Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash
I'm old enough to remember when the price of electronics would go down after seven years. Sadly, that isn't the case anymore.
Nvidia Shield TV Pro is now $299 – a $100 price hike seven years after the Android TV box launched
Much of the blame goes to President Trump and his tariffs or the war in Iran. Others blame demand from AI. But how much of this is simply greed?
Adam Conover and economic expert and veteran consumer advocate Lindsay Owens discuss her book Gouged and how corporations find creative ways to rip us off.
This leads me to ask "how do we opt out?"
Many of us opted out of cable's rising prices via "cord cutting" -- canceling cable and switching to antennas and streaming services. Sadly, the people responsible for increasing the prices of cable own most of the streaming services (Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros., etc.) and are constantly increasing the prices there as well.
I'd love to follow my Memphis sports teams, but I can't watch them anymore because I refuse to pay the high prices for ESPN and DAZN.
I want to buy a new iPhone this year, but refuse because the price of last year's model has increased!
Some other ways I already have or will "opt out":
Philo is my primary TV provider. No sports, news, or local channels.
I bought an HDHomeRun to watch and record local channels. Local channels and sports are the biggest culprits in TV price increases.
I moved my email hosting from Google to Fastmail1. It's important for me to have a custom domain and I don't want to pay for Google's AI ambitions.
I'm keeping mobile devices as long as possible. Not upgrading every two years anymore.
Look for bundles for streaming as much as possible. Philo includes AMC+ and HBO Max. Comcast has a discount for a Netflix/Peacock/Disney bundle.
Cancel other streaming services when I'm not watching. I'm paying $2/month for Paramount plus and will cancel as soon as that promo is over. I'll wait for the next 99 cent or $2 promo from Roku, Amazon, and others and binge accordingly.
Keep Amazon and Walmart shopping to a minimum. They have put so many people out of business, so it's hard to avoid them, but I try to support smaller, minority-owned business when possible. And buy your audiobooks from Libro.fm!2
How are you fighting back? What are you going to stop buying? Who is really to blame for everything being so expensive?