<story><title>Review: A Counterfeit, $100 iPhone X</title><url>https://www.vice.com/en/article/qvmkdd/counterfeit-iphone-x-review-and-teardown</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gambiting</author><text>I think the part you&amp;#x27;re missing is that unlike in the western cultures, there are places where relationships with your friends and family are far more important than anything else. Like think how to someone living in the US(usually) it&amp;#x27;s inconceivable to live in one place with 3 generations of people, grandparents, parents and kids, friends nearby. But to these cultures that&amp;#x27;s where the strength lies, you help them they help you.&lt;p&gt;But in these cultures it&amp;#x27;s also incredibly important to be seen as &amp;quot;doing well for yourself&amp;quot;. You will see people from these cultures will frequently(for instance) drive a Mercedes, just because that means you&amp;#x27;ve achieved something in life. Doesn&amp;#x27;t matter the Mercedes in question is 20 years old and on bald tires, it&amp;#x27;s a Mercedes, parents and grandparents can now say they are proud of you. It increases your social standing. Likewise, if you manage to buy an iPhone, that can be seen a an achievement(even if the iPhone is fake, what matters is people think you can afford an iPhone). Then in turn, if you are seen as successful(by the virtue of having those expensive things) you get better social opportunities, for employment, education, housing....it&amp;#x27;s almost cliche, but in some places having an iPhone, a good car and a gold chain(all fake of course) can really and measurably improve your standard of life.&lt;p&gt;Like, have you never seen a movie where a person emigrates to a wealthy country, and writes&amp;#x2F;calls the family back home saying &amp;quot;oh yeah I have my own bed, a car, a TV and a mobile phone! We eat meat every night&amp;quot; and like at home , that&amp;#x27;s incredibly impressive, even though to me or you that&amp;#x27;s just normal stuff.</text></item><item><author>throwaway_pdp09</author><text>&amp;gt; this is an easy way to buy some status&lt;p&gt;This is going to sound weird but I&amp;#x27;ve never found any relevance for symbols, nor any understanding of things like &amp;#x27;status&amp;#x27;. What you say is like words from another language, or even concepts I don&amp;#x27;t have. So permit me: what does having status mean in practical terms, if any? Does the judgement of others matter if it&amp;#x27;s based on, to be blunt, ownership of trinkets?&lt;p&gt;Not trolling, genuine question.</text></item><item><author>gambiting</author><text>Or, if you are like me from a country where a genuine iPhone 12 is worth about 3 months of average salary, this is an easy way to buy some status without actually spending quarter of your annual income on one. You could fool a lot of people with one of these. Same reason why fake anything exists - to sell to people who don&amp;#x27;t have means to buy the real thing(and yes, I suppose to also scam some who think they are getting the real deal, but that must be a tiny portion of the money involved in making this).</text></item><item><author>tmikaeld</author><text>Looks like it&amp;#x27;s designed for scammers who sell it to gullible people on the street, making them feel like it&amp;#x27;s a &amp;quot;once-in-a-lifetime&amp;quot; deal.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>zerof1l</author><text>I understand that concept somewhat, however, I think that most of the people in western cultures are moving past this. The materialistic part. Most would not care about clothes or the phone you own. What matters is personality and what you believe in. For example, you have an old phone because you&amp;#x27;re conscious of the environment. Or, you buy second-hand clothes because the shop donates money to some good cause.&lt;p&gt;The issue of using fake merch to show-off your status is that others will eventually catch up. Once every second person will have a fake expensive-looking phone, for example, it will lose its meaning. The rich and successful will find other ways to differentiate themselves. And I don&amp;#x27;t believe that owning a fake phone is going to make you successful. Being successful  is a mindset.</text></comment>
<story><title>Review: A Counterfeit, $100 iPhone X</title><url>https://www.vice.com/en/article/qvmkdd/counterfeit-iphone-x-review-and-teardown</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gambiting</author><text>I think the part you&amp;#x27;re missing is that unlike in the western cultures, there are places where relationships with your friends and family are far more important than anything else. Like think how to someone living in the US(usually) it&amp;#x27;s inconceivable to live in one place with 3 generations of people, grandparents, parents and kids, friends nearby. But to these cultures that&amp;#x27;s where the strength lies, you help them they help you.&lt;p&gt;But in these cultures it&amp;#x27;s also incredibly important to be seen as &amp;quot;doing well for yourself&amp;quot;. You will see people from these cultures will frequently(for instance) drive a Mercedes, just because that means you&amp;#x27;ve achieved something in life. Doesn&amp;#x27;t matter the Mercedes in question is 20 years old and on bald tires, it&amp;#x27;s a Mercedes, parents and grandparents can now say they are proud of you. It increases your social standing. Likewise, if you manage to buy an iPhone, that can be seen a an achievement(even if the iPhone is fake, what matters is people think you can afford an iPhone). Then in turn, if you are seen as successful(by the virtue of having those expensive things) you get better social opportunities, for employment, education, housing....it&amp;#x27;s almost cliche, but in some places having an iPhone, a good car and a gold chain(all fake of course) can really and measurably improve your standard of life.&lt;p&gt;Like, have you never seen a movie where a person emigrates to a wealthy country, and writes&amp;#x2F;calls the family back home saying &amp;quot;oh yeah I have my own bed, a car, a TV and a mobile phone! We eat meat every night&amp;quot; and like at home , that&amp;#x27;s incredibly impressive, even though to me or you that&amp;#x27;s just normal stuff.</text></item><item><author>throwaway_pdp09</author><text>&amp;gt; this is an easy way to buy some status&lt;p&gt;This is going to sound weird but I&amp;#x27;ve never found any relevance for symbols, nor any understanding of things like &amp;#x27;status&amp;#x27;. What you say is like words from another language, or even concepts I don&amp;#x27;t have. So permit me: what does having status mean in practical terms, if any? Does the judgement of others matter if it&amp;#x27;s based on, to be blunt, ownership of trinkets?&lt;p&gt;Not trolling, genuine question.</text></item><item><author>gambiting</author><text>Or, if you are like me from a country where a genuine iPhone 12 is worth about 3 months of average salary, this is an easy way to buy some status without actually spending quarter of your annual income on one. You could fool a lot of people with one of these. Same reason why fake anything exists - to sell to people who don&amp;#x27;t have means to buy the real thing(and yes, I suppose to also scam some who think they are getting the real deal, but that must be a tiny portion of the money involved in making this).</text></item><item><author>tmikaeld</author><text>Looks like it&amp;#x27;s designed for scammers who sell it to gullible people on the street, making them feel like it&amp;#x27;s a &amp;quot;once-in-a-lifetime&amp;quot; deal.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kenned3</author><text>What you describe is known as &amp;#x27;give face&amp;#x27;.  I&amp;#x27;m white, but my ex is chinese and so i have spent a lot of time in those circles and what you write is pretty accurate.&lt;p&gt;I knew a girl, who had a minimum wage job, but bought her boyfriend a $300 sweater simply to show his parents she had money..  I asked about it, and she pretty much told me it came down to &amp;quot;give face&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;i think it is this: &amp;quot;面子&amp;quot; and as others have written, one of the more difficult concepts for western culture to fully understand.</text></comment>