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A smartphone with internet access is table stakes for societal/economic participation these days, and doesn’t even cost that much, especially if you buy it used. Have you been to a third world country lately? Even poor tuk tuk drivers got smartphones.
Which is not to say the people you describe don’t exist. Just that having a smartphone isn’t a great identifier for them.
Regardless of how hard you’re trying, it’s legitimate to complain that the economy is worse now by giving you less in return for the same amount of effort as you’ve put in before.
Your life isn't going to end without blowing your payday the latest and greatest.
Not if complaining about it comes at the expense of your willingness to participate in fixing it, which let's be serious here for a moment, most people don't. Most people are spectators in their own lives as the days pass them up. They are not people who become vested in taking command of their own existence and do something to improve what's lacking in their lives.
That may well be the case, but is there a strong correlation between people who complain and people who work to improve their circumstances? Certainly some amount of people scrimp and save more, or work a second job, in order to adjust to changing economic circumstances, all the while complaining that this is now necessary for them to survive.
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