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
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Economics
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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
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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.
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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.
Specifically, Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, boycott Target, Amazon (including Whole Foods), and Home Depot even harder than usual: https://weaintbuyingit.com/
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"Americans are producing less e-waste and getting more value out of their purchases, and this is bad for rich people!"
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
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.
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Oh no not the economy 😭😔
It's costing productivity..
Forget the damage to the planet that consumerism causes
Not constantly throwing away things that are still good is "device hoarding" now? Strong "quiet quitting" vibes there.
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.
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The economy can go fuck itself. I'd rather have a society and an ecology.
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.
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29 months is "as much as possible"? My phone is from 2016 and it works fine!
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Fuck the economy.
Wait why the f are the consumers being blamed for the economy?
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.
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Who is only getting 29 months out of a smart phone? What are you doing?
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device hoarding
Get the fuck out of here.
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...
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.
Who the fuck decided to predicate the economy on a <2-year upgrade cycle for electronics?! Tim Apple is that you?
No you fucking dolt, it is saving the economy a ton of money to spend on other things.
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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.
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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.
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.
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.
The fuck it is
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.
Zero people really need a new phone every two years, that's crazy. This economy and sadly a lot of jobs are based on some wild idea of endless consumption which is just not sustainable, especially when your customer base is getting poorer by the day.
"cost the economy" when your economy is based on consumerism then not buying as fast destroys the economy.
Ive had my phone for upwards of 4 years now, and I plan on keeping it for at least another 4 unless something tragic happens. Oops sorry I guess I can't afford food this week kids, those billionaires and investors might lose money so I have to go get a new phone
The law of diminishing returns has entered the chat.
My internet service provider, for example, offered 500 MBPS and recently came out with a plan that was $20 per month cheaper and only offered 100 MBPS and I jumped on it as fast as I possibly could because I don't need 500 MBPS ever.
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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.
Many workers report that aging devices stifle productivity, but like a favorite pair of shoes or an old sweater, they don’t want to give them up to learn the intricacies of a new device (which they’ll learn and then have to replace with another). Familiarity can trump productivity for many workers.
So first off I'm glad they mentioned this. However it's frustrating to see the first quote, "last month concludes that each additional year companies delay upgrading equipment results in a productivity decline of about one-third of a percent" which feels like real numbers versus the section I quoted which feel like vibes.
There is a cost in doing something and a cost in not doing something. Sometimes doing nothing is the best course of action.
(Now if getting a new device is a huge cost you should investigate where you can improve that process.)
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