3 ms·

That's not how inflation works - in the future, the value of the dollar will be less, not more.

• twoodfin 9y ago
  Not universally: The value of $1 (nominal) worth of computing resources and information storage in 2018 is surely thousands of times the value of $1 (nominal) worth of the same in 1958. EDIT: Some quick math on deflation in storage costs. The IBM 305 RAMAC[1] was introduced in 1956, provided 5MB of magnetic storage and cost $3,200/month in 1956 dollars. To pick a random modern storage provider with a similar pricing model, in 2018 Dropbox offers 1TB for $10/month. Putting aside all the other advantages Dropbox gives you over a 305, the pure storage value of $1 (nominal) has gone from 1.6KB/month to 100GB/month, a multiple of over 50 million. [1] https://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/650/650_pr2.html https://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/650/650_pr2.html
  • notahacker 9y ago
    Focusing on the exceptions doesn't help the rule. You could get an average US house for $20k and a brand new car for $2k in 1956, and a $4k annual income was a comfortable middle class living. Commercial flight wasn't just prohibitively expensive by modern standards in 1856, it was impossible, but you could live on $100 a year at the time. If you want to pay 2118 people to resuscitate you (in the unlikely event the technology is feasible and people are willing and able and developed) you're going to need to invest that money well.
• Turing_Machine 9y ago
  It is how investments and productivity gains work, however. We are incredibly more wealthy than people of a hundred years ago, in almost every respect.
  • cgag 9y ago
    Yeah, one way I like to think about is if you could trade your current life for being a billionaire 100, 200, etc years ago, would you?