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More entertainment, maybe, but "more" overall? Would you rather live in a world with no smartphones where you afford a house/apartment, or one with smartphones

More entertainment, maybe, but "more" overall? Would you rather live in a world with no smartphones where you afford a house/apartment, or one with smartphones where you can't?

manigandham 9y ago
EDIT: Poor decisions are poor decisions and it's much easier to be productive today than ever before, if that's what you choose to be. There's no reason you can't "afford" a house, everything is relative.
- dijit 9y ago
  Not sure I follow the logic, $350 on a passable phone that lasts 5~ years and affords me the ability to save time on banking (paying bills at least) and also connecting them to unimaginable numbers of people potentially while also granting access to the worlds information. Wifi hopping and pay as you go mobile plans mean that any cost outside of the cellphone itself is miniscule. Why I think the value proposition of a smartphone is completely justified, it probably pays for itself many times over.
  - manigandham 9y ago
    I guess my comment is more confusing than intended, but a smartphone and modern living easily lets you be productive enough to afford a house. It's not difficult when half the planet lives on dollars per day.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
- liveoneggs 9y ago
  are you arguing that a person is "making poor decisions" if they are unable to parlay smartphone ownership into enough money to buy a house?
T2_t2 9y ago
> Would you rather live in a world with no smartphones where you afford a house/apartment How rich are your poor? That may seem a silly question, but are poor people really buying houses? Did they ever? You seem to be talking about middle class people - perhaps lower middle class at worst. The question is where is that threshold? At what decile is the world worse? The bottom 10%? The third bottom? Where? This is not as clear cut as house no technology/no house technology. This is an issue that affects different percentiles of the income curve differently. There are no doubt some parts of the income curve in some specific locations worse off, but I'm not sure people have a full grasp of how much better life is in general in the 1st world today versus 1960, let alone 1920 or worse, during the Great Depression.
jimbokun 9y ago
I suspect I was a lot happier before I got so addicted to my phone.

More entertainment, maybe, but "more" overall? Would you rather live in a world with no smartphones where you afford a house/apartment, or one with smartphones where you can't?

manigandham 9y ago

EDIT: Poor decisions are poor decisions and it's much easier to be productive today than ever before, if that's what you choose to be. There's no reason you can't "afford" a house, everything is relative.

dijit 9y ago
Not sure I follow the logic, $350 on a passable phone that lasts 5~ years and affords me the ability to save time on banking (paying bills at least) and also connecting them to unimaginable numbers of people potentially while also granting access to the worlds information. Wifi hopping and pay as you go mobile plans mean that any cost outside of the cellphone itself is miniscule. Why I think the value proposition of a smartphone is completely justified, it probably pays for itself many times over.
- manigandham 9y ago
  I guess my comment is more confusing than intended, but a smartphone and modern living easily lets you be productive enough to afford a house. It's not difficult when half the planet lives on dollars per day.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
liveoneggs 9y ago
are you arguing that a person is "making poor decisions" if they are unable to parlay smartphone ownership into enough money to buy a house?

T2_t2 9y ago

> Would you rather live in a world with no smartphones where you afford a house/apartment How rich are your poor? That may seem a silly question, but are poor people really buying houses? Did they ever? You seem to be talking about middle class people - perhaps lower middle class at worst. The question is where is that threshold? At what decile is the world worse? The bottom 10%? The third bottom? Where? This is not as clear cut as house no technology/no house technology. This is an issue that affects different percentiles of the income curve differently. There are no doubt some parts of the income curve in some specific locations worse off, but I'm not sure people have a full grasp of how much better life is in general in the 1st world today versus 1960, let alone 1920 or worse, during the Great Depression.

jimbokun 9y ago

I suspect I was a lot happier before I got so addicted to my phone.