... and today ain't as bad as it seems.
Talk or read politics or current events long enough and you are sure to run into someone discussing the current crisis in incomes. That is, that incomes have stagnated. People make roughly what they made in the 1970s. It's a travesty, suppposedly. It's blamed on the decline in union power, the meany corporations, globalism, global trade. It's blamed on pretty much an boogey man that can reasonably be dug up.
But as this article points out, while wages may have stagnated, the purchasing power of those wages has increased.
Today, cars cost roughly what they did in 1970 ($20,000ish) but last twice as long. Cars in the 1970s would never have made it to 200,000 miles, which a reasonably cared for car can make these days. And this ignores the mandated safety devices that make these more valuable cars even safer.
Meanwhile, computers, televisions, refrigerators and music playback devices are all cheaper, more convenient and for the most part, built better than in 1970. Back then computers were unobtainable, televisions staticy, refrigerators needed defrosting, and record players and 8-track tapes offered poor quality and limited lifetimes. Meanwhile, computers are now sub-$300 playthings, televisions are low-powered, HD-bulging devices five times larger than their 1970s relatives, plenty of people have two refrigerators, none of which require taking all your frozen goods out of them to defrost them.
Progress.
Reminds me of your post (which I can't find) where you talked about how people always bemoan how wonderful the past is ("In the good ol' days...").
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I was reading a historical fiction about an FBI agent who traveled back to 1889 and at one point says to his companion, "You're time period sucks," to which his companion replies, "Is yours really that much better?" (asking in honest curiosity), to which the agent thinks, and then says, "No, not really."
Not better, just different. In a thousand ways they are better, and in a thousand ways they are worse (although some could argue the ways are not equal). Progress is nice though.