Apple has become egregious.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

76. What's somewhat lost is the fundamental issue of the cost of these things.

I consider several hundred dollars for a new phone to be a shockingly large amount of money. But then, my income is below the current average for this country. Which means, that all of those who earn less than the average are totally shut out. No one seems to give a flying fuck.

But here's the essential problem: fifty percent of everyone lives below the average, or median, I'm a bit confused here as to what exactly is the number I should be using. But the point is, 50% are below the average (median, whatever). And that's a huge number. I understand that those on the bottom rungs are a lot less likely to vote, but even so.

Every time someone postulates that most people know such and thus, or are engaged is some particular aspect of social media, you should regard that statement with extreme suspicion. How can you know it's true? How much have things changed recently? And so on.

In a related issue, whenever you look at inflation calculators, or the value of money in different eras, you need to think carefully about how money was spend in different times. Now, we all expect to have cell phones, or more typically smart phones. We all have cable and internet. Some years ago, none of us had those things. So how we spent our money was very different.

When I look at the inflation calculators, I'm astonished at how rich I supposedly was. But even though my income back then was supposedly worth a whole lot more today, I know that I still was barely getting by. As are so many today, in no small part of the expectation of things like smart phones, cable TV, and the like.