Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret

As people get richer, they can and will afford better food, including from suppliers with better reputation.

As people get richer, they also often tend to demand stricter regulation, but that doesn't necessarily mean the regulation is the driving factor.

The Chinese market for eg baby formula might be a good example. On average, baby formula consumed in China today is less dodgy than it was in the past.

A big part of that is because everyone in China who can afford to will use imported baby formula. Places like Australia haven't really changed their regulation much, but their products made up a larger share of the Chinese market over time, just because more Chinese became rich enough.

In parallel, driven by the same public sentiment that drives the import business, Chinese authorities have enacted stricter and stricter regulation for local baby formula.

In this case, consumer preference is driving a move towards higher quality. Competition from overseas suppliers is a key factor in helping consumers vote their preferences with their wallets. Regulation plays a trailing role at best.

Of course, when you look back in a few decades and compare the quality of baby formula in 1990 vs 2050 in China you will both notice an enormous increase in quality and increasingly strict regulation.

It will be very easy to spin the story that the regulation drove the increase in quality.

P.S. For a similar example, have a look at https://www.econlib.org/find-the-date-of-osha/

You seem to assume that businesses are some kind of mythical, omnipotent entities?

In contrast, for many of my needs, I find it relatively easy to buy high quality items even where there's a vast information asymmetry, as long as I am willing to shell out for products from companies with stellar reputations.

Granted that's neither foolproof nor applicable for every product or service. It can also get really expensive really fast.

But: given your comment, it sounds like that strategy shouldn't work at all, and even companies with ostensibly great reputations should sell me only trash?

No conspiracy required.

YouTube is famous for supporting really old stuff, Netflix doesn't both quite as much.

So, I have an original iPad Air from 2013. Apple is no longer providing updates, and Netflix has long stopped working. But Youtube keeps trucking on just fine. I assume thanks to heroic and soulsucking efforts by the developers.

(I remember when I did something as trivial as working on a few web frontends once, and how I loathed supporting anything but the most recent browsers. So supporting age old devices with Youtube is probably much, much more annoying for the devs.)

I wonder if there is a market for higher end products that are truly built to last. Not so much things like cell phones (although I believe it should be mandatory that the batteries be easily replacable)... more like large appliances: refrigerators, washing machines, etc. Like, how hard would it be to separate all the little stupid useless features from the hardcore functional ones and make it so that things like control panels on washers are easy to replace when they malfunction?

I loved the original MX Anywhere too, but I found that iFixit offers a replacement Lipo for the MX Anywhere 3

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Logitech+MX+Anywhere+3+Battery+...

It looks approximately as difficult as changing the battery on a smartphone.

Knowing that the battery could be changed gave me the piece of mind to switch.

The battery management on the MXA 3 is really good - lasts a very long time and is quick to charge on USB-C. The Logi Bolt has been trouble-free. Changing to other devices via bluetooth is handy if you have multiple computers. The magnetic hyperscroll takes a little getting used to but uses a lot less force to switch modes.