Essential utilities and services such as food/water/power/housing. Are things people need to live.
So they are forcibly made to the lowest cost by the government and law as thats their job to govern and limit things such as prices on certain items for better standards of living. Nobody can ever live in a country they cant afford food and water in.
So being able to call for help or order in goods which your small town maybe doesnt make or sell is super important. Or especially being able to request repairs to water or electricity or order in food and supplies is an ESSENTIAL SERVICE.
Phones used to use wires and be analog. But since they went digital they are now entirely internet based and use IP telephony the NBN is enforcing this by LAW here in australia you cant NOT connect to the newer IP phone internet and your mobile phones have been entirely internet based since 3G and 4G replaced GSM the phone calls would take a second to connect as it would often switch from older methods or GSM over to 3G or 4G for digital voice based IP calls and are now very wireless. But the same way your android text messages can be sent and received by windows 10 or 11 desktop PC's a PC or smartphone or tablet is required to setup and configure your IP phone. Also vast majority of services content and entertainment is internet and computer only so if you want to purchase from a store or view a movie or read a book you REQUIRE a computer or computer based device like a tablet to do so.
Rather amusingly in order to use the phone to call somebody you must first look them up in the phone book directory listing. To do that the phone book or business directory index listing phone numbers are all online and require a computer or computer based device. So the law classifies computers as an essential service and have strict pricing laws and cost based analysis and are secured by the armed forces and military to prevent hackers from stealing all the countries money. Importantly banking also requires phones or computers most of the time.
this is why libraries and other public services will often have computers available for public use nowadays even at airports or other places. and why many stores make email functionality or free wifi available when you normally wouldnt want to let the public probably try and virus up your network. That said though most content and entertainment is online the internet is still editable and may be having stuff withheld from you by criminals. There is only one internet and the one website and the one business making the one product world wide though that website may list authorized resellers like with AMD computers you buy one from the sellers listed on the AMD website. your netflix should be the one netflix catalog world wide with all content from all countries in all languages with the option to select languages. If your nation has laws against a specific thing shown in a movie then it gets censored with mosaics or strikethroughs and has a warning and maybe links to the laws governing it and why they exist. that said if you were a doctor wishing to learn a surgical procedure you dont just google it or youtube it or read an outline on the wiki. You get the official verified printed publication from your library or look up a surgeon who can train you in the procedure online and contact them about it. This is why libraries exist. Many people see hugh grant movies and think they should base their life around them and plan romantic relationships out based on what they read in story books and erotic films, or believe criminals wear business suits and hang around in offices with actual jobs and mansions and piles of money... if criminals had any money they would not need to do crime ever and would live it up in their mansion comfortably throwing money into taxes and law enforcement to get better services and schools and hospitals and hope the police can prevent criminals from stealing all their money. fortunately everybody pays taxes and cant ever not pay taxes due to goods and services tax so tax dodgers arent really dodging anything nowadays. So yeah should they maybe separate buildings for each libraries fiction and non fiction stuff? i guess so. are there some books published that are made up nonsense? well yeah university professors wanna look more qualified than they often are so they maybe just pay to publish a bunch of books which may or may not reword other publications and get it slightly wrong just so they can sell them to students for crazy high prices, this is why historically accurate government approved library documentation is sooo very important. its why when you apply for a role of librarian it needs like 10 year qualifications and university degrees and stuff. and why it needs even more years of senior management and speak multiple languages and have multiple degrees and a masters to qualify for a position as a barista that serves coffee as they often have a coffee store cafe in the library or bookstores here in australia.
So with intel and nvidia being cheap often 50 year old trash that is maybe literally dumpster dived stuff being resold as a new product, should their prices be absurdly cheaper? as AMD ryzen is a true super computer would it still be considered a luxury goods?
how cheap should trashy phones like mediatek actually be i wonder?
