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Comment by Dlemlo | Hacker News Reader

$800 for a watch.

Man we lost it as a society.

Others are not able to eat, die because of insulin prices, struggle every day and we sit here on HN and people are thinking about buying the next gadget.

A watch for $800...

View on HN

Sorry to inform you about Patek Phillipe:

https://www.watches-of-switzerland.co.uk/Patek-Philippe-24-H...

Yes, you're correct, billionaires should not exist, and we should keep raising taxes until that is true. The "real" max wealth number is probably a bit lower, but 10 digits of wealth is a good starting point.

“Wealth” isn’t just shiny things you buy, beyond a certain point it’s mostly the amount of the economy you control.

I’m curious how you propose that business ownership should work?

This is not a consumer product but a homage to craftmanship and clearly a luxury product.

Apple is a mass produced product under shitty work conditions.

I understand the sentiment, but you can spend a lot more than that on a watch if you want to, and for a watch that does a lot less. Few people do though, and a lot of people will probably buy the Apple.

Glancing at Richard Mille watches and thinking... $800, peanuts.

If my grandmother had wheels she'd be a bike

How can you possibly make that comparison

Maybe she's on a wheelchair. One is a watch and another one is a watch. Both show time. How could I not.

> die because of insulin prices

Where does that happen? Even without insurance in America insulin is like 25 bucks a month.

Minnesota in 2017, when you search for Alec Smith.

A tragic case, and maybe things were different back then. Now, Lilly caps their insulin out-of-pocket costs at $35/month, insurance or not. Walmart has cheap no-insurance insulin, too, I'm not sure if that was true in 2017 though. Alec was trying to ration a much more expensive insulin variant, which definitely sucks, and laws were changed in response to his story.

Josh Wilkerson

And it wasn't just a case.

And i'm not allowed to reference this?

I mean i can reference a lot of other things which are still happenin in the USA or do you know want to argue that united states of america takes good care of its people?

> do you know want to argue that united states of america takes good care of its people

I'm not downvoting you, but perhaps the people who are are taking issue with cherrypicking examples, which are well known for a reason -- they are uncommon. Using these to generalize America is not really a great argument.

I could point to David Clapson in the UK as an indictment of their universal health care, and it wouldn't be any better an argument.

Walmart has had cheap insulin for decades, and update their formula periodically as patents expire. Not many know about it, though. I've used it when traveling and it works even though it's not as effective as the current prescription insulin.

How much of your networth have you donated to the starving people? Nature is pretty metal and doesn't care about justice. I thought we all learned this in school.

This is not an apple fan club. Someone likes it and comments, i use it to bring up a comment like this.

Just don't deflect.

Btw. i'm from a country with a social system soooo

You do realize people have been paying tens of thousands for watches for decades, right (and for hand bags, sunglasses, necklaces, rings, etc)?

$800 is not particularly egregious.

And?

Is this an apple fanboy club and critisism is not allowed or you don't think this critisim is valid because of your strawman argument?

you are allowed to criticize apple as much as you like. The response was on your 'really? 800 for a watch' remark.

watches that go for 100k or more are not uncommon

Yes but these watches are hand made from clock makers and a homage to real craftmanship done mostly by human hands, well paid, well educated.

And these companies are old, they were leading in chainging the world.

Apple let them build in china from students and others for very little money with very high margin.

Rolex for example is a foundation.

> Rolex for example is a foundation

This is not true. rolex is a for-profit organization. The owner is a foundation, but they did not make rolex a non-profit.

Insulin shouldn’t be expensive. What’s that got to do with high-end smartwatch pricing?

It's more a comment about what we value as a society. An Apple watch is an utterly optional accessory that nobody needs. And yet there's a bubble of rather wealthy people who will buy them without really giving it a second thought, and another large group of people who really can't afford one but will buy it anyway.

And? People buy what they want to buy. Apple builds what people want to buy. Been like this forever.

And? Why do you even the comment on a social critisism comment? Just ignore it, feel happy when you buy yourself the next stupid thing while you feel offended seeing your fellow citicen.

Why does it even trigger you then?

It doesn't trigger me, I'm trying to understand why it triggers the other guy. Now, pass the baton.

There's also a bubble of wealthy people who spend their time commenting on HN articles, complaining about .... other wealthy people.

For what purpose? Virtue signaling?

Man that’s so deep - some people are purchasing things while other people cannot purchase said things.

Society is so screwed :/

The social critisism is, that people in the united states of america (were apple is home), let people die while also buying unironically $800 watches as a mass consumer product.

Insulin isn't expensive. Walmart sells 100 doses for $77

You do understand that this was headlines for years? Did you complelty ignore that?

It only got 'fixed' 2023 and insulin still costs $30-50 per month for something you need to live.

And you do realize that the press was talking about an entirely different insulin? A long lasting injection which isn’t 100 year old formula. The price of insulin has been the same the entire time

But the old insulin is a lot harder to manage and we know why the 'normal' insulin became so expensive. Greed

I'm referencing us american people who were unable to afford insulin due to us americans shitty healtcaresystem.

Search for Alec Smith in Minnesota.

Its social critic, you did not get that? A country which let their own people die but also make such a product.

I mean how often do you buy a watch? Compare with how much do you spend on groceries every month...

We can have real arguments, but lets be clear, comparing a $800 dollar watch you use for lisening to music and paying is not the thing to compare to something you actually need to live.

worse when you pay 100k+ for a watch you can only use to ... read the time (the patek watches that were mentioned earlier for example)

There is the non ultra series and SE series.

What are you talking about?

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