Spending More to Get Less Is Good?

Brian X. Chen, in a column at The New York Times headlined “Why a Tariff-Inflated $2,000 iPhone Is Nothing to Fear”:

Don’t panic. Even if tariffs did cause the iPhone’s price to surge, we would have plenty of cheaper options, like buying last year’s phone model instead of the latest and greatest.

The most important lesson we can learn from the turmoil: The only consistent way to save money on tech is to use devices for as long as possible, which requires maintaining them as you would a car, and upgrading only when you must.

This whole angle is no surprise coming from the tech columnist whose advice to readers who think their aging phone cameras don’t perform well in low light is “Just use flash.” If phone prices go up because of Trump’s tariffs, all phone prices are going to go up, including those for older models, whether you’re buying new or used. There is no silver lining here. Spending more to get a years-old phone sucks too.

Take the iPhone 16 as an example. Its $800 price tag can easily inflate to $1,080, since you may also buy:

  • An iPhone case for $50
  • AirPods for $130
  • 256 gigabytes of storage for $100

So if you buy things that aren’t an iPhone — like AirPods — the price of an iPhone goes up. Got it.

The anti-“big tech” bias here is so obvious. Don’t hold your breath waiting for a similar article in the Times about how it’s no big deal, nothing to worry about, if the price of cars doubles under these tariffs.

★ Thursday, 17 April 2025