In a functional economy, in an accountable society, in a culture that values clarity over manipulation, there would be no need for an organization like CPU.

You wouldn’t need a legal team to defend your access to medicine, a GPT to explain your rights, or a crowdfunded insurgency to decode your phone bill.

But here we are so let’s be perfectly candid:

You, American consumer, must recognize that your role is to select between extractive options, surrender your consent retroactively, and feel grateful for the privilege. You are to be endlessly profiled, nudged, managed, and commodified. Taxed for the luxury of continuing to exist in a cycle of manufactured demand, contrived scarcity, and — strictly legally speaking, “unplanned” — obsolescence. Ad infinitum. Ad nauseam. Ad absurdum.

For a century, we’ve been sold a set of circular myths: that infinite growth is desirable (let alone possible), that the consumer is sovereign, that due diligence is your personal responsibility, and that your personal freedom is in any way impeded by corporate regulation.

Our national buyer beware legal environment requires you to become a full-time researcher, lawyer, and economist just to buy toothpaste or understand your health insurance plan.

This is not sophistication. This is a trap.

A trap that weaponizes complexity, time, and — crucially — shame to retroactively secure your consent.

Over the years, this trap has grown claws and sprouted tentacles. It’s now baked into everything from hospital mergers to school lunches, from algorithmic pricing to forced arbitration. It’s not just that we’re being exploited. It’s that we’ve been conditioned to see it as the marginal costs of doing business.

So what are we proposing?

Refusal. Active refusal.

A refusal to keep pretending. A refusal to quietly internalize systems that have were never designed for our benefit. A refusal to outsource responsibility to regulators or overworked ombudsmen or “public comment” forms that disappear into the ether.

It’s also a commitment: to build something in the open, on purpose, and with others who feel the same.

We’re not anti-capitalists. We believe in effort and excellence. We think exceptional contributions deserve exceptional reward. But not — absolutely not — at the cost of someone else’s ability to survive.

This isn’t just compassion. It’s systems hygiene.

Some of us may think in terms of economics. Some of us in ethics. Or philosophy. Or trauma. Or code. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that none of us truly believe we were put here just to participate in someone else’s quarterly earnings call or demonstrate a media strategist’s data-driven insight.

Enter CPU.

We operate like a law firm and policy shop, but our only client and funder is the public. We’re building a specialized GPT-based tool that is trained on economic theory, a universe of case law, and the live feedback and experience of our members, to help us move smarter and faster than those who benefit from our confusion.

We’re suicidal empaths and we’re coming for every sector — entrenched and burgeoning — that exploits socioeconomic complexity and relies on consumer disorganization.

We invite you to join us.