this post was submitted on 31 May 2026
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I think consumer devices are slowly going to not exist. It will switch to screens that stream from the data centers.
Where there is a demand, there is a market. Life, uh, finds a way.
That's no longer the way it works in this new economy (at least in the US). About 50% of all consumer spending is done by the top 10% of incomes. Companies have figured out they can either join the race to the bottom, fight with the competition and eak out meager profits. Or they can just make shit expensive as fuck, have record profits and still have enough customers in the rich. By simply doing less for more money, they can earn more even though the total amount of sales and customers has gone down. The decline in sales is easily offset by the higher prices, leading to more revenue and more importantly way more profit.
This is why there are so many people living pay check to pay check, unable to afford needed stuff and on the edge of losing everything. While at the same time the markets are doing better than ever, so many companies are having record profits across the board. And this trend is expected to continue in the near future. The rich are spending while the other 90% are unsure about the future and limit spending. This furthers the divide between rich and poor and makes companies target the rich and forget about the rest.
Maybe some crazy person would take the risk and try to make something for the other 90%. But in doing so they have to work a lot harder and margins would be slim. Costs are up on everything and anything, so making something regular people can actually afford is hard. Let alone do that and make a profit and be able to keep quality at a proper level. The quality would suffer, lots of outsourcing would be involved, meeting any sort of regulations is hard and costly let alone optional targets like the environment and being sustainable.
The only way companies see a future for less rich folk is with subscriptions. Just load everyone up with a shit load of cheap subscriptions. Can't afford a new $1000 appliance? Not a problem, you get it now and pay later. Not mentioning that pay later means pay forever and the total amount paid is way more than $1000. Plus people have a hard time managing finances with a lot of small loans and subscriptions. It's all abstract till they get overwhelmed with debt. Something that happens more and more each day.
I don't think it'll ever happen fully. There's waaaaaay too much money in selling even 1980s-tier hardware to individuals after a certain point.
It will be easier to control terrorists that way.
Thank the Lord! I'm sick of islamic terrorists(tm) killing me.
Or did you mean it will be easier for them to control the terrorists as in create them!?
Oh. All terrorists. Islamic, atheist, communist, animal rights, voting rights, environmentalist, democrat...