The Consumer Is King
Companies exist as amoral entities - they get to be represented as people (Thanks to the Supreme Court), but they act as something other than human - They follow a legally and economically efficient path that largely ignores human moral behavior. This benefits them in many ways - One, it allows them to do things collectively that individual humans might have trouble doing morally (Siphoning pensions to pay CEO’s during bankruptcy, for example). Two, it allows them to hide behind a ‘what is legal is necessary’ argument, basically stating that it’s ‘just business’ and ‘nothing personal’.
At the same time this is happening, companies are running propaganda campaigns desperately trying to convince consumers that things like piracy are morally reprehensible, that it degrades the foundation of intellectual property, and that behavior like torrenting, or account sharing, or ad-blocking are counter to consumers best interests. In fact, they go a step further: They threaten that if you continue to use these methods, they will have no choice but to raise prices and increase restrictions.
I call bullshit. I say it’s not only okay to try and undercut businesses with these methods, but that it’s our duty as consumers to try and force businesses hands into increasing their quality and quantity of content while also lowering prices and easing restrictions. They tell us that piracy will only increase prices, but the reality is that piracy happens because of increased prices and restrictions, not the other way around.
Corporations will have you think that they are the arbiters of content, that they are the deciders. This is false. Consumers dictate and decide everything in a world of consumption. Companies are there to serve consumers and provide the best possible product at the lowest possible price, and to thank us while doing so.
Some companies have found a way around this ‘lowest price/highest quality’ system. They either artificially inflate the value of their product through propaganda and social engineering (see Apple, Gucci, etc) or they regulate their value by abusing the public trust, by forcing regulations that protect their existence at the expense of innovation (Exxon, Car dealerships, etc). Don’t trust companies that do this. A company that tries to sell you something other than their product, i.e. a feeling, or a status, or an idea, is a company that is lying to you. They are attempting to add value to a product that, without them having spent money trying to create this false value, would have been sold to you for a lower price.
As a rule of thumb, you shouldn’t ‘trust’ any company - Due to the way regulations and laws have been written, many of them can and will take advantage of consumers as much as they can. However, there are companies out there that try to provide the best product at the lowest price. These companies are sometimes seen as ‘low-end’, but I like to think of them as ‘high value’. Companies like Casio, Elmer’s Glue, Nintendo, Amazon, Costco, or Ikea are examples of ‘high value’ companies. These companies have been shown to produce consistent, high quality content and products for years, and focus more on their value to consumers or as a brand than they do on their profit motive*.
In conclusion: Companies do not get to dictate value - consumers do. Consumers are the driver of both value and innovation in the economy, not companies. Companies merely exist to see and fill needs - but some will try to convince you to buy something you don’t need at an unreasonable price and for bad reasons. Do not reward companies that do this. Instead, ignore company-produced propaganda and aim to purchase everything at the highest quality for the lowest price, and utilize tools to undercut companies further, with methods like piracy, account sharing, and ad-blocking. These tools increase the value of a product for a consumer, and ultimately challenge companies to find innovative ways of lowering prices and increasing quality in order to compete. It is the responsibility of the company, not the consumer, to create a foolproof way of producing, distributing and protecting a product en masse.