You’re must be joking! Look around, if you look past the bitten apple, there are plenty of perfectly capable devices out there for under $300. In fact, I see plenty of people who are on the street corners panhandling AND using a smartphone.
While I agree that getting bullied in the news cycle is not healthy, I feel like getting the information about what’s going on around you from memes is also not good. It lacks context and details to enable the user from processing the news with critical thinking. I don’t know what the answer is, but for people who exercise their power of a vote, I feel like they need to be as knowledgeable about the issues as possible.
Of course you can get a used of refurbished ones for less even Apple. I was referring to new devices. As an example, I use a Motorola Edge plus that I bought new for $400. It does everything my wife’s iPhone 15 Pro. The camera quality is slightly lower, but perfectly adequate.