What the iPhone 4S Says about Inequality

Are all million people who pre-ordered the 4S all one-percenters?

It isn't clear from reports how many of those purchasers are American, but the estimate of 25 million sales by the end of 2011 suggests strong demand in the U.S. and other ailing economies. Isn't there a contradiction between the widespread sense of misery and doom and our willingness to commit to a service that can indeed be essential, but only if we decide to make it so? Or perhaps the times are actually driving technophilia. That's what George Orwell argued about England in the Great Depression. Far from condemning broadcast radio, Orwell considered it and 1930s cinema to be vital aids to self-respect, even if they served the "governing class" (one-percenters) by heading off revolution. Of course it's much more expensive to be poor, or even middle class, now. For example, pay phones have been disappearing at such a rate that everyone needs at least a prepaid cell phone. In fact, America now has more cell phones than people. Radios were relatively expensive in the 1930s, and there was and is a BBC license fee in the UK, but US broadcast radio was advertising supported. This isn't to dismiss the claims of Occupy Wall Street just because many so many of the 99 percent still choose data plans. And a smartphone may be a great decision for practical reasons as well as for diversion.