Hey All,
I saw this coming years ago.
I think the gaming industry like WoW are basically "preconditioning" people to this philosophy. It's like leasing a car versus buying a car. Leasing is the biggest ripoff in the world unless you can use tax benes to cover it.
Money paid for no asset. And a continuous stream of revenue to mega-corporations. From a corporate perspective this is the perfect world - rental of everything - guaranteeing a continuous revenue stream - especially if the people pay for repairs/maintenance. However this is the basic wrong/problem.
The decision-making power needs to be deliberately planned to be put into the hands of the consumer - not the corporation. Under the system Microsoft wants how does a consumer/user say I'm happy with what I use now and I want to use what I have now and pay no money. Why should the consumer continue to pay for something outdated? What gives MS the right/power to decide that people need to upgrade? How are people under the system proposed given this choice? Society has to get this right.
A personal example - I use several demo programs put out years (over 5) ago. Why because the people who made those programs put enough "power/capability" into those programs that they do all I'll ever want. No need to buy the program. Am I benefiting from their mistake? Yes absolutely! Tough!
I understand that economies run on the exchange of goods and services and value added. Ultimately the main problem is simple - the world has the ability to overproduce (due to technology) anything the part of the world with money wants. This leads very simply to revenue problems - how do you fix that - well obviously - one stopgap is rent it instead of selling it. Look at how many people are happy with FS9 versus FSX. From MS perspective wouldn't rental be a perfect solution? Basically I just want society to face the main overproduction problem sooner rather than later - renting is just a way of avoiding it. One politician told me "No crisis before it's time" - because the short term political costs of preparing for the future are too high. This attitude has to stop.
From a consumer perspective the basic principle is simple. Less money outta my pocket and give me the power of control not the corporations. It really is that simple.
Sorry for the rant but this is an issue that does bug me because of it's consequences for the environment as well as my children.
-Ed-
I saw this coming years ago.
I think the gaming industry like WoW are basically "preconditioning" people to this philosophy. It's like leasing a car versus buying a car. Leasing is the biggest ripoff in the world unless you can use tax benes to cover it.
Money paid for no asset. And a continuous stream of revenue to mega-corporations. From a corporate perspective this is the perfect world - rental of everything - guaranteeing a continuous revenue stream - especially if the people pay for repairs/maintenance. However this is the basic wrong/problem.
The decision-making power needs to be deliberately planned to be put into the hands of the consumer - not the corporation. Under the system Microsoft wants how does a consumer/user say I'm happy with what I use now and I want to use what I have now and pay no money. Why should the consumer continue to pay for something outdated? What gives MS the right/power to decide that people need to upgrade? How are people under the system proposed given this choice? Society has to get this right.
A personal example - I use several demo programs put out years (over 5) ago. Why because the people who made those programs put enough "power/capability" into those programs that they do all I'll ever want. No need to buy the program. Am I benefiting from their mistake? Yes absolutely! Tough!
I understand that economies run on the exchange of goods and services and value added. Ultimately the main problem is simple - the world has the ability to overproduce (due to technology) anything the part of the world with money wants. This leads very simply to revenue problems - how do you fix that - well obviously - one stopgap is rent it instead of selling it. Look at how many people are happy with FS9 versus FSX. From MS perspective wouldn't rental be a perfect solution? Basically I just want society to face the main overproduction problem sooner rather than later - renting is just a way of avoiding it. One politician told me "No crisis before it's time" - because the short term political costs of preparing for the future are too high. This attitude has to stop.
From a consumer perspective the basic principle is simple. Less money outta my pocket and give me the power of control not the corporations. It really is that simple.
Sorry for the rant but this is an issue that does bug me because of it's consequences for the environment as well as my children.
-Ed-