[suriyaG]

I really don't agree with the Title. If you absolutely "need" a phone. You could get a simpler, cheaper one. That is not the problem.

But, Smartphones are "Tax on the Poor" in a totally different way, it's a Cognitive tax. There are people in my country (India) who are already in poverty and would have to work a lot more than the elites to break away from poverty gap. But all these apps, that monger on attention are taking any hope of them getting out of poverty and making them stay in there. It's almost impossible to break people away from the phones, Most of their waking hours is spent on the Screen.

As someone who comes from a family of farmers and having a lot of my childhood friends and relatives stuck in poverty. The negative effects are alarmingly high. I hope there comes some regulation on these apps.

[sojournerc]

I parked at an airport parking lot that would only let you pay through an app. If a smartphone is necessary for daily life, it's a unfair burden on those who either can't or don't wish to pay that expense.

[ghaff]

You could make the same argument about the car you're parking--and the plane you're flying on from the airport.

[sojournerc]

I could, but I wouldn't. It used to be you could feed real currency into a machine to pay for parking. Requiring a specific device for payment is putting undue burden on the consumer.

I can pay cash for a car quite easily. That may be harder for a plane ticket, but not out of the question. My point is there isn't even an option in the parking lot.

[bastardoperator]

Have you tried paying cash for a car? I did. The dealership said absolutely not. They don't accept cash but they're happy to take a cashiers check.

On a side note, I do agree forcing people to use an app to pay for parking is complete BS.

[sojournerc]

Yes. I buy used cars from private owners.

[ghaff]

Even if you take the smartphone out of the equation, there are a ton of things you can only pay for with a credit/debit card. And we all know that will only become more widespread.

[cptaj]

To me the biggest offense is forcing me to download your shitty app XD

[leephillips]

That’s...surprising. What airport and parking lot?

[sojournerc]

RTD lot on the train line into DIA (Denver)

[leephillips]

“Must pre-pay at the lot with credit/debit cards or with the Passport Parking app”

You don’t need the app.

[sojournerc]

I think they have not updated the information. The kiosks to pay with card have been removed (at least at the lot I was at). Believe me, I would've used it if available.

[leephillips]

That’s disturbing, even given that it’s a private lot. I have a smartphone, but I strongly resist installing apps, and would really not want to install this. And what if the app doesn’t work with your particular phone/Android version? I would support a law that required all merchants to accept cash for purchases under, say $1,000—I also despise those stores that only accept payment cards and refuse cash.

[lordnacho]

Cognitive tax sure, but in the end it's up to you whether you are going to browse all day.

The big one is that your boss can easily throw around your zero-hours "contract" when everyone has a leash. Before mobile phones that wasn't quite so easy. If you were out with your family you couldn't get called and threatened into taking another shift.

[suriyaG]

This is an interesting comparison. Phones with "freedom of choice". I think freedom of choice, Varies drastically Based on the layer where one exists in society.

For example, Instagram pushing/peer-pressuring people to travel/buy/share more feels fine to me when it is an average household with with some level of stability. This is not true everywhere.

I'm talking about families whose total monthly earning is about 150 dollars. Families where the easier choice was to not go to the hospital for leukemia and let them be, than go to a hospital. Where a second Girl child is as close to a bad news as it gets. And yet and yet almost everybody with a smartphone within these community, scrolls through infinite feeds of tik-tok like content, for hours on end.

The way I see it, these social media are very similar to alcohol/other drugs. An infinite cage, from which There is little to no escape. Facebook is as close to a quicksand as it gets. Progressively pulling people in and keeping them where they are, not letting them go where they could be.