The Economy Is Sputtering as People Keep Using Their Old Phones That Work Fine

Do you really need to buy a new smartphone every year?

Probably not. If you bought a decent one in the first place, chances are your smartphone is still doing a perfectly fine job. Ditto for getting that latest tablet, or upgrading your gaming rig with slightly faster sticks of ludicrously overpriced RAM.

While companies ranging from tech firms to automakers like to release slightly different iterations of their same product every new year to drum up hype and boost their bottom line, the reality is that most of us can more than get by with older versions of whatever’s being touted as the shiny new toy. Upgrade when it really matters.

But stop right there, cheapskate. Have you considered that by being such a miserly hoarder, you’re actually hurting the entire economy, which demands const