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iNflation: Americans Spend Less On Food, Movies To Pay For Soaring Cell Phone Obsession
As America's mania with cell phones as an aspirational status fad hits new records every day, this borderline addiction to "thinner, longer" mobility and a sub-1 year upgrade cycle, is starting to extract its pound of flesh: average cell phone bills that have risen by over 10% in one year (from $1,110 to $1,226), even as total household spending rose by half, or $67. In a word: iNflation. It gets worse. As the WSJ reports, "spending on food away from home fell by $48, apparel spending declined by $141, and entertainment spending dropped by $126." Like a true faux status/gadget junkie, Americans don't care what other discretionary items are cut, even such "American staples" as eating out and watching movies, just so they can keep up with all the other Joneses sporting a brand new iPhone X+1, while everyone's credit card bill just gets larger and larger, and the collective wealth evaporates.
More than half of all U.S. cellphone owners carry a device like the iPhone, a shift that has unsettled household budgets across the country. Government data show people have spent more on phone bills over the past four years, even as they have dialed back on dining out, clothes and entertainment—cutbacks that have been keenly felt in the restaurant, apparel and film industries.
The tug of war is only going to get more intense. Wireless carriers are betting they can pull bills even higher by offering faster speeds on expensive new networks and new usage-based data plans. The effort will test the limits of consumer spending as the draw of new technology competes with cellphone owners' more rudimentary needs and desires.
So far, telecom is winning. Labor Department data released Tuesday show spending on phone services rose more than 4% last year, the fastest rate since 2005. During and after the recession, consumers cut back broadly on their spending.
...
Families with more than one smartphone are already paying much more than the average—sometimes more than $4,000 a year—easily eclipsing what they pay for cable TV and home Internet.
None of this is surprising. The real question is how much more discretionary spending can the US cell phone junkie forego before there is a collectivist yell of revulsion, and the mobile PDA fad is as dad as, well, all those other fads that came before it?
Melinda Tuers, an accounting clerk at a high school in Redlands, Calif., said she already pays close to $300 a month for her family's four smartphones. She and her husband have cut back on dining out, special events and concerts to make room for the bigger phone bill.
Her household may soon have an even bigger hole to fill. Two of the Tuers's smartphones are on unlimited data plans, meaning she pays the same price no matter how much she surfs the Web. She has taken advantage of that freedom to watch TV shows such as "Covert Affairs" and "Grey's Anatomy" on her phone almost every day.
Ms. Tuers figures that she and her husband would need to scrape together more than $1,000 to pay full price for two new high-end phones or settle for one of Verizon's tiered-data plans, which she fears would cost a lot more given her video habit.
For those who look for iNflation and can't find it, perhaps they should look deeper:
Carriers fully expect people to use more data and pay more for it. "Speed entices more usage," Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said at an investor conference last week, according to a transcript. "The more data they consume, the more they will have to buy."
Some question where the money for that data will come from. Americans spent $116 more a year on telephone services in 2011 than they did in 2007, according to the Labor Department, even as total household expenditures increased by just $67.
Meanwhile, spending on food away from home fell by $48, apparel spending declined by $141, and entertainment spending dropped by $126. The figures aren't adjusted for inflation.
The increase in telephone-services spending masks an even higher rise in cellphone bills, because people have been paying less for landline service.
Some people are very confused:
That trend is evident in the home of 40-year-old Scott Boedy, a neighborhood service representative for a cable company.
Mr. Boedy said he and his wife now pay $200 a month for cellphone service, up by about $50 from early last year, even as they have managed to cut spending on groceries by shopping at discount chain Aldi and on "fun stuff" by going out to dinner and movies less often.
Looking over the family budget on Sunday night, Mr. Boedy said, his wife marveled at how much of it was going to the phone company.
"It stinks," Mr. Boedy said. "I guess it's the cost of modern-day America now."
No Scott, it isn't. It's the consequence of your choices. But as long as one has the ability to do what every other borderline insolvent entity in the world does, namely to "charge it", sweep it under the rug, and hope to never have to repay it, this confusion will continue.
And now excuse us while we swipe our corporate credit card to buy that gold Vertu phone we have had our eyes on for so long: surely it will make everyone else think so highly of us...
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FUCK any employer who would make such an outrageous demand on any employee on their off-hours or while at home. I would tell them to go to Hell in a heartbeat.
Yes, but you have an intact spine. They wouldn't hire you in the first place.
I totally agree with you. Sadly - a lot of people would give anything for a decent job or even any job.
We all have to pay for our personal tracking device...that also can make phone calls. No conspiracy theory, just fact.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/sunday-review/thats-not-my-phone-its-m...
It is the new thing, have them track you all the time.
Almost as good as Progressive advertising how cool it is to let them track how you drive, and you don't even need to be their customer.
pods
My Trekkie, IT Director boss can't understand why I keep a band-aid over the camera on my Google-spy tablet. He asked, "But what about the microphone?" My response, "Ummm... I don't talk to my computer."
Coincidentally, I didn't get a "smart"phone because I didn't see the need for one.
I had to get one for work, for work emails.
Sign of the complete deterioration of our fundamental social fabric, part 98.
"Peacock Syndrome"
James Quinn
What the hell?!? People are watching tv shows on their phones, really? And here I am complaining about $50 a month for cable internet at home, and I have unlimited usage...
I wondered about that - do they get all the commercials too?
My name is PTDBDucks. I realize that I have a problem. I have never had a cell phone.
Great... that makes two of us who have no use for an ultra expensive, slave device.
Make that three.
Same here. I bought my first laptop when they got down to $500. I see so many people I know for a fact who are broke on their ass smugly playing with the family i-phones I-LMAO.
no cell here - guess I'm #5.
History of the world, part 203...
Just when you thought you caught up with the "Joneses" ....
They refinance
So 2008. Now they just default.
I cannot wait to get my iphone 5, as the bigger screen will make grey's anatomy that much more fulfilling.
pods
ding... It's a fad.
from the smell of things out in public, money spent on soap and shampoo is down also
The "markets" are going to finish red. It looks like Slaughterer is going to be out an ounce today.
I have been with a group of people...younger....and no one talked..they were all texting...very strange...very strange...
And for you survivalists out there...you may have enough food and water lo last a year...but if princess does not have a cellphone..she will commit suicide in three days max...
I noticed the changeover happening 5 years ago when I was finally pressured into a text plan. Now any girl I know I basically only communicate by text. Unless a girl is really into a guy and wants to hear his voice it is the preferred mode of communication now.
I still don't get it. Anything more complex than "what's your ETA" results in a ping pong match of text which annoys me since a call would have been quicker.
My daughter was texting me a few days ago and as the text went back and forth I just made a call. She told hubby to pause the movie so we could talk; apparently she had no problem playing text pong and watching the movie.
yep, i always thought it would be taboo to ask a girl out on a date via text. about 3 years ago i tried it and it worked flawlessly. been doing it ever since an have averaging about 80% yes's via this method. plus only a few of the no's have come back later and said that if i would call and ask then then they would probably....so actually its pretty effective.... very strange indeed.
a) if the shtf, there'll be no power grid or towers
b) tell princess to do the laundry in the creek or something
I've lived off the grid for well over a decade, there's plenty to keep princess busy whether she wants to do it or not. I've no tolerance for parents who raise 'princesses' or 'princes'... You are setting them up to be failures, to be a leach on someone at all times, always taking and expecting more.
I noticed what I presume to be a public service commercial with a mom wanting to talk to her daughter "about her texting" excesses. But she couldn't muster the courage so they'll wait for dad to come home and be the bad guy. I have a solution for this typical family: A phonectomy for the daughter. Cut the bastard off and that will solve the texting problem.
Better watch out, the goobermint might step in and consider that child abuse.
Without a texting-capable cellphone, today's urban/suburban youth has no social life - zip, nada (and will be treated like a loser, to boot). So how far are parents willing to go to curb texting expenses? This is the world of perverse incentives.
I do not envy today's youth or today's parents.
Or to be corporate politicians.
Dude most of everyone hasn't even been car camping, let alone backpacking for a few days. Joe Average has no idea what to do over the course of a day in order to eat, drink, and be merry when you have no electricity, no running water, and no four walls to keep yer ass safe from critters, little and big...
Yep... we're fucked.
More food for you.
"I have been with a group of people...younger....and no one talked..they were all texting...very strange...very strange...
And for you survivalists out there...you may have enough food and water lo last a year...but if princess does not have a cellphone..she will commit suicide in three days max..."
Think of that as the benefit of the phone....
There are more cell phones because people have to call more people to borrow money. Especially when the people they already borrowed money from have their old number blocked they have to get a new number.
Every one borrowing the same $20. It's the new M2! The more, the faster....BOOYEAH!......Bernanke's plan is working!
America is NOT that addicted. I mean come on, if we spend that much...
Oh, excuse me I have a text...
I used to go to bars with my friends but I noticed that when we would hang, they were on their smart phones. Grown men mind you that were "checking in" telling everyone where I was and who I was with by using their FB app. Now I just go to the bar by myself and its actually quite nice...just sitting, enjoying a frosty beer just like the good old days
I know exactly what you mean. I cant take everyone's obsession with the self promothion through FB. Its the continuos devolving into a passive aggressive society. txting instead of calling, FB'ing instead of contacting a person and saying congratulations, or condolences, even work now is all via technology, face to face meetings are 5% of the total. Its too easy to be a telephone tough guy!! Where does it end!
We have a client who sadly lost their home in the downturn when their businesses tanked. They are in rentals now. New iPhones for all the kids and the divorced parents.
iPads too.
There is something seriously fucked up with this for at $1,800 a year in unlimited data and voice you are not going to get ahead. (Probably more like $2,500 with the iPad data added in).
Downside of the phones: People keeping their heads down to read them. Something symbolic about that.
Upside: I love to read (which is why I actually use logic). My smartphone has enabled me to read more and be more informed about the clusterfuck that is the world today.
I found out about Zerohedge reading Twitter on my Android. I'm glad I did.
Downside - A LOT of people are developing terrible posture.
Hello... hello... is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me, is there anyone home?
At work last week, young married guy on phone with jobless wife. She went to use debit card and got "no money" message. So he looks up the bank account and they paid the cell phone bill. So his no job wife says, "why didn't you pay the cell phone bill with the credit card", "dummy".
iWall-E
,000
I can't wait until they make a round iPad so I can eat off it when I'm not watching it.
Haven't you ever been to an upscale restaurant that uses square plate? Eat away...
---sent from my Blackberry
No, but I won 242nd place on Master Chef.
No doubt about it. This country has lost it's soul
Mindless serf keep on getting poorer and more brainwashed by getting themselves scuked into these matrix via all these 3C devices! When I was young, I read science fiction story that said the end of human civilization will happen when the robot rise. Now I begin to think the human civilization will end when they get sucked into gigantic matrix and become part of machines, the robot won't even need to fire a single laser gun.
I'm betting on the rise of the Robot Girl ending civilization. I could go out and work...or I could stay home and make out with my Marilyn Monroe bot...
http://vimeo.com/12915013
You almost get the feeling that the internet has turned into an enormous silicon based brain which is in the process of assimilating all these people and turning them into giant mobile neurons.
--sent from my Radio Shack rotary dial phone
It is actually.
-- Received on my Amiga 500
Thanks for the text.
==Received on my morse telegraph
Has anyone seen my carrier pigeon?
-- Sent via smoke signal
The only time I squandered money like this was when I was using recreational cocaine. Drug free for 28 years, smartphone free forever.
how in the world can watching a movie on a fucking phone be even remotely satisfying? this is BEYOND idiotic.
How can sending autistic-sounding text messages be even remotely as gratifying as personal company and contact?
What the fuck is WRONG with people nowadays?
Agreed.
I've seen groups of kids (high-school/college age) standing together...everyone texting, nobody talking to the people right next to them. I wanted to go over to them, take the fucking phones out of their hands and smash them all to pieces.
What's worse is when I'm with an adult of my age range (40's) and they are texting while talking to me in person. It takes enormous self control for me to keep from just bitch-slapping them.
"Social media" has in fact made us more anti-social. How's that for irony?
I'm 26 went to a party this weekend (lots of underemployed people but with the iPhone5) and it was so surreal how EVERYONE was texting the entire time. I don't have a smart phone so I was just like WTF WHO ARE THEY TEXTING AND WHY
They were texting each other. They must appear to be popular amongst themselves, or else its a complete waste of money.
Debbie Does Dallas?
How are you going to watch a TV show on a 60-inch plasma TV while at work??? You gotta make due, man...and watch on your phone instead of working. I am sure that nice lady isn't shirking anything important. She probably isn't a nurse or an air traffic controller...or a teacher...
Hey, most Americans could stand to lose some weight, and Steve Jobs is now a half assed Yak, or a half-Yak half ghost or some such shit according to the Buddhists, and people who dress weird don't lie. So take that ZH.
He should be a Yak in the afterlife, they said he smelled like a Yak while still alive.
They have to have their iPhone 5 and data so they can keep up to date with facebook and i-Tunes even if they have take out loans,
When did Apple sell its soul...before or after Bill Gates: http://www.disinfo.com/2012/09/apple-moving-forward-on-location-based-disabling-of-iphone-cameras/
It's a status symbol and very soon, just like CB Radio, it will die.
yes...but not until verbal/reading SAT scores drop below 200 as a national average...which at the rate we're going should be sometime next year.
Have no fear! Smartphones will replace calculators in the SAT and then the good ole' american genius students will all get close to perfect scores (yes, I said close to perfect...how sad)...
Don't worry, by the time they're all 80+ years old, they won't even be able to remember how to operate the iPhone much less how to turn it on.
Pretty stupid, an unlimited data/text and 100min plan for $30/mo is not too shabby, especially if you couple it with cheap or free SIP on an unlocked Galaxy Nexus phone..
http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans?clicked=link2
Plus, Ting is pretty darned cheap, though you have to buy their device which is locked to Ting or Sprint. They have some decent devices though.
https://ting.com/plans
the expectation that a device can promote communication, connectedness and utility is not only highly misplaced but actually totally counterproductive. never has so much been spent by so many for so little, reflecting a miasma of pathological insecurity, disconnectedness, myopic and subjective self obsession, existential loneliness, these electronic leashes while attempting to satisfy hysterical uxorial and maternal neediness, contribute to government surveillance matrices, corporate spying and obscene intrusion on privacy.
the spectacle of the mesmerized and isolated compulsive texting phoning and self absorbed babbling in public is an expression of unprecendented collective mania indicative of a civilization in the throes of mental breakdown. on the other hand there is the possibility of rescue in remote areas and difficult situations. hardly worth the massive and generally useless expenditure of human resources. the next step is RFID chipping and human/computer/robotic interface "singularity".
These devices also allow a level of connectivity and ability to organize that has yet to be explored. Maybe its evolution in motion and you're being left behind.
If only the founding fathers didn't feel the we should be guaranteed a right to privacy. How could they have forseen the possibilities? It makes the case for a living consitution.
There's nothing wrong with a living Constitution, just try to remember that ours is a 225 year old lady and if not handled gently and diligently can keel over and die a sudden death.
Wow, and I was bitchin about $23 cell phone bill last month... That's like 2/3s an ounce of silver! Outrageous!
CELL PHONES>GLD
Maybe... But surely not silver... :)
I-crack,it's the new Amerikan drug.
Someone once said that stupity is the universal crime. I think they nailed it.
RON PAUL has an iPHONE5
But, he isn't doing without other things to do so. I could buy an iphone and afford it. The question is why are people who are broke buying iphones. I've heard of fake it until you make it but, this is stupid.
Now they fake it until the next iCrap comes out
[The real question is why do people - whether they can afford it or not - want it.
The core function of a mobile telephone was available to a mass market since the launch of the Nokia 1000 "Ultrabasic" Series which debuted SIXTEEN years ago. Only minor incremental improvements such as signal quality and range have been added since. The rest have nothing to do with the functionality of a mobile telephone as such. They are accessories.
Calling a smartphone so is marketing doublespeak. It's functionality as a telephone is practically incidental these days, the accessories and packaging have become the selling points.
We can safely say that from a functionality standpoint that the StarTAC and the iPhone are both pretty good mobile telephones, so why does the iPhone (and other smartphones) have a cult follwing?]
Duh, it's not about the telephone, it's about the image, the brand, the packaging, the identity, the experience.
Happily, people love going into debt for the illusion of social status; smartphone companies merely exploit this tendency. The specific composition of discretionary spending has changed to favor plastic toys like smartphones (reflecting the increasingly infantile character of the consumer?), instead of using the credit to card to purchase, let's say, nicer clothes and restaurant meals. The dynamic has not changed - go into debt to finance a lifestyle you could not otherwise afford.
Look at the life of the average debt-serf today, these trinkets are all they have.
I wish I could give you more upvotes.
As your unbiased analyst Reggie Middleton repeatedly likes to point out, far fewer people buy "CRAAPL" phones, in fact Android outsells iPhone by two to one in the U.S.
To be fair, going to the movies is a complete waste. And for most of the country, the best place to eat out is Outback. So calm the fuck down, folks.
And most people don't use a computer for much more than checking email, looking at porn, and watching a clip of a cat crawling out of box on Youtube anyway. Can that be done with an iWhatever? Sure. No reason to buy a new $1,500 laptop for that.
You must not have bought a laptop recently. There is no reason for anyone who isn't addicted to gaming or porn to spend $1500 on a laptop. My last two laptops (both of which are used daily) cost less than $500.
I reserve one laptop for serious business and the other for more risky things; yes I'm a geek.
Do you have a link to that cat crawling out of the box video?
No, but I do have a link to a video of a cat taking a crap in an iPhone box, will that do?
More reasons for cell phone carriers to keep raising prices. As long as people keep paying. It's a no-brainer for carriers.
1 i have trouble finding a pay-as-you-go plan that works for me. Living in deepest Wales with little signal (none at my house, for instance) i want to use it occasionally, but 50p/minute on all mainstream networks mean if you ring someone and they talk a lot, £10 has gone before you've told them to shut up. Which i'd rather not have to do. your only alternative is asdamobile or similar on vodafone network, which lose most of the texts you send or send them a day late (took me ages to find this out, i know it's true for a fact) and sound like your phone is a tin can on the end of a string, not handy if your hearing's bad. Tesco is 15p/minute landlines, which i think is expensive as it's on vodafone and probably as bad as the others that are. The only really cheap ones are for calling mobiles abroad, but i need to call british landlines. I don't want gaffgaff because i spend many weeks where i make no calls. Meanwhile the EU parliament worries about the price of data roaming, not the price say a homeless person has to pay to make essential calls - wonder why! So, there's not a cheap option. £10/month is your cheapest, pointless if you make about 20minutes' calls/month.
2) You get so much if you get internet, like cheap shopping and train tickets, the cost of eg postage is so high, and you can sell things on amazon and ebay and search for jobs easier, that i think it does pay for itself. I certainly pay for mine just with my former newspaper-buying habits plus the amount i save buying old CDs for 1p on amazon instead of new ones.I don't think they're necessarily wrong.
3) Americans came to mobiles late, they are now where we were in the 90s, in the expansionary phase. The EU is very good for setting industry standards!
For the hell of it check out Magic Jack. Maybe it might just work for you.
US phone # so calling UK would be extra but only pennies per min additional.
But calling US Canada all you want free.
Calling other MJ users anywhere also free
US $20-30 a year. Yes PER YEAR
I use it and with my Frontier High speed data. Call are clearer then cell phones and the new unit plugs into a router instead of computer USB port.
http://magicjack.hubpages.com/hub/buy-magicjack-phone-in-europe
Or better yet, Ooma.
Ooma!!!!! All free, all the time, got one of the first ones before the FTC stepped in and require a fee. Ha ha!!!!
Skype and google have calling plans too
while walking thru the mall, i was winning auctions on ebay for the same stuff in the mall for much much less.....i found the humor in that and dont mind the $150 cell bill
But walking through the mall is good for you health + ebay and paypal aren't there to fuck you in the ass.
$150 cell bill to save 3 cents on some chinacrap on fleabay. Good idea.
Many people are more than willing to pay a $200 to $300/month bill for an iPhone 5 and the data. No problem. So carriers can keep raising the prices and making profits resulting in higher share prices.
Some talking head on Fox said this was a good thing because "look how much more you are getting for your money with the new, high-speed data services."
As Martha Stewart would say just before hitting Buy on her brokerage portal, "It's a good thing!"
I used to know a guy who obsessed over being too thin and long.
Smart nerchants don't sell you what you need; they convince you that you need what they have.............
Bread and circuits.
I don't get it----I've never looked at someone with an iPhone and thought, "wow, he/she must be rich." Then again, I'm a realist and even when I see an unknown driving around in a Bentley, as far as I'm concerned, it's either leased or being added to the minimum monthly payment on the credit card. Either way, I don't really give a shit what someone has or doesn't have. I can run a mile in under 7 minutes and can cook up a meal just as good as any 5 star restaurant chef can prepare it. That counts for something, right?
when I look at my doorman with an iphone ... I can only think "what moron".
Just another liquidity sink.
I starve to acquire GAS (Gold And Silver).
Tyler at his best.
People are fucking stupid.
I don't have a cellphone, never had one, probably never will.
Yea it doth be free, verily, thou shouldst swipe thine EBT!
"Hanson was in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart one day when he saw a young woman struggling to move a big screen television into her Honda. When he went over to help her, he noticed that she was holding an EBT card, a government-issued debit card for cash and food stamps.
Hanson told her, “You shouldn’t be using the food card to buy the big screen TV.” She told him to mind his own business.""
http://www.hoover.org/publications/defining-ideas/article/127936
My cell phone bill is about
$30
per year.
As long as you are not a hotline worker, I don't understand what people need to talk about all the time. They are just unorganized and unprepared.
This is good. Your average american could eat 50% less food and still gain weight. An apple a day keeps the doctor away!
This is good. Your average american could eat 50% less food and still gain weight. An apple a day keeps the doctor away!
The cell phone went in the crapper in June of 2007 and my TV preceded it in 1987. I feel much better now. When the internet is censored (more) and owned by (insert name here) it too will be sent packing.
In certain cultures, the way to judge a person's networth can be done simply by verifiying whether or not he has any visible e-leashes around his body. If he wears a mobile phone, by definition, he must be a poor person.
Smart phones make us stupid. I saw a young father tonight in our neighbourhood taking his adorable little toddler daughter for a walk. He was walking at least 15 feet ahead of her, poking and gawking at his ithing while the little girl, still in diapers was wandering around at the end of driveways where cars could pull out and out next to the road where she could topple over the curb cause Dad is stupified by his smart phone. Unbelievable.
Welcome my son....welcome to the machine
With an AT&T cell carrier usage plan:
iPhone 4 $1
iPhone 4S $99
iPhone 5 $200
The marginal utility is tangible mostly for game playing, and the useful life in normal usage is five years.
The reason the vast majority of people upgrade iPhones is to acquire a status symbol, not utility. The carriers simply structure data plans to harvest profits from the status seekers who watch videos when not on wifi.
Americans spend too much on food anyways...
this just calls for moar QE, moar!!!
if espana can have their spiderman towels, we gotta have our iJunk..
I got a call the other day to upgrade to the new iPhone 5. I laughed, and told them that I would be leaving O2 as a result of their call, and they regrettably would be getting no commission.
Also,want any PORK products for a year?, best get em' NOW, as the prices are DOUBLING next year.Good thing we have 300# Feral hogs for free in Texas..............just shoot it,and skin it................farmers let you kill as many as you want.
I feel so SHITTY about myself, using my 8 year old Nokia Dumb phone (battery still lasts 3 days easy) and only spending about $20. per month on pre-paid minutes from the local convenience store. How can I ever show my face here again?
Having said all that, I have the feeling that I'll be 'needing' an iphone 5 shortly - it has a "sapphire crystal lens cover"...
Interesting piece. I ditched by regular cell phone about one year ago, realising that being constantly available was both unnecessary and annoying. Since then I've been using an old (probably 'ancient' in the tech-sphere) smartphone that doesn't function as a cell in my country of residence. Perfect solution...no monthly bills, initial outlay was 40 EUR to repair a shattered screen. Having access to a wireless network at home and at work means I have internet access 85% of the day, and can check both email (cost of sending 1 email = 0 EUR) and make calls using various FREE VOIP apps. When abroad I simply purchase a 20 EUR cell, insert a local sim and throw it in the cupboard when I'm done. Certainly an elegant solution for my lifestyle, and I can recommend it to those who don't require a connection throughout the day.
This is actually my first post, though I've been a reader for quite a while. Great source of information, both from articles and comments.