We seem to be getting to a stage in neo-capitalism where the making and selling of *products* is no longer the primary aim of companies; rather, the products are a flimsy excuse (and therefore need have no quality at all) for getting access to the purchaser's data.

The purchaser thus exchanges money to obtain a thing of no value, while the seller receives both money AND data that he can in turn sell on to buyers unknown.

That data can in turn be used to exploit and manipulate the purchaser.
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We talk about political gerrymandering; this is economic gerrymandering, in which corporations build tools to gain for themselves captive customers who have no will of their own or access to reliable information and who can never exploit the markets for their own advantage but can only be exploited.
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