In hindsight, I am actually starting to feel that the Microsoft move was the right one exactly so that Nokia could make their handsets a takeover target. Devices were quickly becoming commoditized; Nokia had not managed to create a content ecosystem; and as yet another Android manufacturer they could not have brought much more to the table than companies like Samsung.

Of course WP hasn't taken off, but that Nokia managed to offload its handset business to MS in time was genuinely a positive thing for for company. Most importantly the patents were kept in the company, and the networks business seems to actually have more future growth potential for a strong engineering company than rectangles any Chinese firm can churn out at massive quantities.

I'm a happy shareholder since 2012.

Incidentally, I just today read an article about some Finnish developers with experience developing big game titles in Silicon Valley. They had been thinking about where to set up their own business, and they chose to return to Finland. The reason to this is that despite pay being much higher in the US, the cost of living can also be high and things like daycare and education for kids are both superior and cost-effective here, despite them being paid through taxes. They even argued that the infrastructure we get through taxation should be a draw for knowledge-workers, especially if they're planning on a family.

I don't know about the American style of government, but the government-waste meme is not a natural law. Then again I fail to see how you could ever get to the point where we are in things like public education, as that would require individual steps to be taken that would be resisted as "Socialist".

The things he mentions have nothing to do with low-level languages in particular...

Wow. I'm glad a lot of people actually take accessibility as a practical problem that can be solved and got out of the way so that we can then move on to other things, instead of being concerned for me being their fount of charitable feelings towards the less fortunate...

This seems to be the exact problem with the ADA indeed. It feeds into this rhetoric of the disabled people being personally guilty of moral wrongs when the goal of the legislation is to enable them to function better in the world. If someone disagrees with the goal, then they do and I'm not sure they should try to sugar-coat it with the idea that they'd be in the chain to carry disabled people around when they go about their daily affairs.

Social policies such as these generally work like that; they move people away from the individual charity-games that they would have to constantly rely on otherwise and give them an assurance that they can, at their own choice, do certain things. The majority of people simply choose that they'd rather just deal with this effectively like that. You may disagree but the difference to Victorian England is quite remarkable, let me assure you. It's a valid choice to just enable people to go about their business instead of having to be bothered by the immediate carrying-around...

At what point would I then become an "asshole" for always feeling "entitled" to being carried around personally to places, say, to my customer meeting a couple of days ago that took place a couple of floors up? Sounds like something I hear about from my friends who are knowledgeable about these issues as they stand in Africa...

The whole point of policies such as these is to, believe it or not, allow for independent functioning. It appears that there is widespread support in society to choose that it happens like this instead of people carrying me around in a set of small morality plays that take place all the time. Your solution is not realistic and frankly I suspect you'd be fine with the end result being me actually not being able to function in society.

Your suggestion about government paying for the modifications is actually somewhat like what happens over here, although of course there are guidelines for new construction. It is interesting to note that you may at least be amenable to the idea that costs like these need to be "socialized" beyond competitive pressures, which would otherwise give a strong incentive for individual actors to do nothing.

... and if there is no access, there certainly is no disabled traffic to begin with. Win-win. So your argument now moves on to the idea that the customer base, serving which with access should just work, does not exist so there is no reason to serve them with access?

Carrying wheelchairs or people up stairs is incredibly dangerous. Ramps which have ridiculously steep grades are similarly dangerous when, say, a power wheelchair loses traction and/or tips over.

The idea of "necessary" is a bit of a slippery slope, although I admit it can go both ways. You have your idea of it, someone else might find that me living at home and having someone bring my groceries is what is sufficient. For me it is quite necessary that there is an accessible toilet at my office. Being a consultant who often needs to deal with clients at their premises, general accessibility is a great thing to have.

I sometimes even need to go shopping for toys, and I do even have hobbies. Whether my purchasing power is sufficient to encourage access on a purely individual business basis, is questionable in particular if my achievement of said purchasing power would be strongly limited by lack of access in ... uh, necessities.

Interestingly, I'm quite pro-market in most things and really like seeing it when a market is created to cater to in particular special needs, but when the market fails to provide for some people's general participation in the world at large, I see no problems in democracy making decisions that mandate "mindless commerce" especially in cases where competitive pressures would discourage individual actors from stuff like providing access, which in the long term and in aggregate is beneficial in the total costs incurred sense. Environmental protection is another case in point.

It's funny how I am probably the most understanding of the "you can't fix everything at once by legislating" kind of thinking of all the disabled people I know, but the sentiments expressed here that it's perfectly OK for me to ask for people to carry me around is what make me want to take a hard turn to the left...

Interestingly, you failed to get the point there is about parents providing room and board for eternity, though. Access is important for independent living, lest you be stored in institutions or live with your parents.

Do tell, what would you consider "neccesities" for me?

We already get to do it enough as it is, no need for you to be concerned for that. Getting to do things on your own without it turning to a constant exercise in dependence of random strangers is worth quite a bit. For one, you can't plan on anything on that basis.