"That person on wellfare/whatever can't REALLY be poor -- they have a cell phone!"

[xiphias]

You ever hear people say that?

Cheapest landline I can find around here: $45/month, with long-term contract. Most are closer to $60.
Cell phone data plan with unlimited text and talk, worldwide, and 500 mb of web: $50/month, no contract.

We SHOULD be saying, "That person can't REALLY be poor -- they can afford to not have a cell phone!"

The whole "cell phones are for rich people" stopped being true in the 20th century.

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Or spend $12/mo at Ting for minimal minutes and data, depending on your needs...

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

In many parts of the world (like, for example, Guatemala) it's very common for cell phones to be ubiquitous and cheap. Even people with dirt floors, no indoor plumbing or electricity have them.

And, as you say, cell phones are cheap.

[bemused-leftist.livejournal.com]

Third World COUNTRIES that didn't have landlines yet, went straight to cell phones. Cheaper to rent space on a satellite (or even to put up a tower) than to run all those wires.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Yep. I've heard of cases where people are out in African villages in the middle of nowhere, and they want to buy something, so the person pulls out their phone and uses it to run their credit card. No running water, only locally-generated electricity, no infrastructure to speak of -- but they've got the ability to run credit cards.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

In the mid-1990s, rather than upgrade its landlines from the creaky old system left behind by the Brits, Bahrain made it easy for people to obtain and use cell phones. It made more sense.

[bemused-leftist.livejournal.com]

First things first. ;-)

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Much easier and cheaper. Probably true, here, too.

[cbpotts.livejournal.com]

Amen!

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Cellphones are like herd immunity; if everyone around you has one, you do not actually need one.

(Days per year it would significantly benefit me to have a cellphone, for logistics: ~3-5, on average over the past decade. Days per year it significantly benefits me not to have a cellphone, on control over communication with birth family levels: 365.25, averaged similarly.)

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I managed to avoid a cell for a while, based on the, "But if I have a phone, people might be able to CALL me" theory. But I eventually gave in, because I'm not actually avoiding very many people.

[bemused-leftist.livejournal.com]

My cheap cell phone can assign different ringtones to different callers -- and one of them is 'No Ring'. Or there's always setting Notification to 'None' for everybody.

[paper-crystals.livejournal.com]

It depends...I worked as a janitor in a clean room and cell phones were very useful. Both for your boss contacting you and you contacting your boss. The environment that I worked in was multi-floored and many of the spaces were the size of football fields and everyone wore white bunny suits. For jobs in a small work environment where you constantly see your boss you can borrow someone else's and they aren't really necessary. For larger work environments where you are constantly moving around they make more sense. Interestingly enough, they are more useful in many poverty wage environments than in white collar environments. (At least the ones I have worked in. YMMV of course.)

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

True in specific, and also, it is generally depressing how people will say of anyone who has anything that they must be lying or wasting their money because they managed to have one material good (or provided it for their child, such as a decently protective stroller).

[sethg]

The gambit is to pick some reference point for defining someone as “really poor”, and then smugly declare that anyone who is not quite so desperate is unworthy of public compassion. The great thing is that you can move the goal posts for “really poor” to wherever is convenient. “She’s not really poor because she has a cell phone... has a color TV... didn’t die of malnutrition by age 30...”

I’d wager that people who use this gambit don’t find it convincing when applied from the other direction. “He’s not really overtaxed because he takes home at least half his gross income... at least a quarter of his gross income... didn’t get all his savings expropriated by a communist revolution...”

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Can I wager with you rather than against? I think you'd win.

[richardf8]

HaAretz had an article yesterday about how being able to be without your smartphone is the latest status symbol. I was hoping to give you a link, but now all I can fin are protestations that they have found the best Hummus in Haifa.

[sethg]

I remember this scene from 1997–98, when I was at an Israeli yeshiva populated mostly by British and American expats. One of the bochurim came in to the beit midrash with a cell phone, and he was teased for having gone native.

[goljerp]

Ah, yes, Israel in '97-'98 -- they were about 10 years ahead of the US in terms of cell phone usage. (I.e. only around 2008 did the US catch up to where Israel was then, in my biased observation.) I remember being on a Tel Aviv - Jerusalem bus and a cell phone went off; more than half the bus was reaching for their phones. (I guess the rest had a different ring tone.)

[holyhippie]

Low cost, pre-paid handsets are available in many convenience stores. A few minutes of research, and I found plans for as little as $25/month in the US for 250min calls, unlimited texts. If you really don't use the phone very much, there are even cheaper ways to do it with prepaid pay-per-use plans.

I currently have no landline at home - and am perfectly happy living that way. AT&T has tried to entice me into getting 'fixed wireless' service - basically a cell phone that doesn't move. They sell you a device that sits in your house, plugs into the wall, and makes calls through the wireless network. And charge you less than they would for a landline.

[dianavilliers.livejournal.com]

What's more, if you have a cellphone and a cheap laptop, you have enough internet access to do a job search, submit applications and access government and private social support should you need to, without necessarily having a monthly bill or even a permanent address.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Heck, smartphones are getting cheap enough that it's not unreasonable to skip the laptop. Yeah, SMARTPHONES aren't necessarily a luxury item any more.

[dianavilliers.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd still be a bit dubious about trying to create a CV/resume or cover letter on a smartphone. You'd probably be able to submit a generic one with just a smartphone but to customise the application to the job as is reccomended I think you'd need at least a tablet.

[paper-crystals.livejournal.com]

There was a really interesting article about homeless men living off BitCoins that I saw about a week ago...

[yardlong.livejournal.com]

We've had prepaid cell phones/smartphone with PagePlus Cellular for years, paying full price for new equipment on eBay and then $11-$15 monthly for airtime. But I recently got a "home phone" - which required an OBi100 adapter from Amazon and regular home phone equipment, which I didn't have. So I ordered the OBi and a cordless phone system, and it works through my internet router and my free Google Voice number. Free service. We will save a bit of money, but since we weren't spending much to begin with, it'll take awhile to pay for itself.

I always did think it silly when people complained about poor folks having cell phones.

[azephirin.livejournal.com]

Also, any household below 135% of the poverty line or on various government benefit programs (Medicaid, SSI, food stamps, TANF, etc.) qualifies for Lifeline, which provides free cell phones, though the plans are limited. The providers vary, but here in MA it's SafeLink and Assurance Wireless. A lot of my clients have this, and I can tell you: they're poor.

[domiobrien.livejournal.com]

Phones have been provided free for the very poor since the Reagan administration. Currently, people below a certain income level for their family size are entitled to a free cellphone with limited minutes, and can buy more for a very small monthly fee. This allows them to call for medical appointments, job training etc on their monthly allotment of minutes, with more available at reasonable cost.