Not sure I agree with that. I’ll take an unexpected five bucks because of Red Bull’s false advertising that some ingredient doesn’t have literal energy (calories) to it. I wouldn’t start my own lawsuit over it, which may or may not be as successful. More importantly, every class action notice I’ve ever gotten had instructions to opt out and initiate my own legal action if I so choose. Also, if we’re talking about a class that includes thousands/millions of people, there are only so many lawyers involved in whatever specialty.

Tl;dr class actions penalize companies on behalf of those who wouldn’t realistically file their own lawsuit while still allowing those who would.

You sure about that? 👀

I wasn’t commenting on what should morally or legally be. I’m just saying that if there’s, say, 1 million plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit it’s not realistic to expect 3 million dollars (minus attorneys fees) in each person’s bank account. That would be 3 trillion dollars, not including whatever punitive damages end up being. There’s a practical issue to be considered.

I find a lot more “soul” in older electronics. So many devices today are a minimalist thing with a touchscreen (or worse, thing controlled by your phone), probably designed to force you into a subscription. At least consumerism from a few decades ago operated by innovating to make you want to buy a new product, rather than designing it to be a trap.

Going back to the “soul” bit: I recently bought a Bang and Olufsen Beosystem 2500 (look it up) for my office. It’s a stereo from the very early 90s that cost thousands of dollars in its day. It sounds amazing, and has little touches that just make it cool. Like motorized glass doors that are motion activated, with warm accent lighting when the unit is on. The tape player didn’t work when I bought it, but I was able to replace the belt and now my childhood Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego soundtrack tape is playable again! And with an Aux input, I can also use it for modern stuff too to take advantage of what we’ve gained in media playback since ~1991.

I thought the same thing for a moment, until I realized that’s for one person. Now imagine a similar class action lawsuit. Of course it’s not realistic to expect that dollar amount multiplied by that many people, but it could be a pretty significant dent.