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Comment by Barrin92 | Hacker News Reader

if you've ever worked low income side jobs the amount of people you see with the newest airpods and iphone while living paycheck to paycheck is high. Of all the forms of conspicuous consumption that people get accused of, this is probably the most real one, with the exception of Jordans maybe

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I'm confused by why the people you're talking about cannot afford food? They're gainfully employed, even if at a low wage.

And it makes sense, because an iPhone is a fairly inexpensive luxury good. Certainly, it's cheaper than a comparably high end purse, car or house. And, in the US, it's heavily subsidized by carriers.

Gainfully employed is probably not the type of employment you mean. Smart phones and stuff typically come with a payment plan so they’re rarely bought with a lump sum

Are they really subsidized by carriers?

Yes you pay less upfront, but in exchange for paying more on your monthly phone bill. Less of a subsidy and more of a payment plan.

Yes, they are. In the US, at least. There's also the carrier financed phone you're talking about, but I've had good luck when switching carriers.

The free phones aren't going to be the latest generation, but they often have partial subsidization when you switch, like maybe half the cost.

Credit cards mean a lot of people can run negative budgets for quite a while before they can't eat. And a lot of people have inconsistent income. Afford an iPhone one month, can't afford groceries the next.

Not too mention you can breakdown the payments over years so the real cost is never felt.

Which is precisely why most of them will stay poor forever: making terrible decisions over and over.

Wow can’t downvote this on mobile but this comment is pretty rude. The usage of “them” is incredibly othering and there are so many systemic issues contributing to the poor remaining poor. For crying out loud a quick web search for “percentage of Americans living paycheck to paycheck” puts that number around 60% right now.

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