Poor people should not have smartphones, according to....

[chazus]

Sprint Mobile iPhone 6 16GB : US$20.84/month (source)

Your source ignores the fact that you can't just 'get that phone'. You need good credit. And a contract. That's still $75 a month >.>

[schwarzkopf]

Your source ignores the fact that you can't just 'get that phone'.

Yeah - but it also ignores the fact that you don't need an iPhone to get a smart phone
You also don't need a NEW smart phone to have a smart phone.

[Torgent]

and what did your employer pay for your healthcare?

no one is talking about employer sponsored healthcare.


look at your W2, look at box 12.
tell us what the number is in that box.



but you won't, just like that last dude didn't



all these people who think you can get healthcare cheap when you don't get it through your employer who is prob paying 85% of the total cost.

the other 40 million people i guess are screwed.

...I'm pointing out that the other guy's math was way off....chill out.

[Wyrt]

How do ignorant twats like this keep getting elected?

[chazus]

Yeah - but it also ignores the fact that you don't need an iPhone to get a smart phone
You also don't need a NEW smart phone to have a smart phone.

Well. Yeah. Certainly.

I still swear by my $5 pre-paid phones + a $15/mo ting plan.

[Lazuli]

That too, because I'm pretty sure that an US hospital could bill you 500 $ for an aspirin (this is a figure of speech)

I got billed $1200 for a muscle relaxer shot and some patches for my scoliosis in my spine so it wouldn't surprise me. I got garnished for 25% of my check every week because I unfortunately believed my friends when they said 'they can't garnish hospital bills!'.

I called them to set up a payment plan after a lady showed up at my work telling me I had to contact them - and they told me they already requested garnishment to my work a week prior. American system is fucked. What pisses me off the most is the shit they gave me literally did nothing to help just made me drowzy and unable to work.

Needless to say I'm never going to a hospital again unless I'm literally dying.

e; on the topic of smartphones, I've had this samsung I bought from walmarts straight talk plan for years, it only cost $100 and I can choose to pay from $30 to $45 a month (only difference is data) for unlimited everything. I think buying an iphone is about the dumbest shit possible. My phone does what everyone elses does, only difference is my videos and picture may not come out in 4k res or whatever the fuck they're selling you.

I don't spend every waking moment on my phone though so I really only use it for youtube videos and talk/text with the occasional drunken pics which are quite nice looking for how cheap the phone is. I won't upgrade until it stops working, and the only reason it'll be an upgrade is because newer models are now the same price this one was.

Don't gotta pay out your ass for a phone.

[Vizardlorde]

I find it stupid when someone making minimum wage buys the latest Iphone for $1000 and then complains they are broke ( my sister), however saying a regular smartphone is a luxury is ridiculous.

[Deletedaccount1]

We need a president like Jack Lalane who creates some sort of standard for dieting ad exercise. That would already cut down on the top cause of death in the US by a lot.

- - - Updated - - -

If poor people were given subsidies for gym memberships and balanced, healthy foods it would probably produce better net health results than just paying for the treatment of already serious, lifestyle caused diseases.

[Deletedaccount1]

Being a fatphobe doesn't make you an intellectual. It doesn't make you clever or cool. It just makes you an idiotic fatphobe.

That's not even touching on the disaster that is your knowledge of poor people and their habits.

I don't mind people being fat but paying for heart disease treatment (which can't be cured) is less effective than paying for ways to avoid heart disease all together.

High obesity rates aside, even Americans who aren't overweight make horrible lifestyle decisions that the rest of society often ends up paying for. I don't think I proclaimed to be an intellectual, I just threw an idea out there.

[gzeus13]

They shouldn't be given several hundred dollar smartphones but a $30-$40 smartphone can only help. Plus the government can just call dibs on their search and location data and the phone will pay for itself.

[Direpenguin]

Smart *clap emoji* phones *clap emoji* are *clap emoji* free *clap emoji* with *clap emoji* almost *clap emoji* any *clap emoji* 2 *clap emoji* year *clap emoji* contract

nothing *clap emoji* is *clap emoji* free *clap emoji*, *clap emoji* the *clap emoji* cost *clap emoji* of *clap emoji* the *clap emoji* phones *clap emoji* are *clap emoji* offset *clap emoji* by *clap emoji* the *clap emoji* contract *clap emoji* fees *clap emoji*.

*clap emoji*
*clap emoji*
*clap emoji*

[Cthulhu 2020]

I find it stupid when someone making minimum wage buys the latest Iphone for $1000 and then complains they are broke ( my sister), however saying a regular smartphone is a luxury is ridiculous.

I seriously doubt that there's any significant number of truly poor people going out and paying full retail value for a brand new model.

Phone companies have payment plans where you get these phones for a relatively small amount each month, and that's how these people have them.

[Macaquerie]

I don't mind people being fat but paying for heart disease treatment (which can't be cured) is less effective than paying for ways to avoid heart disease all together.

High obesity rates aside, even Americans who aren't overweight make horrible lifestyle decisions that the rest of society often ends up paying for. I don't think I proclaimed to be an intellectual, I just threw an idea out there.

You know, if shaming fat people into getting in shape worked, we wouldn't have an obesity problem in the first place. It might be easy to complain about fat people to make yourself feel better, but it's not really productive.

[Direpenguin]

Hi, I'm a Liberal. I debate by tagging -phobe on the end of words to describe people who think differently than I do.

I learned this from a 3-year old.

[Deletedaccount1]

You know, if shaming fat people into getting in shape worked, we wouldn't have an obesity problem in the first place. It might be easy to complain about fat people to make yourself feel better, but it's not really productive.

Where did I say shaming them worked and what does it have to do with me personally? Look at how people die in the United States, leading causes of death are illnesses brought on by bad dieting, lack of sleeping, lack of exercise, smoking , drinking, doing drugs etc.

Among the poor these are often cheap comforts that end up reducing their life expectancy. Rather than attack the incurable diseases themselves, a more effective solution might be to attack these symptoms which are actually preventable in the first place.

[Macaquerie]

Where did I say shaming them worked and what does it have to do with me personally? Look at how people die in the United States, leading causes of death are illnesses brought on by bad dieting, lack of sleeping, lack of exercise, smoking , drinking, doing drugs etc.

Among the poor these are often cheap comforts that end up reducing their life expectancy. Rather than attack the incurable diseases themselves, a more effective solution might be to attack these symptoms which are actually preventable in the first place.

How exactly would you attack these behaviors? Prohibition didn't work, the war on drugs didn't work, and all this focus on junk food and sedentary lifestyles has just led to a proliferation of fad diets and trendy exercise plans of questionable value. We have managed to reduce smoking, but only by creating so many "safe spaces" and making it so difficult and inconvenient to smoke that many people quit just because it was becoming too much of a hassle.

[Mormolyce]

I like the idea that an iPhone is going to cost you as much as US health insurance.

[Aggrophobic]

He is right, in a way.
You might need a smartphone these days but there are dirt cheap ones. You do not need a brand new iPhone every year.

Not that that one toy would cost as much as health insurance though. Still, he is right in a way.

[Deletedaccount1]

How exactly would you attack these behaviors? Prohibition didn't work, the war on drugs didn't work, and all this focus on junk food and sedentary lifestyles has just led to a proliferation of fad diets and trendy exercise plans of questionable value. We have managed to reduce smoking, but only by creating so many "safe spaces" and making it so difficult and inconvenient to smoke that many people quit just because it was becoming too much of a hassle.

The idea I originally proposed was subsidizing healthy foods and exercising, creating a positive incentive rather than a negative one.

Instead of making bad foods and drugs illegal just put a pigouvian tax on them like several countries have done with cigarettes and been quite successful.

Fad diets and exercise programs arise from people's ignorance of how dieting and exercise work. Bad diets and lifestyles are killers.

[Macaquerie]

The idea I originally proposed was subsidizing healthy foods and exercising, creating a positive incentive rather than a negative one.

Instead of making bad foods and drugs illegal just put a pigouvian tax on them like several countries have done with cigarettes and been quite successful.

Fad diets and exercise programs arise from people's ignorance of how dieting and exercise work. Bad diets and lifestyles are killers.

Any subsidies on healthy food and exercise plans would almost certainly be exploited to no end by cranks. Honestly, I think that this sort of focus is just part of this larger pipe dream that there is some easy way to reduce health care costs to the point where paying for them is not a concern, and to believe in that fantasy is simply not going to get you anywhere. Health care is inherently going to be expensive, and there is no way we can ever bring the costs down to a point where they can be ignored. The focus now needs to be on making sure everyone is covered, improving health and fitness among the population overall is more of a long term goal that we need to work on incrementally.