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I mean I’d argue there’s some serious room to help out the consumer since the price of cars has been outpacing inflation pretty handily since around 2014 (and been beating it into a bloody pulp since 2020). There is some insanely obvious price gouging going on when the average price of a new car in 2024 is over 49k. There is room for BOTH higher wages and at least semi reasonable car prices for the American consumer. In my eyes if you clearly aren’t willing to help me as an everyday clearly struggling American today, then goooo right ahead and kiss my ass as I buy foreign if it’s cheaper.
Here’s the problem, it’s a solution to a problem nobody had. Never once have I heard someone say “well it’s a solid phone but God I just wish it didn’t have that pesky 3.5mm headphone jack!” It’s just another feature stripped from the phone to clearly get you to buy more shit. I don’t want yet another damn thing I have to charge. I dont want to deal with keeping track of two tiny ass earbuds and if I lose one I gotta get a whole new pair. I don’t want to deal with the fact that now if I want to listen to wired I have to buy more shit like an adapter and if I lose those headphones, now I gotta buy another one of those along with new headphones. And I hate that if I do go wireless and lose them or they break, I can’t fall back on wired because it’s not even an option unless I happen to also have the adapter.
It’s just another in a long line of clear middle fingers to consumers and it’s annoying. Does it like ruin the phone and the experience of a phone? Of course not. Is it a completely pointless pain in the ass with the obvious and sole purpose of funneling consumers into buying a cycle of products they almost definitely don’t need and don’t already have? Absolutely. And for that I say they can eat a big bag of crap.