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These young people in Tokyo are dispassionately assessing the new offerings from the Apple corporation. Will they buy an Apple Watch? Perhaps they will, but only after a long, thoughtful process of consideration in which they are assured that the product will be of sufficient benefit to justify its high price.

Paul Waldman is a weekly columnist and senior writer for The American Prospect. He also writes for the Plum Line blog at The Washington Post and The Week and is the author of Being Right Is Not Enough: What Progressives Must Learn From Conservative Success. Follow @paulwaldman1