"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

[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...