Democrats Want to Outlaw Apple From Thinking Differently
Democrats are calling on the U.S. Commerce Department to standardize charging ports on smartphones and other consumer electronics, a move inspired by a similar law passed by the EU.
Elizabeth Warren and a handful of other Democrats penned an open letter in which they claimed to be fighting a conspiracy of “planned obsolescence,” as if releasing devices with new charging ports somehow renders devices of previous generations obsolete.
They also made obviously exaggerated claims of financial burden caused from buying chargers and the inconvenience of sometimes not being able to charge up your smartphone (citing an EU study that claimed 38 percent reported this problem, without mentioning only 21 percent said it was significant.) The letter’s only coherent goal—to reduce waste—is something Apple and Samsung are already addressing by not shipping phones with charging bricks anymore. (In fact, Apple has argued the law could produce more waste, by rendering accessories obsolete.) The letter ended by urging the Commerce Department to “restore sanity” and “certainty” for consumers.