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the reasoning by "the market" being that it's obviously good for prices to go down, which isn't true. things have intrinsic costs, and subsidizing price undercuts through sidelines is unethical to say the least
"TV prices would go up" is true but not truthful. "you haven't been paying enough for TVs" is the truth, and it applies to enormous swaths of products
poor people deserve to have nice things, which complicates this *to a point.* allowing prices to continuously drop and not asking where the savings are coming from is not healthy social behavior; it pays heavily negative dividends for short term gains
it's great that my friends whose jobs pay shit can go to the store and buy a 42" tv for 1/3 of a paycheck instead of 2.5 paychecks. comforts take the edge off capitalisms abuses
but essentially what's going on here is that corps are closing the class gap in access to luxury electronics through unethical practices, *making it look like the class gap isn't as big as it is*
in past eras my poor friends would have to get their luxuries from thrift stores and hand me downs from wealthier friends like me, or just have crappy times with lower end devices and 720p televisions
saving up to buy better things once in a while was an option; getting a better job was an option. but at this point, if smartphones cost what they SHOULD, almost nobody I know would own one
if HD and 4K TVs didn't drop in price there'd just be huge numbers of people who could never expect to have one. so the businesses are adapting to sell to people who objectively can't afford what things are worth
to be clear, I'm not talking down on anyone for buying nice things. obviously on an individual level this isn't your problem
but I think actions like this on the part of the corporations help to paper over wealth inequality. Can you really get as angry as you should be at the stagnant minimum wage when you have a Snapdragon 650 phone and Netflix and a big TV? it makes it harder
some of us can motivate ourselves to turn these things down; most can't, because not taking what we can get usually just means being more bored while the world goes on churning furiously through our resources. nobody wins if you, personally, don't buy a tv. boycotts don't work.
by the time the product is on the shelf the damage has been done. the corps don't ask us if it's okay before they make something. that's what having $5 billion in the bank does for you; you can speculate
