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Could my parents afford an iPhone? No of course not. Among many other things. $$$ isn't the only quality of life indicator. When doing this calculation, you o
by randyrand 10y ago
Could my parents afford an iPhone? No of course not. Among many other things.
$$$ isn't the only quality of life indicator.
When doing this calculation, you of course adjust for these things. an iPhone would cost billions of dollars in 1970. Is that the figure we should use? Probably not. But it means that these calculations are largely arbitrary since we don't know the true value of an iPhone to a person in 1970.
- vacri 10y agoNo smartphones, no internet, no entertainment-on-demand, fewer rights for minorities, fewer rights for women, less capable medicine, more expensive food and clothing, fewer shopping hours, less safe transport, less safe workplaces, more expensive and shorter-ranged travel, less environmental protections, etc, etc, etc. All this stuff is conveniently ignored when comparing against previous generations.
- mywittyname 10y agoI'm not sure why you're being down-voted so much. It's undeniable that our quality of life have improved dramatically since 1940.
- vacri 10y agoPeople whose identity is wrapped up in how hard they have it can have trouble when it's pointed out that maybe it's not so bad after all.
- qntty 10y agoWho cares about iPhones? They could afford education, healthcare and housing. These calculations are far from arbitrary. We have a reasonable idea of the sorts of things that people need to live a decent life, and these things have gotten more expensive. (Ok, so another commenter pointed out that maybe housing isn't as expensive as it's made out to be, but it's certainly not cheaper.)
- randyrand 10y agoiPhones were just an example =)
- randomdata 10y ago> They could afford education To be fair, they could afford it because they didn't care about it. The degree attainment rate has doubled since 1980. If the student population reverted back to those levels, price would plummet.