How can everyone afford an iphone?

Ok, seriously. I'm currently an unpaid student teaching intern (just for the semester) but even while working 3 jobs through school I could NOT afford an iphone. It's not the initial cost of the device, it's the $100 a month I'll have to pay for service and DATA. That's $1, 200 a year! I mention that I'm a student teacher because recently I have been the most surprised (and disgusted) by observing my high school students- All with iphones! This is not a ritzy town. A lot of people are very poor here… But everyone has an iphone.Am I missing something?

Added (1). To clarify, I'm not wondering how they afford the PHONE itself. That's peanuts compared to the DATA plan you sign up to pay for 2 years. It seems like whenever people talk about affording an iphone all they talk about is the cost of the phone… It makes me go "hello… Umm… The cost of the phone is like ONE month of service"

Not everyone does, but the ones who do already have plans with their service providers. The SPs provide an upgrade to sometimes, an iPhone. This is how most people got iPhone 4 and 4S phones. The iPhone 5 upgrade is not available everywhere yet, but will be, wait until then and upgrade (best are Sprint, AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile)

Its often cheaper if you sign onto a family plan(which is what i'm sure most of those kids are on)

I'm with you, Everyone at my school has iPhones and I don't see how their parents afford it. Even though i don't have a job and the only money iv'e gotten was from like washing cars and allowence, I realize thats a ton of money. Yet I know if I did have a job and was in the real world, i'd get another phone, like android or something. OK, so maby you need to look at other phone plans? I asked a friend and he said it was only like $40 a month, I don't know the plan he had though, i think it was a family plan, thats why all the students have them.