

Eh, it was a bit too detailed honestly. I doubt that was deliberate, though, and I did respond in full.

Musk is an outlier. He also bought Twitter and basically put it through a woodchipper, including getting rid of the very well-recognised brand and executing a domain transition that left it semi-broken for months. Most CEOs and most boards have some semblance of sanity.

Okay, so this got long, but only because you made so many separate points.

No one asked for a phone that doesn’t have a replaceable battery

Pretty much necessary for waterproofing, makes the design a bit simpler, and most people DGAF about e-waste.

has microbezels, is covered in glass so if you drop it you have to buy a new one, or you have to buy a case to wrap it in.

All aesthetic features that are popular, even if people aren’t aware of where the wow comes from exactly.

The headphone jack is the only forced example here.

No one asked for a car that is sending all of your data to the manufacturer

You’re not the customer, and most people have no problem with being the product. Which is really dumb of them, but true.

has a huge-ass touch screen that can’t be customized in any way,

It’s still a new enough trend that I’m not sure where it sits, but it does come with the advantage of displaying whatever menus you want really directly.

has features that don’t work while the car is in motion,

Liability, I assume.

lets your insurance company know when you accelerate too quickly, and plays ads when you are at a stoplight.

Again, you’re not the customer.

I’ve been looking at getting a new washer and even those are terrible and require connecting the appliance to a wireless network and installing an app on your phone to get full functionality.

Ditto. Most consumers either don’t know/care or actually like whatever shitty “smart” feature. And aren’t tracking their cybersecurity very closely.

In a nutshell:

There are VERY few manufacturers of anything out there that actually give a shit about what the consumer Bob Robertson and CanadaPlus really want,

What about it?

All I said is that they build what people will buy. Sometimes, people are short-sighted about what they buy. And maybe more importantly, landfilling is totally free in most cities, and externalities are not something markets handle well. That’s also why we’re making one-use containers out of our most permanent materials.

People absolutely did that stuff way back when, too. Incandescent lightbulbs are a debated but famous example.

That’s not really a fair rubric. If they add unnecessary stuff it’s bloat, if they don’t it’s cynical cost cutting.

If you were buying your own Chipotle 20 years ago I assume you know what I mean about old cars with manual everything and maybe a radio. The economy cars of the 20th century aren’t even around for me to experience anymore, because they literally fell apart!

Possibly. They’ll still be baking with the same chunky mixers, though.

This has already happened to a degree. You might have seen a log cabin but probably never a sod house. Probably not so many crank-powered tools either.

I 100% guarantee that kind of company would lose customers doing that. Other kinds do add more and more stuff. Compare modern smartphones and cars to older ones.

For all it’s flaws, the present economy is actually very good at making exactly what people want to buy.

I mean, that’s still a lot of extra cost and red tape, and the guys sewing labels will eventually start sewing everything else.

It rarely adds 200%, though. At 125% the talking head were already saying the US was in effective embargo territory, so it is kind of meaningless.

But you know what you’re getting into, then, so it’s not confusing or a problem.

Ah yes, that would have been annoying. I started in the era of small web forums where activity was split out from recency by page or dialog.

It’s shitty, but it’s not surprising, is it? All the stops come out when it’s one of your people.

One is Japanese comics, the other two sound like a related.