How "voting with your wallet" doesn't work in tech
Last updated : 21/8/2026 (random updates)
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 that I don't think I will cover.
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 (but only remember it under certain situations, like certain idle talks and/or seeing you under the right conditions)?
- 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!!.) We're going for overdramatized here, hence EVERYONE!!.
- EVERYONE!! (not just whoever administrated the system) has a way to see the votes, but not who voted them. In real time, both while the voting period is on and off. Assuming EVERYONE!! somehow got notified it's voting time too I guess...
- Assuming a democratic system, a question was asked with the answers left for the customers to vote on. Preferably in clear language without any hidden meaning, but I digress.
- Nobody modified the "democratic" process to favor one over another. Yes, these all are assumptions that the democratic system did work properly. ...about that.
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 through whoever made your device.
- Laptops from most big vendors (ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI). Can't buy them (brand‐new) 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 (like 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 those against the Chinese tech corpos (and the government up their arses), BBK/Huawei/Mihoyo/Tencent/TikTok/Xiaomi (and maybe more that I will inevitably miss). We'll let you figure that one out.
- Wrongthink wrote something kind of close to this point. (Direct link / archive.org).
Just say no
Even when the consumers' voices were heard, companies can just double down and suffer no less.
- Google finalizes 2027 (September 2026 for select regions) for their globalized plans on the developer verification program, against the linked opposition. I might've wrote a "Google is Goolag" here, but Dedoimedo (archive.org) beat me to the punch with a more reasonable (and far too long) rant.
- Sony doubled down on killing physical disks as they heard the consumers boycotting them (and I heard the SKG is mobilizing to have Sony sued). I would've linked their response, but that page is cuckflared and demanded Flash Player, so STFW for that one (or read the reactions written by the tech journalists).
- Anyone counting the innumerable fines against the tech corpos? Or the petitions begging the corpos to not do? I lost count of how irrelevant they were. In fact, who even benefitted from the fines?
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.
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