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Comment by firefoxman1 | Hacker News Reader

What strikes me as more odd is how backward some of our laws are. Looking at the comments on that page I was amazed to read this one:

> "lol.. In Australia it's illegal to sell them locked (if they're factory locked then consumers only have to ask the carriers and they will unlock it on the spot free of charge)"

And this one...

> "...where I live they finally allowed us to unlock ours cellphones [...] it was fun seeing thousands of people trying to finally leave their company they hated to much (some cellphones carriers here are horrible). It has such a happy day lol. Now carriers have to try harder to get people to chose their company, because they can leave at any time, yaay! It's definitely a better system."

Ironic how Capitalism seems to function much better in other countries, even though the U.S. made Capitalism what it is today.

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>> "Ironic how Capitalism seems to function much better in other countries, even though the U.S. made Capitalism what it is today."

Plus 1000. In waaay to many cases, the government merely helps corporations deliver less value while extorting more money out of us for that lower value.

Consider cable monopolies, internet service monopolies, and many other examples.

In Capitalism, a business's proceeds should be based on its ability to deliver more value than other competitors ... not on its ability to get the government to help it strong-arm money out of people's pockets.

That's because too many in the US believe that free markets are defined by the lack of regulation rather than by the quality of regulation.

This is a regulation, though. A regulation on consumers. Anything that restricts freedom and choice is a regulation.

"Anything that restricts freedom and choice is a regulation"

A meaningless statement. Industry collusion (legal under free marketeerism), for example, is not a regulation.

But not a quality regulation.

What's ironic is the companies and individuals that hide behind the excuse of capitalism for most of their ethically questionable activities are the same people who actively lobby to destroy free markets thus further leveraging their control over consumers.

Sometimes I wonder if Americans really live in a democratic and capitalist society, because sometimes it feels more like a dictatorship ran by the "megacorps" who crush any competition they can through excessive lobbying and abusing the various intellectual property mechanisms.

What's even more ironic is the "evil" communist nation of China has more of a free market due to their blatant disregard of intellectual property. Anyone can make any bit of hardware they want, sell it anywhere they want and shop keepers can charge whatever price they want.

I'm not saying that China's lack of control is is a good thing necessarily, China are too far in the opposite direction in my opinion. But I just love the perverse logic that the "land of the free" and the pioneers of capitalism is one of the most controlled and anti-consumer markets in the world.

The world is truly topsy-turvy.

The Australia remark is utter bullshit. From Wikipedia:

> In Australia, carriers can choose whether to SIM/Network Lock handsets or not and usually tend to only SIM/Network lock prepaid handsets. There does not appear to be any regulation or law on SIM locking in Australia.

Most phones can be unlocked for free by the carrier after a few years, but if you want it unlocked upfront (usually before passing n years or sometimes $k of credit in the case of prepaid phones), you'll have to pay the carrier.

Actually, you're incorrect, at least Optus[0]. All android handsets on contract are unlocked out of the box, and all iPhones are unlocked free of charge any time in the contract.

[0] I used to work for them up until this year

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