For the GrapheneOS Crowd: The Options in Burger Town
The Options in Burger Town
In Burger Town all citizens love hamburgers. There are two hamburger chains: McDoGood's and Burger Prince. The citizens happily enjoy these options, as they are both reliable, providing burgers at a consistent rate, and are different enough to give all citizens a sense of choice.
Not many people question why there are only two burger places, but some do. When people like this dig a little deeper, they may discover their own community of question-askers. In fact, there are quite a few of them; they just don't meet much in real life, as the town is big and not well organised.
These question-askers may eventually discover that there is a third alternative restaurant. This establishment is called Layers, and it can be found only in one location in a difficult-to-find underground parking lot. Layers burgers serves a reliable product, just like Burger Prince and McDoGood's do, but Layers has an additional twist: their burgers are healthier for the citizens than the competitors' are. Most people do not worry about eating healthy burgers, but for those who do, Layers has turned out to be an excellent third option.
There is a problem, however. Any new customer needs to fork out some additional cash for a Layers Pixel Token. This is a one-time cost, but many health-seekers who discover Layers turn back after discovering this extra cost. Additional to that, it isn't all that easy to find the underground parking lot. Not having tried the Layers burger for themselves, these interested citizens have to rely on the assurances and directions from existing Layers enjoyers, and for some, that isn't compelling enough. This does not bother the Layers crew one bit, as their motto 'If not with us, then back to them (i.e. McDoGood's and Burger Prince)' reinforces. Layers employees are in many ways right, as hygiene and reliability are good across all three burger joints.
All of this would have created a nice balance of supply and demand in the town, were it not for the fact that smaller joints have begun to appear in similarly difficult-to-find places in the disorganised town. These, like Layers, also aim to serve healthy burgers to the populace, but because they are small, experimental affairs, they cannot deliver the level of hygiene and reliability that the three others can deliver. What's more, some of the employees of the alternative shacks are either unaware or deliberately vague about the lower health value of their products, when compared to Layers, which often ends up confusing interested citizens.
McDoGood's and Burger Prince have kept relatively quiet about these experimental joints, but Layers is vocal, adamant in their 'If not with us, then back to them' motto, arguing, understandably, that it would be better to return to of one of the two dominant (but less healthy) burger providers rather than risk the experimental joints.
Their reasons are valid and well-intended. After all, the aim should be to provide reliable, hygienic, and, in Layers' case, healthy burgers, and any deviance from that standard should be treated with caution, even if these experimental burger places essentially have the same goal in mind.
Layers suffers from one blind-spot. Being so entrenched in the business of providing reliable, hygienic and healthy burgers, they have forgotten what the world looks like to people who only know McDoGood's and Burger Prince.
To those people—and especially they who cannot afford a Layers' Pixel Token—the smaller experimental restaurants offer a taste of something different to the established DoGood/Prince duopoly. Eating at these places may not be totally risk-free, but many citizens have robust immune systems and can handle the occasional lower quality meal; for most this does not dramatically impact their lives. But for many, the little restaurants are an eye-opener to the fact that there is more to burger eating than McDoGood's and Burger Prince, and by exploring these smaller, less reliable restaurants, they might one day truly understand for themselves what is so good about Layers, and why the Pixel Token is totally worth the price.
I am a citizen of Burger Town. I've tasted the duopoly and I know about some of the smaller joints and I have even paid the Pixel token and tasted for myself why Layers burgers are so good. Burger Town citizens often ask me for advice, knowing I've tasted all the options. What do I tell them?