There is absolutely nothing in that photograph that indicates this guy paid hundreds of dollars for the phone he’s holding.

In the first place, many cell service providers give you a cell phone if you sign up for their service.

In the second place, there are many programs that take donated old phones and provide them to the homeless and the poor.

In the third place, if this guy is recently homeless, he may have already had that phone before disaster befell him.

But don’t let any of these stop you from getting all judgy, even though I realize that’s necessary for you to be able to fit this image into your hateful mental paradigm.

Also worth noting — it’s senseless to compare a $500 phone to a $1,000/month insurance plan, even if one paid full price for the phone. Unless, of course, we’re talking about someone who buys two new phones every month.

And finally — the far right are always about deriding the poor and the homeless for not pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. Well, guess what? Some kind of phone and some kind of internet access is necessary to do that. Only you and people like you would take away every tool available for someone to better their situation and then demonize them for not bettering their situation.

    Victoria Lamb Hatch

    Written by

    Pacific Coaster transplanted to North Carolina

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