That's why this work by More Perfect Union and ConsumerReports is so incredibly precious. Our institutions are currently radically unprepared, unfit, and (worst of all) uninterested in exposing and properly regulating this.

It's harmful and it's invisible because most people encounter it within their individual device or web browser: isolated, alone, without the ability to meaningfully compare.

If there has been systemic discrimination (there has) and that shows up in your datasets (it does) then your high tech AI-powered dynamic pricing is racism/sexism/etc. discrimination at scale.

I mean— it IS illegal discrimination. I mean: In a sane world, more people would just call it what it is. Connect the dots. AI driven dynamic pricing is necessarily weighted by problematic biases embedded in historical data.

This has been the only significant lifehack innovation in my wardrobe in the last 5 years, can confirm

This is a search tool that will only return content created before ChatGPT's first public release on November 30, 2022. tegabrain.com/Slop-Evader

"placed in government shelters"
"kidnapped"
words words words

What's really "costing the economy" is companies charging high prices for zero meaningful innovation and bad service and companies serving shareholders & VCs instead of customers. Maybe this article is just rage bait, if so, congrats, I feel rage.

"Americans holding on to their devices are costing the economy!" is a disingenuous, insulting, and harmful framing for the real problem which is that the acceleration and waste of capitalism is hitting a wall and tech cos would like you, the user, to hold the bag while they continue to make money.

Ever try to get Apple to repair anything? Or even let you repair it? Monopolistic tech cos will either tell you "tough shit, buy a new one" or just give you a new device to make you shut up, adding exponentially to the piles of e-waste devastating the planet.

Devices like telephones and cameras from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, when well-maintained, still work just fine. Somewhere along the way, corporations convinced people they needed to "upgrade" expensive tech as often as every year...and that they shouldn't expect companies to stand by their products.