Recently, there’s an issue worth pondering. On one side, various national subsidy policies are flooding in—discounts on digital products, home appliances, and cars, making it seem like there are endless benefits. On the other side, consumers’ actual experiences are quite the opposite.

Take the comparison of new energy vehicle purchase taxes in 2025 and 2026 as an example. Last year, the tax was fully exempted, saving up to 30,000 yuan per vehicle. Starting this year, the exemption was halved, reducing the maximum savings to 15,000 yuan. Users who didn’t trade in their old cars are even worse off, losing this benefit entirely. The result? The price of new cars has effectively increased by about 15,000 yuan.

The mobile phone market is even more interesting. When subsidies were available last year, the price of new models remained almost unchanged from launch to the next generation. This year, with subsidies in place, phones have actually "gotten more expensive"—models that could originally be bought for over 400 yuan less now see retailers directly using official guide prices, with consumers using subsidies to offset the cost. What’s the outcome? Phones under 6,000 yuan that used to have discounts no longer benefit from subsidies; high-end models without discounts do qualify for subsidies. After all these maneuvers, the cheap phones remain the same price, but the expensive ones have become even pricier.

In short, subsidy policies seem to benefit the people on the surface, but in reality, the advantages are directly pocketed by merchants. What do consumers get? If your wallet is full and you want to improve your quality of life, go ahead and upgrade. Otherwise, just keep using your old stuff. The actual economic recovery in 2026 still needs to be understood clearly.