Marketing safety equipment subscriptions specifically to people who can’t afford to buy that equipment outright, and then disabling it when they fail to make a payment (because you’re specifically targeting the demographic most likely to miss payments) is a great way to kill poor people, and this individual business should absolutely get the shit they get for doing it
Poor people do have options. Better options, in fact. There are mechanical airbag vests that cost about $700, and don’t use proprietary CO2 carts. If you can afford this subscription for 2 years, you can afford a better vest. Helite has no way of disabling the vests you get from them.
Hot take: if you can afford $400 plus $12 a month, you can afford to save up another $300 for a device that doesn’t use a battery and that the company can’t ever disable
