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Capitalism. The competition-driven economy. In human nature, only the strongest will survive. Apple is currently one of the strong ones. Being a very successful company, they have to let certain "things" slide if they want to remain that way.
Yesterday, my itouch finally broke. It had worked fine the night before. In the morning, w hen I attempted to plug it into my car to play music, the touch screen didn't work. I took it to the apple store and scheduled an "appointment" because the store was overcrowded due to holiday shopping. I was late by 10 minutes because I didn't realize how crowded malls were during christmas shopping. It usually takes 3-5 minutes to get there because its so close to my house, but it took nearly 10 minutes to find a parking space. I ended up parking at the opposite end of the mall and as a result, I missed the appointment.
But it was early in the day and I was determined to get my touch fixed. I returned, promptly on time, but this time they were the ones who were late and kept me waiting 15 minutes. While I was waiting, something struck me, but more on that later.
When i was finally able to talk to someone, it took 2 minutes for him to tell me 3 things.
1) my touch is broken beyond repair
2) I can get a new one of the identical model for 200$ (it is a Itouch 3G 64GB)
3) I can recycle my touch and get 10% off on a newer different model.
When he was done, I was sort of pissed. There was nothing wrong with my touch. I could turn on the lock screen and change the volume. Hell, even music plays on it. All i have to do is use the remote control on the ipod earbuds to press play and the playlist that I was listening to plays. I just hope it's on repeat so I can listen to it haha
Anyways, it still works, no one can do anything about it. Life goes on. I wish companies like Apple wouldn't have to just have a 1 year warrenty because things tend to break after 1 year as they get older. Also the fact that they make their ipods and other gear impenetrable just bothers me. Although their shit is great, its sort of an all or nothing deal. You have to use itunes, you have to stay in the world of Apple that i don't like, to be chained to just one thing no matter how good it is.
On a side note, I now rock the ![[image loading]](http://blog.definitive.com/wp-content/uploads/BWheadphones_2057.jpg)
C5 Headphones. They are pretty high class and I love them. Range of sound is very diverse, the bass is tight and the treble is crystal clear which helps cheer me up.
  
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I really do feel for your problem, but it doesn't do with capitalism. It has to do with a combination of tons of people going shopping for Christmastime, a defect in an aged electronic device, and slow customer service because they're possibly dealing with 100s of people at the same time. If by capitalism you meant Christmas shopping sucks, yes, it does, especially if you don't like infinitely large crowds.
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On December 19 2011 14:13 JudicatorHammurabi wrote:
I really do feel for your problem, but it doesn't do with capitalism. It has to do with a combination of tons of people going shopping for Christmastime, a defect in an aged electronic device, and slow customer service because they're possibly dealing with 100s of people at the same time. If by capitalism you meant Christmas shopping sucks, yes, it does, especially if you don't like infinitely large crowds.
haha indirectly yes thats what i meant
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Capitalism isn't broken. You decided to buy an Apple product. You are the consumer. A capitalistic economy is driven by consumer choice due to the fact that the economy is based on supply and demand. You no buy product, you no contribute to a terrible company.
You failed yourself for buying a product that you described yourself as a piece of shit that is incompatible with your desires and requires you to use shit that is garbage. Inform yourself before a purchase and this can hopefully be avoided in the future.
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On December 19 2011 14:17 stevarius wrote:
Capitalism isn't broken. You decided to buy an Apple product. You are the consumer. A capitalistic economy is driven by consumer choice due to the fact that the economy is based on supply and demand. You no buy product, you no contribute to a terrible company.
You failed yourself for buying a product that you described yourself as a piece of shit that is incompatible with your desires and requires you to use shit that is garbage. Inform yourself before a purchase and this can hopefully be avoided in the future.
it was a christmas gift. I couldn't avoid recieving it, but now I am going to get a Creative Xen-F Xi model (i think thats what its called).
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Just keep it and in 50 or so years it will be priceless, not to mention all the memories you had with it.
also, yes, capitalism sucks. I hate how these "customer support" are simply there to make you think that they are actually caring for the customers but are actually there to make you buy buy buy spend spend spend! No customer support will ever tell you to tweak something or what. They all tell you to buy a replacement.
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Oh dear, this blog is going to invite very amusing replies with the title it has.
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Yeah I can sympathize. My 3gs died today. It refuses to recognize the sim card anymore. It's out of warranty so they can't really do anything about it (I went to ask when it first started to happen.), and I'm kinda ticked since even though it's an "aged electronic device," I'd expect it to work for longer than 2 years.
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On December 19 2011 14:17 stevarius wrote:
Capitalism isn't broken. You decided to buy an Apple product. You are the consumer. A capitalistic economy is driven by consumer choice due to the fact that the economy is based on supply and demand. You no buy product, you no contribute to a terrible company.
You failed yourself for buying a product that you described yourself as a piece of shit that is incompatible with your desires and requires you to use shit that is garbage. Inform yourself before a purchase and this can hopefully be avoided in the future.
that's the reason capitalism sucks, people fail themselves all the time.
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Planned obsolescence does suck, it is wasteful of resources and screws consumers. However, it is a stretch to say capitalism sucks. Without capitalism, there (most likely) wouldn't even be Apple in the first place. Incentives propel our world into better (materialistically speaking) tomorrows, and while sometimes actions can be distorted by the profit incentive, the system is one of the better answers to the impossible problem of distribution scarce resources for unlimited wants.
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On December 19 2011 15:01 Mobius_1 wrote:
Without capitalism, there (most likely) wouldn't even be Apple in the first place.
If you never had any other reason to dislike capitalism, here's one. 
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My amazon conversation earlier today:
- I'm sorry to inform you but the item has already shipped and cannot be cancelled.
- You better be joking because I ordered that 5 minutes ago.
- I'm sorry but the item...
- Give me your full name and rep #
- Hold on one second please, I am trying to resolve this.
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Apple produces overpriced, outdated technology for people that enjoy style over substance. There's a reason mechanics don't drive Chryslers and IT people don't own Apple products.
With Capitalism, you have the choice to either give your business to them because you like their products and policies or you have the choice to patronize another business because you do not like their products or policies. If we didn't have capitalism, you would HAVE to purchase products from crapple because there wouldn't be any other choice.
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There are third party companies that allow you to insure/warranty Apple items against stuff like this, including theft which is great if you have an iPhone because Apple doesn't cover that in their current package T_T Anyway, that's a lame situation, but those are some pretty awesome looking earphones :D
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"The warranty system for Apple products sucks"
Your title is a bit dumb, also I'm sure you could have insured your ipod (Apple Care).
Even if this was serious and had a genuine argument against capitalism, it would still be anecdotal anyway.
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Because you had problems with your iTouch capitalism sucks? You wouldn't have it without capitalism.
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On December 19 2011 14:29 Talin wrote:
Oh dear, this blog is going to invite very amusing replies with the title it has.
Yeah first I saw the title and was like 'CHAARRRRGE' then I was like 'wait a minute...' then I read some of the replies and I was like 'RAWWWWRGH people are so dumb!' then I was like 'wait another minute...' and then finally I was like 'meh, I'll just quote Talin, he's a good level-headed chap that the usual suspects in the usual threads will recognize'
but yes, capitalism is broken, but I won't be elaborating past that.
and imo, if you're sold on earbuds get some low end sony IEMs (MDR-EX500 or 510 are good, and will be under 100$) for a good blend of sound quality, cost and the like.
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If companies had to extend there warranties then they would charge a higher price for the IPODS. This artificial increase in price would either result in a smaller quantity of IPODS sold or a price that is proportionally higher per day the IPOD lives and therefore would harm consumers. The only exception to this case would be if the firm was colluding with another firm, such as Microsoft. But due to free entry and exit into the IPOD and technology industries, this collusion (Which is already illegal by the way) is only short term since when the firms collude to earn extra profit, there is incentive for new firms to enter the industry. As the number of firms in the industry increases the quantity of IPODS supplied increases and Price falls. The only exception would be if the new firms also colluded, however collusion is easily detected and due to the prisoner's dilemma this colluding doesn't last very long. Therefore, the free market economy gets you your IPOD for the lowest possible price per day you own it (On average) and over time will take care of all the exceptions to this truth.
Thank god for capitalism.
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On December 19 2011 14:19 Br3ezy wrote:Show nested quote +On December 19 2011 14:17 stevarius wrote:
Capitalism isn't broken. You decided to buy an Apple product. You are the consumer. A capitalistic economy is driven by consumer choice due to the fact that the economy is based on supply and demand. You no buy product, you no contribute to a terrible company.
You failed yourself for buying a product that you described yourself as a piece of shit that is incompatible with your desires and requires you to use shit that is garbage. Inform yourself before a purchase and this can hopefully be avoided in the future. it was a christmas gift. I couldn't avoid recieving it, but now I am going to get a Creative Xen-F Xi model (i think thats what its called).
I wasn't going to post at all, but after reading this I feel obligated to tell you to stick with apple products. My first MP3 was a creative Zen Micro, and it was ok at best. What I remember most is that the sound quality is very good, but the actual hardware is shit and their warranties are shit. I also bought the Microsoft MP3 (Zune?) and I loved the device, but the software is terrible beyond belief. I remember having to install updates, but the software wouldn't actually allow me to do so. When I tried to uninstall the software, I discovered that it is actually impossible, without manually deleting all associated files from your registry, and there are literally hundreds.
There is a reason why Apple products are industry leaders, and it is not just because of fancy logos, exceptional branding, and unbelievably good advertising. It's also because they are, quite simply, the best products on the market (although I will never buy a computer from Apple, but that is a debate not meant for this thread ^^).
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Your blog entry was a nice read, but it fails to explain why Capitalism sucks which was what you entitled your post so you have a serious contradiction on your hands.
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EPT
