In the world of identity politics and constant tragedy, often times policy changes get overlooked by the people. I think currently one of those things is forced arbitration.

Lately I have noticed that a lot of the services I have used required me to accept new terms and conditions. Over half of them introduced new “arbitration” clauses into the terms. In short, what it means is that they can no longer be sued for making a bad or even downright dangerous product or service.

The new age Phoebus Cartel

A while after light bulbs started to be mass produced, they faced a big “problem.” Which was the fact that they were lasting too long for companies to spin enough of a profit off of them. So the Phoebus Cartel was formed to figure out ways to make less reliable light bulbs.

Personally I feel that a similar thing is happening among all industries these days. Which is backed up by appliances don’t last as long and manufacturers are making devices less repairable.

This ultimately Republican idea that companies should exist solely to make as much money as possible has unfortunately spread to Democrat politicians too. This is evidenced by the fact that Governor Hochul downright neutered the Digital Fair Repair Act at the requests of industry lobbyists.

If you can’t repair something, you don’t own it. Plain and simple. And when said thing is designed to not last as long, it contributes to e-waste and wasted production volume.

Forced arbitration is key to this

With forced arbitration, you are waiving your right to sue whenever you sign an employment contract or in this case, click “I accept” on the terms of service which is already too lengthy to read.

What happens if you don’t accept the terms of service with forced arbitration? Then your services, some of which are required for operation, are shut off. Which is essentially shoe horning users into accepting these new terms.

And it’s a protection for these companies. If they’re making sure their asses are covered for making bad products and services, then it’s safe to assume that they’ll intentionally be making bad products and services.

Will the government save us?

Not likely. The government won’t bite the hand which feeds it. More and more campaign donations are made by companies and union lobbyist firms, who utilize their employees names to donate a lot more with or without said employees consent.

It will likely take the manufacture of a bad product taking the lives of literal thousands of people for our government to do a single thing about it. That is the sad reality we live in.