Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

- Brazilian Supreme Federal Court annulled all the cases brought against Lula because the judge overseeing those cases (Moro) was found to be biased and have violated due process [1][2][3]. Leaked conversations from Telegram revealed that the judge and the prosecution were actually working together and conspired with the explicit goal to put Lula in jail.

- UN human rights commission also concluded that due process was violated [4].

- Lula was found guilty and arrested before the 2018 election. He was either leading the polls or a close 2nd. Judge Moro responsible for the sentence that blocked him from running and removed the main adversary for Bolsonaro was later offered the position of Minister of Justice for the Bolsonaro administration, which he accepted.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luiz_In%C3%A1cio_Lula_da_Silva... [2] https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-supreme-court-... [3] https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210625-brazil-judge-... [4] https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/04/brazil-crimi...

Sure it's a niche but not a small one. Just like cryptocurrency mining, it certainly drives shortages and high prices. My point is that only such specific applications require brand new hardware: for other usecases the second-hand market (which is dominant in the Global South due to tons of containers shipped full of 2nd-hand equipment leaving Global North shores) is more than enough. So in that sense it makes sense to tax the new hardware.

Even without considering the actual applications, taxing new products is a good incentive to keep existing hardware running, which is much better for the environment (most pollution and energy used in the lifecycle of IT is in production).

> By the way, no one is forced to buy tech enabled products

That's definitely not true. Most people who want a car/truck/tractor want a reliable mechanical device, not a random piece of electronic junk with literally hundreds of microcontrollers who can all fail in mysterious ways and are hard to repair (if possible at all). The movement for the right to repair, which is strong amongst agriculture workers, would explain it better than me.

Also, there's plenty of situations where people are forced into owning IT devices. In raising livestock at least here in France, there's mandatory regulations for chipping all animals and equipping your farm with high-tech. Many public services will not talk to you anymore unless you have an email and cell phone to give them. There's probably plenty of other examples from specific fields: i recall friends working in libraries and hospitals mentioning how their IT tools (imposed on them) are driving them crazy and degrading their quality of work.

> And tech products are very low on the list of environmental issues in the world.

That's definitely not true. Please take a look at the stats before making such a claim. If only by CO2 emissions, IT is a great contributor. If you add industrial pollution, IT is one of the worst industries you can think of due to requiring complex multinational supply chains for mining, refining, assembling hundreds of different materials, and failing to recycle billions of devices.

> Not sure why an extreme tech pessimist is on HN anyways :)

Oh i'm not a pessimist. I just think we should not obscure the dark side in what we do. I hope IT can become a field of human emancipation again (helping people accomplish tasks, instead of controlling them) and we can build 100%-recyclable computers as a priority (instead of aiming for more DPI or more GHz). I'm just really sad about the current state of our trade and how computing is used to both destroy the planet and ruin many people's lives :)

As I know, the tax-free allowance is about $50 and it works only when a parcel is handled by Correios (the national post), for other logistical companies (like FedEx) you will pay taxes and customs fees (practically once it cost me +100% to the raw price from Amazon US for a parcel below $50).

[I thought a little later] Maybe you mean for orders from international e-commerce stores? Because paying for taxes and customs fees for goods which you bring by your hands in your luggage during traveling by flight sounds really strange. Of course, I mean the realistic amount, not gray import like bringing dozens of iPhones in bags... For example, as I know, in Russia it was about the equivalent of $10000 in cash.