The idea, that keeping a device for more than two years is "short term" thinking that could doom the economy, is a pretty damning indictment on the state of your economy.
this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2025
189 points (89.5% liked)
Economics
982 readers
2 users here now
founded 2 years ago
More to the point that news item came from CNBC, itself a company that is 100% advertiser-supported.
Of course they're going to claim that people not buying is the doom of the economy.
Their whole existence is tied to hyperconsumption, which, is becoming evident to even the marginally aware, of being no longer viable in the long run.
Say after me: "Too bad, so sad.."
NBC is owned by Comcast, who also owns Xfinity and invests in T-Mobile. At some point there is going to be just 3 companies running everything and the courts they own will say they aren't monopolies
load more comments
(1 replies)
Reduce the amount of disposable income across the board, then start moaning that people arent buying shit they dont need as much... The utter fucking state of these people.
Oh no! Not the economy 😭
Someone please think of the shareholders!!!
The economy can go fuck itself. I'd rather have a society and an ecology.
Jesus Christ, when did choosing not to throw away a perfectly good device become "device hoarding"?
Gotta love American capitalist propaganda.
the framing on it lmao
"corporation device hoarding"
you mean businesses keeping devices that they KNOW work instead of changing to devices with bullshit new issues created so more of your data can be harvested and you can be advertised to more?
I've worked at large (5k+ workers) companies that were running Windows XP well into the late 2010's, with matching hardware. That was too extreme (goddamn ie6).
But this article makes me sick. If the economy needs people to throw away perfectly usable goods and buy new ones, the problem isn't the people, it's the fucking economy. It's time to take a step back and rethink the system, because it's gonna implode.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Not constantly throwing away things that are still good is "device hoarding" now? Strong "quiet quitting" vibes there.
Continuing to use something that still works is Hoarding? The shear fucking gall. They're literally having to misuse the word "hoard" because they couldn't think of a word for "sticking with something that works" with negative enough connotations.
load more comments
(1 replies)
"Americans are producing less e-waste and getting more value out of their purchases, and this is bad for rich people!"
Companies act like the general population simply OWES them business. We do not.
On that note, please refuse to participate in Black Friday and keep your Christmas low key and sentimental.
That’s my plan. Primarily food and handmade/carefully picked gifts rather than lavish this year.
Also wtf? How is 2 years “a long time” to hold onto an expensive machine? Mine have been at least 4-5 years between buys. Products are supposed to last.
load more comments
(11 replies)
Anyone who writes a headline like this should be chained to a bale of ewaste and thrown into the ocean.
Ship them in a container to Ghana to be "recycled" in a bonfire with the rest of the ewaste
Americans are increasingly opting for reusable cups. This is costing the plastic cup industry billions.
And how exactly is this bad?
Spending less money on stupid stuff isn't hurting the economy, for fuck's sake.
The exact same applies to smartphones.
29 months is "as much as possible"? My phone is from 2016 and it works fine!
If the economy depends in us buying new phones every two years, then maybe the economy wasn't as strong as we thought it was.
Who the fuck decided to predicate the economy on a <2-year upgrade cycle for electronics?! Tim Apple is that you?
Wait why the f are the consumers being blamed for the economy?
Because consumers that have unspent money are WORSE THAN HITLER^[source: economists], as all that unspent money is not making line go up!
Maybe the billionaires should start throwing their money around a little more...
To be fair, the consumers are the economy. Which is why it's so vital to provide them with the means to consume.
We "are" the economy and yet they aren't.
We keep being told " The economy is strong" and they ain't talking about you, or me, or anyone either of us have ever met.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Good. Better for your pocketbook, better for yourself, and better for the world.
I would like to note that the difference in relative purchases of technology investments between consumer and business markets will make comparison a little less than easy.
That and certain social demographics within the information technology world present a bleed through of practices in spending habits and thus should not be included.
This whole thing reads like satire.
And not like the whole semiconductor industry is one of the most environmentally toxic ones. Better keep your phone/computer as long as possible.
29 months
squeezing as much life out of your device as possible
Dude, my average phone age is 7 years. I'm now on my 3rd since smartphones exist.
What do US people do with their phones? Even my dad (a farmer) has them longer and he loses them sometimes in the field or drives them over.
Yank here. I dunno what these fucks are complaining about. All my phones have either been cheap, or refurbished secondhand. Hell, I even learned how to fix my own so I could make them last as long as possible. And when the OS gets too slow, I start throwing out old apps like I'm bailing a leaky ship. My average phone's lifetime is nearly five years. My laptop? Nearly ten.
You know what this smells like? Smells like rich people complaining about poor people being pragmatic and sensible. "Decreasing productivity by 1/3 of a percentage point." Spoiled little prince can eat my entire ass.
load more comments
(7 replies)
I brought my s24 exactly because it's got 7yrs of updates. I suspect it'll need a new battery around 4yrs. If I'm lucky, that will let me hold out until Linux phones are more polished
load more comments
(2 replies)
"device hoarding" Fuck off
It might be bad for the economy, but it's better for the environment, for the amount of money available for rent, food, insurance, emergencies...
Who is only getting 29 months out of a smart phone? What are you doing?
load more comments
(2 replies)
Me, reading this on my 86 month old phone and feeling like the left's greatest hero for dealing such a mighty blow to capitalism.
load more comments
(1 replies)
device hoarding
Get the fuck out of here.
Fuck the economy.
NO, it's costing some companies. The economy benefits from cutting out waste. It just so happens that the stock market and "the economy" are not synonyms.
No you fucking dolt, it is saving the economy a ton of money to spend on other things.
load more comments
(2 replies)
The issue isn't money, it's the complete and utter lack of innovation on the devices being sold.
Quality is another issue. I was forced to buy a new phone, and ended up with a OnePlus. The software is so broken that I can no longer use my launcher I've used for a decade now. The home button glitches out when I do.
There is no need to upgrade devices every two years ago, which used to be the norm. A decade or more ago, each new generation of phone was a huge leap forward. Today, not so much. Maybe a marginally better camera or a touch more battery life, but nothing earth shattering, and the camera and battery life on my "ancient" Pixel 6 Pro are more than adequate for my needs. I'll probably upgrade in the next year or so, to a used Pixel 9, because the price of them used has plummeted since the release of the Pixel 10, and the Pixel 6 is nearing the end of its support by GrapheneOS.
load more comments
(1 replies)
It's costing whose economy? Every purchase that anyone makes costs them more than it should, with that "more" going directly into the pockets of wealthy owners who provide little or no value. When people purchase less, they are primarily hurting those wealthy owners.
I was going to make a joke about needing to buy a $1000 iphone every 6 months to save the economy, but then I went to the apple site to make sure I wasn’t being hyperbolic…
Christ on a fucking cracker! the latest iPhone can cost up to $3,800 in my local currency! Just fucking blow my brains out, the world is cooked. Bury me with my 5 year old phone, it’s still got a few years left in it I reckon.
view more: next ›