When the free market starts hurting people shouldn't it be limited or regulated for the greater good?
Sure, there are cases where it makes sense. Some people might point at monopolies, but I would argue that monopolies are a distinct example of a free market ailing, so regulations might be put into place to restore its health. I understand that I'm expressing something of a ideology here, that a free market is always the best system provided it is allowed to be healthy and flourish. Not everyone agrees with that ideology, but I honestly don't see how this particular situation of multiple charging ports is improved in more than a trivial way at the expense of a free market. I mean, I have thought hard about it, and read the first few pages of this thread to understand the viewpoints of others, but I honesty can't think of a significant
real world advantage to the regulation.
In any case, I think it's nearly universally true that all laws are intended for the greater good, possibly at the expense of a few. But it's never black and white. The advantages need to be weighed against the disadvantages. The number of people that benefit
and the degree to which they benefit needs to be compared to the cost, whether to a few or to many. If a regulation makes things slightly more
convenient for some, but adds real
financial cost to almost everyone, then it doesn't seem like a good tradeoff. As I've already explained, the benefit of convenience to me is nearly zero as I will continue to own and use older equipment with micro B connectors. I suspect that the same is true for most people even if they haven't realized it. As for the talk about proprietary connectors, I simply don't see them anywhere on rechargeable products. None. If they exist on new products, someone please make me aware of them.
I relayed the regulation to a friend that hadn't heard about it. Their immediate response was that they think it's a good idea. They then proceeded to list all the reasons they prefer USB C over micro-B. But when asked if they thought a law should be passed requiring it on every product with a charging port, they admitted that a law doesn't make sense. Plenty of the rechargeable devices they already own have micro-B connectors, so they would need to have micro-B cables for some time to come. Everything rechargeable they ever owned with a proprietary connector has been replaced by now. It's simply a question of USB micro-B, USB C, or whatever other standard naturally emerges along with growing technology.