5 ms·

How does one define poorer? If you were given the choice to go back in time and live in your parents generation INSTEAD of the present, your life expectancy is

by fatpenguin2015 11y ago

How does one define poorer? If you were given the choice to go back in time and live in your parents generation INSTEAD of the present, your life expectancy is lower, you dont have the Internet for information. Overseas Phone Calls were a luxury back then, so was airplane travel. It seems to me inn absolute terms, the vast majority is better off vs if they were the same age in the 1980's

nocman 11y ago
And the US wasn't 19 Trillion dollars in debt either.
- pnut 11y ago
  Your statement presumes a lot, for instance that sovereign debt under all circumstances, is an existential threat. The United States has been in deeper debt (as a percentage of GDP) before.
  - nocman 11y ago
    A huge amount of debt is always a threat to prosperity (both personal and national). The fact that so many people seem to think it is "no big deal" is part of the problem (on both a personal and national level).
  - hwstar 11y ago
    Yes, the amount of debt was much larger in WW2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_public_debt#/media/File:Federal_Debt_Held_by_the_Public_1790-2013.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_p...
    - nocman 11y ago
      Only if you are measuring against GDP. Even adjusting for the value of a dollar in 1950, the $260 billion owed was equivalent only to about 3.5 trillion dollars. Nothing to sneeze at, but nowhere near 19 trillion.
lumberjack 11y ago
Education, healthcare and housing were more accessible though. But who cares about those things? As long as I have Wikipedia on my smartphone I'm blessed.
WalterBright 11y ago
I remember when traveling to Europe was a huge luxury that you'd be lucky to do once in a lifetime. Now I fly to Europe, give an hour presentation, and fly home again. It's unbelievable.
rm_-rf_slash 11y ago
I think a lot of us would trade long distance calling and Internet access for the ability to go to college without being indebted for life, find a job that didn't make you work at home after hours or on the weekends, and be able to afford a house to maintain and leave for their children. Being able to afford a new iPhone every other year is not prosperity.
- yummyfajitas 11y ago
  I wouldn't trade an MRI and micro-lumbar discectomy for a house. Would you give up all medicine invented since 1970 if you could pay 1970 prices? Also, the average price of college is <1 year of an average college grad earnings (according to a quick Google search). If you are indebted for life because of this, its your own fault. More people than ever before own houses, and much larger ones than in the past. Your complaints don't seem to fit reality.
  - rm_-rf_slash 11y ago
    >If you are indebted for life because of this, its your own fault. So you managed to pay off a college degree with no parental support, no scholarships, no grants, no subsidized federal loans, and at an interest rate of 4%+? What's your secret? Be born before the 90s?
    - yummyfajitas 11y ago
      If you consume only 50% of what you earn, you can pay it off in 2-3 years. I consume far less than 50% of what I earn.
      - rm_-rf_slash 11y ago
        Good for you that you can exert self-discipline and have a high paying job. The rest of us have trouble finding work after graduation (engineers with masters degrees that can't find anything more than 45k) or are paid so poorly that they have no hope of ever paying off their loans (teachers in my high school were still paying their loans in their 50s and 60s, mostly because they wanted to procreate and housing in my town is very expensive). Or maybe you're right. Maybe it is their fault entirely. Maybe if it's too expensive to be a teacher, nobody should train to be one. Maybe if it's too expensive to have children, then nobody should have offspring. "Just be as perfect as me" is poor social policy. At best, it's merely smug advice.
pravda 11y ago
>Overseas Phone Calls were a luxury back then Forget about overseas, INTERSTATE phone calls were a luxury! The 1980s were a nightmare -- no GPS, no cell phones, no digital cameras.
- WalterBright 11y ago
  We had cooler clothing styles in the 80s, though.

nocman 11y ago

And the US wasn't 19 Trillion dollars in debt either.

pnut 11y ago
Your statement presumes a lot, for instance that sovereign debt under all circumstances, is an existential threat. The United States has been in deeper debt (as a percentage of GDP) before.
- nocman 11y ago
  A huge amount of debt is always a threat to prosperity (both personal and national). The fact that so many people seem to think it is "no big deal" is part of the problem (on both a personal and national level).
- hwstar 11y ago
  Yes, the amount of debt was much larger in WW2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_public_debt#/media/File:Federal_Debt_Held_by_the_Public_1790-2013.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_p...
  - nocman 11y ago
    Only if you are measuring against GDP. Even adjusting for the value of a dollar in 1950, the $260 billion owed was equivalent only to about 3.5 trillion dollars. Nothing to sneeze at, but nowhere near 19 trillion.

lumberjack 11y ago

Education, healthcare and housing were more accessible though. But who cares about those things? As long as I have Wikipedia on my smartphone I'm blessed.

WalterBright 11y ago

I remember when traveling to Europe was a huge luxury that you'd be lucky to do once in a lifetime. Now I fly to Europe, give an hour presentation, and fly home again. It's unbelievable.

rm_-rf_slash 11y ago

I think a lot of us would trade long distance calling and Internet access for the ability to go to college without being indebted for life, find a job that didn't make you work at home after hours or on the weekends, and be able to afford a house to maintain and leave for their children. Being able to afford a new iPhone every other year is not prosperity.

yummyfajitas 11y ago
I wouldn't trade an MRI and micro-lumbar discectomy for a house. Would you give up all medicine invented since 1970 if you could pay 1970 prices? Also, the average price of college is <1 year of an average college grad earnings (according to a quick Google search). If you are indebted for life because of this, its your own fault. More people than ever before own houses, and much larger ones than in the past. Your complaints don't seem to fit reality.
- rm_-rf_slash 11y ago
  >If you are indebted for life because of this, its your own fault. So you managed to pay off a college degree with no parental support, no scholarships, no grants, no subsidized federal loans, and at an interest rate of 4%+? What's your secret? Be born before the 90s?
  - yummyfajitas 11y ago
    If you consume only 50% of what you earn, you can pay it off in 2-3 years. I consume far less than 50% of what I earn.
    - rm_-rf_slash 11y ago
      Good for you that you can exert self-discipline and have a high paying job. The rest of us have trouble finding work after graduation (engineers with masters degrees that can't find anything more than 45k) or are paid so poorly that they have no hope of ever paying off their loans (teachers in my high school were still paying their loans in their 50s and 60s, mostly because they wanted to procreate and housing in my town is very expensive). Or maybe you're right. Maybe it is their fault entirely. Maybe if it's too expensive to be a teacher, nobody should train to be one. Maybe if it's too expensive to have children, then nobody should have offspring. "Just be as perfect as me" is poor social policy. At best, it's merely smug advice.

pravda 11y ago

>Overseas Phone Calls were a luxury back then Forget about overseas, INTERSTATE phone calls were a luxury! The 1980s were a nightmare -- no GPS, no cell phones, no digital cameras.

WalterBright 11y ago
We had cooler clothing styles in the 80s, though.