How "voting with your wallet" doesn't work in tech
Last updated : 9/8/2026 (initial entry)
Introduction
Ah yes, "vote with your wallet". The good old market advice against bad vendors & stuff... which doesn't reliably work. In this (definitely) potentially controversial (and perpetually incomplete) article I list reasons why it doesn't work, at least in tech. Solutions found below.
And yes, I specifically wrote "doesn't work in tech" because it is the most obvious place ‐ certain other places (like food) do have working examples.
Logistical issues
- Like, who counted the "votes"?
- One you who will inevitably only feel some good from doing so?
- The market at large, who definitely won't bother listening to some consumers' voice?
- A store whose members (mostly those dealing with you) will hear your whydunit out?
- Some census service taking data from the aforementioned stores without factoring in the consumers' whydunit?
- That aforementioned census applied on the consumer level, potentially factoring in the whydunit?
- How does the voting system even works?
- First off, I'll imagine the easiest instawin ‐ headcount by the money. With each "vote" valued by its price, it is inevitable that the bigger ones overshadows the smaller ones to the point they become rounding errors.
- Following that, I imagine this as the most likely solution ‐ headcount by numbering the buyers, which works by... simply noting what the buyers buy and putting it up some database. On a local level (of something like one store chain), it could be doable. Though one could imagine the headache of compiling the data at the national (or even international) level.
- And what does the system affect? Like, does it allow the customer to tell the corpos what they wanted, without any interference?
- And all of these assumes these things :
- There were voting systems in the first place. (which I am NOT aware of if it did happen though)
- No one faked the votes whatsoever. (because faked votes are a bit of a common event in most "democracies" nowadays)
- EVERYONE!! is allowed to vote. (in this case somehow it's always the everyone that has the right conditions for it, so... not really EVERYONE!!.)
- Nobody modified the "democratic" process to favor one over another. Yes, these all are assumptions that the democratic system did work properly. spoilers?
If you think you're freely choosing, welp. Advertisements are already shaping your bias. And your device (through its software or content you've browsed into using the aforementioned device) is only one of the ways they get you, because external factors (billboards, radio, "reviews" released at suspiciously similar times, shows, etc.) existed.
With advertisements, the more the corpo spent the more likely you will see them (. As such, the big ones inevitably overshadow the smaller ones here.
everything is bundled
Think you're boycotting a certain corporation and supporting someone else? Yeah... about that.
- Dislike Samsung for their unreliable batteries and OLED displays? Whoopsies, Samsung made some components for your Apple devices (or current smartphones, though I feel inserting Apple more important here).
- How would you demand the current RAM conglomerates (Micron, Samsung, SK Hynix) to back off the AI chicanery when you're still indirectly paying them through your computers?
- Ah yes, CalyxOS & GrapheneOS. DeGoogling by... getting a Google device (or a Motorola from ≥2026 but that's not on topic here). Setting aside the technicalities (which, again, isn't on topic here), one still paid Google; enabling their AI tomfoolery, Goolag & Go‐ogle tendencies, and their questionable hardware (especially for tech acolytes).
- Not wanting to support Sony for killing physical disks (archive.org)? Funny, Xiaomi (and a bunch of others that I may or may not be aware of, but left unmentioned for irrelevance) paid Sony for their sensors, so... you still (indirectly) supported Sony.
- Laptops from most big vendors (ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI). Can't buy them without getting Windows (and paying Microsoft too) up the ass. Granted, they found it easier to ignore other platforms like BSD & Linux (or let their customers deal with them) so there's that as well.
- Speaking of laptops, one may not always get away from Intel even when going for AMD, with some Ryzen laptops (such as my 845G7) having Intel Wi‐fi (AX200 in the aforementioned 845G7).
- Xiaomi / Redmi / Poco / Blackshark, Oppo / Vivo / OnePlus / Realme, Facebook / Whatsapp / Instagram/Threads, Microsoft / Xbox / GitHub, Tiktok / Tokopedia. Though I'm sure some of us knew that (mergers, splitoffs, buyouts, stuff like that). For the anti‐Chinese (the tech corpos only), BBK/Huawei/Tencent/TikTok/Xiaomi. We'll let you figure that one out.
Just say no
Even when the consumers' voices were heard, companies can just double down and suffer no less.
There is only one true solution ‐ end money. Sound too far? That's because it is the end goal. But then it also ends the tech market, so perhaps there's that?
... For now, simple anticonsumption works.
Back to top
Index ‐ Rants/ramblings
Main Page