Reply to If you're poor and live in the projects should your kids have iPads?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]if they need internet a really new invention called the library exists[/quote]

Yes, let's make sure they are even more disadvantaged by cutting them off from the best source of free information ever invented.  Make them take the bus to get access to what every other kid has.  [b]Never mind that the bus fare will cost more than internet access. [/b] What a brilliant way to make sure that ten grand per kid we spend on public education is wasted.[/quote]
Right, the kid shouldn't have an iPad.  The kid should have an Acer notebook style laptop and use wifi that broadcasts from a cable modem connection to the house.  Would that be suitably modest for the critics? Oh no, let's go a step further.  The kid should have a desktop that is connected directly to the cable modem.  No wait, I know, the kid should have a desktop connected to a dial-up arrangement - oh, wait, that means the house has to have a landline.

Just how much do the critics think this family could save by using other ways to access the internet? Granted, if there is a library nearby, they could use that but the pp is right, it has to be accessible by mass transit and it has to have decent hours of use.  Other than that, the other options either aren't cheaper than an iPad and a monthly AT&T data package or aren't that much cheaper.

Yes, an iPad is an indulgence if you're buying it in addition to your other computer gear.  (I was bemused and a little annoyed when both dh and dd got one.) But if it's your only access to the internet, it's not clear to me it's an indulgence at all.  (Same with the iPhone.)  It doesn't require you to have a landline or a cable modem.

That said, I don't know what the situation is with this particular family.  Maybe they're frivolous - or maybe this is the most cost effective access to the internet for them.  I don't know and I don't care.  I'm not policing my upper middle class neighbors to make sure they don't buy a huge flat screen tv with their home mortgage interest deduction and I'm not worrying about what welfare recipients spend their money on.  It's none of my business.[/quote]

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