If my utility company requires me to have a Windows PC to get gas or electricity, then they can supply me with a Windows PC just for that purpose. If they want money from customers they need to provide ways for those customers to pay without specialized hardware/software.
What are they going to do, tell some 90 year old lady who has never touched a computer in her life that she needs to get online with an approved device to keep her light on?
if my utility company requires me to have a Windows PC to get gas or electricity, then they can supply me with a Windows PC just for that purpose
They won’t. Then what’s your plan?
What are they going to do, tell some 90 year old lady who has never touched a computer in her life that she needs to get online with an approved device to keep her light on?
No, they’ll tell her to pay via check/mail as usual.
But that’s a ridiculous argument anyway, because if there’s anyone that’s going to own an unmodified, store bought, “approved” device, it’s a 90 year old.
INB4 “I’ll just switch my appliances to electric and go off-grid solar.”
Good for you, hypothetical yet inevitable replier, you should absolutely do that. But that doesn’t solve the collective, societal problem. The real issue here is not whether it’s possible for individuals to resist or implement a workaround, but that it is fundamentally wrong for corporations to have that much or that kind of power in the first place!
The only actual solutions to the systemic issue must be legislative – this kind of abusive corporate power-grabbing has to be outlawed!
What are they going to do, tell some 90 year old lady who has never touched a computer in her life that she needs to get online with an approved device to keep her light on?
If my utility company requires me to have a Windows PC to get gas or electricity, then they can supply me with a Windows PC just for that purpose. If they want money from customers they need to provide ways for those customers to pay without specialized hardware/software.
What are they going to do, tell some 90 year old lady who has never touched a computer in her life that she needs to get online with an approved device to keep her light on?
They won’t. Then what’s your plan?
No, they’ll tell her to pay via check/mail as usual.
But that’s a ridiculous argument anyway, because if there’s anyone that’s going to own an unmodified, store bought, “approved” device, it’s a 90 year old.
Then I’ll pay by check in the mail like a 90 year old and they can pay someone to open those checks.
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INB4 “I’ll just switch my appliances to electric and go off-grid solar.”
Good for you, hypothetical yet inevitable replier, you should absolutely do that. But that doesn’t solve the collective, societal problem. The real issue here is not whether it’s possible for individuals to resist or implement a workaround, but that it is fundamentally wrong for corporations to have that much or that kind of power in the first place!
The only actual solutions to the systemic issue must be legislative – this kind of abusive corporate power-grabbing has to be outlawed!
Thats exactly what they will do