What you said doesn't check out, I'm guessing you're leaving something important out. People forget passwords all the time, which means they have a process to "reset" the password (a HUGE percentage of people have no idea what the 'password' to their account is when they call places like this in general.) You probably just didn't want to go to a physical office or go through whatever hoops they had or have to wait for them to mail a letter. However, that wouldn't have made an interesting a story, so I get it. Still an issue since I assume you wanted to turn off autopay and would expect to do it 'quickly', but, details matter.

Does it matter if it's actually conscious? When staring at another person, you have no REAL ideal if that other person is "real" other than how they act, talk and behave. However, if an high-end LLM can "mimic" those things, does it matter if that other person is real or not? their impact on you (positive or negative) would be the same either way. The higher-end LLM's are at that level currently, although speech recognition and text to speech is lagging. People are too used to the "free" ones and think all LLM's are dumb... Honestly, it only matters if you're religious and believe in a soul at that point. Otherwise, why would it matter?

No legislation is needed.
#1 STOP BUYING THINGS THAT ARE CLOUD CONNECTED. If enough people did that, it would change. But it won't, because people like expensive things.
#2 STOP TRYING TO INCREASE PRICES OF THINGS BY MANDATING VARIOUS THINGS LIKE requiring companies to open source/whatever. It /will/ add a lot of cost due to dumb decisions most companies make in design. Even if it doesn't, or to you it is "worth it", it is also a vector for many other bad things due to the decision on what/how to do things being written in the law.

Unless the company lied or changed the product after the fact (Linux on playstation 3 as an example), it is a clear case of caveat emptor.

Also, while I'm at it: STOP BUYING THINGS THAT ARE SUBSCRIPTION BASED!!!

Energy Star is /already/ being handled through private third parties for certification, the regulations only control "what" they certify - and there is an insane overhead in taxes for that small part.

Perfect example; many/most electronics sold in the US are certified through UL for safety, which is private and works just fine. And the world didn't end.

Seriously, there are a lot of things to complain about - but pick things that make sense. I'd much rather my tax money go towards useful things.

Oh, and ~20 ms to major internet sites.

Going to point this out, in relation to the part of your comment relating to the standard starlink service:
This is from a rural area but - Personal experience that starlink gets ~200mbps, and the "mini" antennas are /very/ small. No issues in /any/ weather (rain, snow, whatever.) So all of what you mentioned (about the existing service - not the new cell based ones) appears to be incorrect.

Ignore Musk. There are hundreds of full videos of it (12.5+), it's full self driving at this point, regardless of a third party verification. Saying it doesn't exist is dishonest. Saying you wouldn't trust it (yet or otherwise) is fair - but - for all of Musk's faults, being cautious for something like that shouldn't be one of them.

Meh, regardless of how people feel about Musk or anyone "controversial" in general, the way I look at it is:
Most people in life that are major figures (historical or current) have varying levels of negative character attributes or negative things they do in their lives. Name any major historical figures and you'll find that regardless of the positives they had, they all had negative things (many times extremely negative things) that they did or were associated with them as well.

The bad things don't erase the good things (and likewise), you just take the good things and don't use/ignore the "bad" things. If it's a trade-off (example, giving money to someone who will use that to do bad things), then evaluate if you're morally OK with that and proceed accordingly.

My 2c.

Not sure what you're going on about... Don't get me wrong, I personally think the cybertrucks are ugly and don't understand why someone would get them, but, they are selling faster than they can make them and are quite popular.

SpaceX has an insane track record, is making money hands over fist and Starlink is providing massive amounts of funding and is a game changer overall. I highly doubt Elon would give up control by going public.

Lots of reasons to hate on the man personally, but, don't be lazy and lie, especially about the companies themselves.

Full self driving (not autopilot!) is already there, working great and has very little issues (/far/ safer than humans). Not sure what you're going on about...

California has had recent rolling brownouts due to demand as well. Only mentioning it since regardless of the situation in Texas, California seems like it has similar issues...

I've gotten leaky propane canisters several times from the "swap a propane" major companies. No way would I swap a battery - you're relying on some random person to do their job where a complete test would be too time consuming, and it's likely their inspection won't catch a bunch of edge cases for damage/issues anyway. After the last issue, it was a big enough obvious problem that I'll never do that again. I went out and got my own tank which was cheaper after a few fills and I'm happier since.

Plus, from an environmental perspective for the battery swapping to work you have to move them from the swapping point, to the company that actually sorts/tests/etc them and back to the swapping point. Super wasteful. Plus, too many scammers/sadists in the world that will ruin it for everyone else.

Improve technology to charge faster with little damage to the battery, and make them cheap enough that they are a similar price point/lifetime as a standard car battery. Enjoy more limited (but growing) use of the technology before that point.

It costs money to keep those parts in stock/available. This will just raise prices for everyone. Many pieces of consumer electronics are 'disposable' and their price point and quality reflect that - not everyone has money to buy the $300 microwave when a $60 one is available.

Requiring to keep repair documentation and other items available may be fine, since it costs little extra money for the companies. Keeping actual replacement parts available costs money, which makes the products cost more.

The proper way to fix this is to educate consumers, so the ones that can afford it can buy products that are supported for longer. If I buy a $60 microwave I'm rolling the dice that it would be cheaper to just buy 3 of them instead of buying the more expensive model that will have parts available in a few years.

The thing that most people who are major proponents of working at home tend to forget is, if you can do your job from home, there is (for nearly all positions) no reason "on paper" that your job can't be done from another country by someone that makes a 10th of your salary.

  In the end all for-profit companies will look towards lowering costs, and since many view criticizing offshore resources skill level from a "general" perspective as prejudice, it creates an issue for most defenses against moving positions overseas if you're working entirely remotely. To think "someone" from offshore locations like India /can't/ do your job just as well as you (with the proper training by you, or others like you) is racist.

Be careful what you wish for - working remotely all the time is a double edged sword. Good luck in the unemployment line.

In nearly all cases this is caused by people living beyond their means - either because of location or other factors. There may be external factors as to "why" they choose to do this:
Family lives in an expensive area and they feel they need to stay close
change in job status and not willing to "downsize" expenses
past poor decisions (credit card debt anyone?)
unlucky events (medical, car issues, etc.)
Some type of addiction issue (alcohol, drugs, etc.)

However, in general most people tend to take the "path of least resistance", even if that path is causing quality of life issues - because change (moving, canceling the $200 cable subscription, not eating out as much) is scary and it's hard. Again, not everyone fits into this category, but, nearly all do - it's common sense.

People feel entitled to a quality of life of what they feel is "right" for them. If their decisions are only impacting themselves and their family, then it doesn't matter as much. If it impacts others (such as having to help someone with taxpayer dollars, charity, etc.), then it's up to those supporting that family (charity, government, etc.) to decide what a "fair" quality of life is.

Most people don't want others starving in the streets, but, at the same time - does that mean we should be paying for free internet and TV? That's up to society to decide what type of world we want to live in, and what is feasible.