Ejovi Nuwere

I looked into the FlexGo system in response to Ethan’s post and question about my opinion. I have two thoughts. First I don’t think “rent-to-buy” financing models are bad. Rich or poor we pay for objects based on their perceived value to us, not their actual value. When I decide to buy a $1400 laptop from Apple, what it actually cost to make is irrelevant to me as long as I feel as though I’m getting a good deal. If I decide to pay $15 a month for 2 years for a piece of furniture that actually cost $100, it’s because I feel that financing it is a better deal for me at that given time. I don’t consider furniture rentals predatory if the rental fees are within financially acceptable means for the borrower. While paying $360 for a $100 table is stupid, it’s not necessarily predatory if the person has the means to pay it. In my opinion the same applies to rent-to-buy computers. If you sell a consumer a $200 computer for $500 and the user has the means to pay the $500 overtime and feels like it’s a worthwhile investment, let it be. If the consumer thinks they are getting screwed someone else will develop a better business model.

I do have concerns with the concept of “pay-as-you-go.” When I was a child once a month we would get government food stamps that enabled us to buy food to feed ourselves. Sometime between the late 1980’s and the early 1990’s they switched from paper food coupons to an electronic card and by then I was old enough to realize our predicament. We didn’t control our lives, a computer did. If the electronic card was cut off for any reason we wouldn’t have been able to eat. Is access to information a new staple?

I can imagine feeling the same way if Microsoft or my ISP controled my data. Our data is our life and poor families are becoming increasingly dependant on technology, as my family had during the early 90’s. Using FlexGo poor families could potentially become hostage to the machine. Microsoft says:

The buyer agrees to purchase 800 hours of time on their PC at a low hourly rate - they can add time as frequently or as infrequently as they choose and take as long as they need to purchase the hours. The cost of the 800 hours covers the re-payment to the financial institution (including interest).

So the user is paying for access to their data and THAT seems predatory. “Want to read your email? PAY US!” “Want to print your resume? PAY US!” “Need access to that college application? PAY US!” Using pay-as-you-go poor people won’t control their data, a consortium of loan officers, Microsoft and ISP’s would and that doesn’t sit well with me.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 21st, 2006 at 9:41 pm and is filed under , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.