> what I fear most (second to a market that allows perversions - i.e. buyers of unacceptable products)
I have a hard time buying this (no pun intended). Your greatest fear is other people being able to buy things? I fear very much my not being able to buy what I want, and I can see knock-on effects from other people being OK with (or not understanding) the violation of their privacy and so indirectly violating my privacy, but it's hard for me to see that raising to the level of my greatest fear. So I wonder if I'm misunderstanding you, or we're frightened by different things.
Yes, you misunderstood. I stated that the fearsome weakness in the system is a market which is mostly made by careless buyers who will disregard low quality, absurd specifications and dystopian features in the products.
A product would not circulate in the market if people did not buy it, and people in general most unfortunately tend to buy what is available, without assessing it, without considering the effect of their purchases on the market.
You would not struggle to find e.g. telephones with replaceable batteries in the market if people generally refused to purchase otherwise. The same is valid for bluetooth-operated only washing machines (and other appliances), etc.
Bad products are around because people buy them.
> I fear very much my not being able to buy what I want
Exactly: that is already largely the situation, and it comes from a polluted market, spoiled by purchasers accepting bad products.
Which 'this' do you mean? There is the 'this' where other people buy stupid things (meaning 'smart' things, in the marketing terminology we've had foisted upon us), and there is the 'this' where I can't buy what I want. Phones and TVs are examples of both, to be sure; but, as I mentioned in the comment to which you are responding, these two phenomena seem different, though linked, and it's not clear to me that the former is inherently bad.
I have a hard time buying this (no pun intended). Your greatest fear is other people being able to buy things? I fear very much my not being able to buy what I want, and I can see knock-on effects from other people being OK with (or not understanding) the violation of their privacy and so indirectly violating my privacy, but it's hard for me to see that raising to the level of my greatest fear. So I wonder if I'm misunderstanding you, or we're frightened by different things.