Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Is Leasing a Smartphone Better Than Buying One? (cnbc.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The biggest benefit with a lease program is you have the option of upgrading to a newer phone model, usually after just a year. You don't get that option when you buy. But with a lease program, although it may be cheaper, you have to return the phone at the end of the agreement or when you upgrade -- meaning you can't pass it off to your child or sell it. So rather than leasing, buying may be a better option. But a New York Times column makes case for why leasing is the right way to go about it. I wanted to check with Slashdot readers, what do you prefer and why?
Unfortunately, the economy is being managed by incompetent morons that want everybody to be in debt up to their eyeballs and keep the inflation rate arbitrarily high to discourage saving in the way that poor people actually have access to.
Well, I don't know how incompetent the morons managing the economy are. I do know that the U.S. economy tanked a while ago. Think 70s not 00s. We've been running on fumes ever since. Lots of debt, public and private helps to keep things going. Inflation depreciates that debt so that we can afford to service it and take on more. The morons know all of this. They made a political decision to keep things going instead of allowing a full on crash. They've simply left the bill for the next generation to pay.
You might be surprised how many people put a cell phone, without any kind of screen protector, into their pocket with their keys.
I do this. No protector or case. It hasn't damaged my screen one bit, although it has caused damage to the non-glass finish -- but I couldn't care less about that. I've had this phone for four years and it's still going strong.