What the hell happened to technology?

Matt and I went to Target today to purchase an answering machine for our home phone. We lived for a year in Socorro without one, and for two years before that without a home phone at all, but now I am using the home phone for freelance-related calls and it is sort of crucial that people be able to leave messages. Turns out Target sells only one answering machine that is not attached to a phone. One. And it's not very exciting. So I decided to upgrade my $5 phone from Family Dollar to a cordless phone/answering machine all-in-one. It cost 1/8 of the payment for my current article. So ridiculous. I hope a lot of people leave me messages. And I even more hope this isn't the last article I do, because then it really would have been a waste. Seriously, whatever happened to a plain old answering machine? Is this a function that some Apple product now supersedes? On the plus side, I did buy an Energy Star phone that is made without some harmful metals including mercury and lead. So if I eat it maybe it won't be that bad.