Why can't I pass List<Customer> as a parameter to a method that accepts List<object>?

Question

The following code gives me this error:

Cannot convert from 'System.Collections.Generic.List' to 'System.Collections.Generic.List'.

How can I indicate to the compiler that Customer indeed inherits from object? Or does it just not do inheritance with generic collection objects (sending a List<string> gets the same error).

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Documents;

namespace TestControl3423
{
    public partial class Window2 : Window
    {
        public Window2()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            List<Customer> customers = Customer.GetCustomers();
            FillSmartGrid(customers);

            //List<CorporateCustomer> corporateCustomers = CorporateCustomer.GetCorporateCustomers();
            //FillSmartGrid(corporateCustomers);
        }


        public void FillSmartGrid(List<object> items)
        {
            //do reflection on items and display dynamically
        }
    }

    public class Customer
    {
        public string FirstName { get; set; }
        public string LastName { get; set; }
        public string Street { get; set; }
        public string Location { get; set; }
        public string ZipCode { get; set; }

        public static List<Customer> GetCustomers()
        {
            List<Customer> customers = new List<Customer>();
            customers.Add(new Customer { FirstName = "Jim", LastName = "Jones", ZipCode = "23434" });
            customers.Add(new Customer { FirstName = "Joe", LastName = "Adams", ZipCode = "12312" });
            customers.Add(new Customer { FirstName = "Jake", LastName = "Johnson", ZipCode = "23111" });
            customers.Add(new Customer { FirstName = "Angie", LastName = "Reckar", ZipCode = "54343" });
            customers.Add(new Customer { FirstName = "Jean", LastName = "Anderson", ZipCode = "16623" });
            return customers;
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

.NET does not have co-variance and contra-variance (yet).

That B derives from A doesn't imply that List<B> derives from List<A>. It doesn't. They are two totally different types.

.NET 4.0 will get limited co-variance and contra-variance.