Man, It’s Going To Get So Much Worse Before It Gets Better

Few memes better encapsulate the modern era’s perpetual ability to be grimly surprising than the Star Wars “For the Better, Right?” format. The memory-holing of the pandemic, the encore of evil stupidity that is Trump 2.0, and now the tech race to ride an AI bubble are fueling unprecedented supply shocks to parts of the economy people actually like and find useful.

Apple has responded to those pressures with notable price hikes: the MacBook Air is now $1,300, up from $1,100; the 14-inch MacBook Pro is $2,000, up from $1,700; and the MacBook Neo has moved from $600 to $700. Outgoing CEO Tim Cook warned the situation has become unsustainable, saying, “We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable,” and adding, “I’ve never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years.” The squeeze is showing up across gaming hardware too.

apple, macbook air, macbook pro, macbook neo, tim cook, price hikes, supply shocks, gaming hardware, ai bubble, pandemic