@someone_else @dan I have not seen this discussed often, but parceling out software even for a one-time feature enabling move has become a way to circumnavigate tariffs. Ship and invoice hardware at cost or even lower, enable functionality after arrival for a price that does not appear on import documents. Very useful, if not necessary for continuing to outsource production to cheap labor or dropship stuff altogether.

The shitty incentives of the current economic system abound.

I'm too tired for a pithy punchline or quick fix alternative.

Oh, but to live in a political culture that defaults to humanity.

A very disturbing trend, if not a defining characteristic of elites is their propensity to subscribe to "unpalatable" choices as a matter of pride - instead of a matter of shame.

Self-valorization about making "hard choices" introduces a bias to make inhumane choices a default proposition. Needless cruelty rationalized as rational.

The ability to take abhorrent positions becomes a matter of identity, of distinction from regular people. A contagious brain worm with an in-group feedback loop.