<story><title>Laziness isn’t why people are poor. And iPhones aren’t why they lack health care</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/03/08/laziness-isnt-why-people-are-poor-and-iphones-arent-why-they-lack-health-care/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wutbrodo</author><text>I obviously think that Chaffetz&amp;#x27;s comment was roughly as idiotic as you&amp;#x27;d expect from Jason Chaffetz (the high end of Healthcare costs are so exorbitant that any common luxury purchase you can think of completely pales in comparison).&lt;p&gt;But your comment conflates &amp;quot;one of the most expensive smartphones&amp;quot; with &amp;quot;having any connection to the digital world&amp;quot;. No disagreement that connectivity is critical and that mobile devices are an efficient way to get there on a low income, but iPhones are definitely not. My mom doesn&amp;#x27;t have a working computer in her house atm, and her phone cost 200 dollars (or free with carrier subsidy).  There&amp;#x27;s pretty much no reason to get an iPhone on purely functional grounds, just as there would be no reason to get a $700 Galaxy S7.&lt;p&gt;Though I should note that ios has  moved downmarket when they started selling older models, which filled some of this gap.</text></item><item><author>VonGuard</author><text>For years, my father would say &amp;quot;that guy using the food bank has an iPhone! I don&amp;#x27;t have an iPhone, and I&amp;#x27;m not poor. How can these people afford iPhones?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a generational thing, especially. iPhones are seen as glamorous luxury items, not as an essential tool for living. I always remind my father that the people who have little money but also have iPhones likely don&amp;#x27;t have a home phone number, home computer, or Internet service in their house. Their iPhone is their only connection to the modern digital world: The one asset they have to get themselves a job, assistance, information. It&amp;#x27;s arguably one of the most important items for a person to own, today, right up there with a car. Without a good phone and a car, people in the US are basically beached on a shore of unemployment, or low employment, especially in rural towns.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s incredibly hard for people to get back on the horse when they&amp;#x27;ve fallen off, economically. Even harder if they never had a horse to begin with. At the local library, people are constantly coming in to ask for help with digital literacy problems that affect their lives heavily: paying bills, responding to emails, seeing pictures of their grandchildren that were sent to their email. Having a phone with Internet is literally an essential part of modern life, and the generation that thinks poor people shouldn&amp;#x27;t have iPhones are the same ones who generally view all this technology stuff as magical hoo hah. Like my dad...</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jacquesm</author><text>A second hand iphone would do just fine and would be cheap. &amp;#x27;Iphone&amp;#x27; does not magically translate into $700 piece of hardware, it could easily be $50 or $100 when bought second hand or even free when a gift from a family member or even a stranger. Heck I know of some iPhones that have gone through 4 pairs of hands by now. Just because the first owner moves on to a newer and shinier model whenever they come out (talk about bad decisions...).</text></comment>
<story><title>Laziness isn’t why people are poor. And iPhones aren’t why they lack health care</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/03/08/laziness-isnt-why-people-are-poor-and-iphones-arent-why-they-lack-health-care/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wutbrodo</author><text>I obviously think that Chaffetz&amp;#x27;s comment was roughly as idiotic as you&amp;#x27;d expect from Jason Chaffetz (the high end of Healthcare costs are so exorbitant that any common luxury purchase you can think of completely pales in comparison).&lt;p&gt;But your comment conflates &amp;quot;one of the most expensive smartphones&amp;quot; with &amp;quot;having any connection to the digital world&amp;quot;. No disagreement that connectivity is critical and that mobile devices are an efficient way to get there on a low income, but iPhones are definitely not. My mom doesn&amp;#x27;t have a working computer in her house atm, and her phone cost 200 dollars (or free with carrier subsidy).  There&amp;#x27;s pretty much no reason to get an iPhone on purely functional grounds, just as there would be no reason to get a $700 Galaxy S7.&lt;p&gt;Though I should note that ios has  moved downmarket when they started selling older models, which filled some of this gap.</text></item><item><author>VonGuard</author><text>For years, my father would say &amp;quot;that guy using the food bank has an iPhone! I don&amp;#x27;t have an iPhone, and I&amp;#x27;m not poor. How can these people afford iPhones?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a generational thing, especially. iPhones are seen as glamorous luxury items, not as an essential tool for living. I always remind my father that the people who have little money but also have iPhones likely don&amp;#x27;t have a home phone number, home computer, or Internet service in their house. Their iPhone is their only connection to the modern digital world: The one asset they have to get themselves a job, assistance, information. It&amp;#x27;s arguably one of the most important items for a person to own, today, right up there with a car. Without a good phone and a car, people in the US are basically beached on a shore of unemployment, or low employment, especially in rural towns.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s incredibly hard for people to get back on the horse when they&amp;#x27;ve fallen off, economically. Even harder if they never had a horse to begin with. At the local library, people are constantly coming in to ask for help with digital literacy problems that affect their lives heavily: paying bills, responding to emails, seeing pictures of their grandchildren that were sent to their email. Having a phone with Internet is literally an essential part of modern life, and the generation that thinks poor people shouldn&amp;#x27;t have iPhones are the same ones who generally view all this technology stuff as magical hoo hah. Like my dad...</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>resfirestar</author><text>People with little internet access don&amp;#x27;t have the tools to properly comparison shop, they&amp;#x27;re going to walk into an AT&amp;amp;T or Boost store and probably leave with what the salesperson is able to push on them. iPhones have always been available for around $200 with carrier subsidies, if I&amp;#x27;m not forgetting an early period when it cost more.&lt;p&gt;Then there&amp;#x27;s the issue of older people using the term &amp;quot;iPhone&amp;quot; generically. Poor people overwhelmingly have Android phones (as evidenced by the massive disparity between the perceived iPhone market share in the tech bubble and reality), but it&amp;#x27;s all the same to Republicans.</text></comment>