Because of course people's economic circumstances never change.

I have a computer because it was a graduation present from my parents. If I suddenly got kicked out of school and had to take on a soul-crushing minimum-wage job? I would still have the computer. And nobody's going to buy a four-year-old creaky laptop that weighs about 30 pounds.

And for a lot of people the cable is what makes it possible for them to interact with people and not submit to crushing despair. I would live on ramen and frozen peas if I had to so that I could afford the internet. Priorities. Not everybody has the same ones!