If you get a new iPhone 6 from AT&T, you're going to pay anywhere from $650 to $750 or more, depending on whether you get the Plus size, how much memory, etc.

First of all, while I get that this is a high tech gadget and would cost more than the handset I'd buy for the land line that I got rid of several years ago, I have a hard time understanding why the cost is so darn high. I mean, they produce bazillions of these things. They don't even have the excuse that pharmaceutical makers use, i.e., that for every new drug introduced to the market there are many that were under development but didn't make the cut.

Second, the price of the phone used to be figured into your regular phone plan's bill. Yet, now that AT&T makes you buy the phone on top of paying for the plan, there is no reduction in the phone bill itself and if you use the monthly installment plan for the phone, as most likely do, it makes the bill even higher.

I've got a family of four. Thus, we have four iPhones and an iPad linked to our account. I finally got a large enough data plan to avoid getting dinged for a series of extra $15 charges for excess data usage. And I'm paying around $300/month for service, plus installments on at least two phones at a time. It's just insane.

Life was better and certainly cheaper when we all had land lines for like $150 a month, no one could reach you when you were away from home, and we all either used pay phones or phone cards to make calls away from home. Now all I do is wonder why I am spending so much money so that my kids have fancy phones/toys but only answer my calls and texts sporadically. Even the wife keeps her ringer on mute all the time, so she doesn't realize when I call her more often than not.

Rant over.