7 ms·

Not exactly related to the topic at hand, but that opening paragraph really caught my eye: "I had my father sign me up for an RCA correspondence course on radi

Not exactly related to the topic at hand, but that opening paragraph really caught my eye: "I had my father sign me up for an RCA correspondence course on radio and television repair. So, by the time I got to Berkeley, I was a journeyman TV repairman and actually paid my way through college through television." Sometimes it's had to believe just how much the cost of college has changed since the 60s/70s.

pjc50 7y ago
Really highlights the workings of "Baumol cost disease" in general: TVs themselves have got cheaper, so everyone can have one for a fraction of their income. The relative cost of repair labour has gone up, as well as the devices getting less repairable, so TV repairmen are no longer a major source of employment. While college - which entirely consists of paying for the skilled labour of others, as well as buildings - has gone up hugely by comparison. Someone should calculate the historical cost of college in terms of how many televisions you could have bought instead.
- dkdk8283 7y ago
  Not limited to TVs. Appliance repair in general has been replaced with disposable appliances. Human rights violations in countries like China is to blame for reducing the value of skilled labor.
  - mikepurvis 7y ago
    It's true, and a huge shame, particularly as it's driven appliances to be made with parts not designed to last beyond a 10 year lifespan. That said, it's been interesting to witness the recent rise in YouTube repair guides coupled with online parts stores. Obviously not for everyone, but I've had good results repairing two different washing machines, a stove, a coffee grinder, my hot tub, a laptop, a video game controller, etc. For a lot of those I would have felt completely overwhelmed and not known where to start without a video tutorial.
- rbanffy 7y ago
  The TV set index seems like a nice counterpart to the Big Mac Index.
- duskwuff 7y ago
  > The relative cost of repair labour has gone up, as well as the devices getting less repairable, so TV repairmen are no longer a major source of employment. I think you're missing another important factor. TV repair was a major source of employment because early TVs were highly failure-prone! A TV was usually the most complicated piece of electronic equipment in the house. It would often have dozens of tubes that could burn out, and older models were assembled with point-to-point wiring (instead of circuit boards) which was prone to short circuits. It wouldn't be unusual for one to need repair or tuneup work a few times a year. Modern TVs, by comparison, rarely require repairs. A new flatscreen TV is likely to provide continuous, problem-free service until it is obsolete. That's the real reason why TV repairmen are rare now, not because TVs are cheaper or harder to repair.
dreamcompiler 7y ago
I started college in EE at UT Austin in 1978. The rent on my two-bedroom apartment was $180/month. My textbooks cost about $300/semester. My tuition was something like $10/credit hour/semester. I don't remember the exact number because even on my very limited budget, it was in the noise. I stayed in Austin for grad school. Pre-turtleneck Steve Jobs came to campus in 1984 and gave a talk about how great his new computer was, and told us he'd let us all buy one for half price. I bought one of those "Macintosh" things, plus a Lisa to develop for it, and the rest for me was history. Interesting tidbit: Because Macs were cheap for students in Austin, a lot of great Mac developer talent sprang up there. Jeff Kodosky prototyped a really cool visual programming language on the first Mac, then hired several UT students to productize it into a commercial engineering tool. He called it LabView. https://www.ni.com/en-us/about-ni/leadership/kodosky.html https://www.ni.com/en-us/about-ni/leadership/kodosky.html
- wolfhumble 7y ago
  According to https://www.usinflationcalculator.com https://www.usinflationcalculator.com monthly apartment rental of $180/month would be $713 today, and the textbooks of $300/semester would be $1,188 today. According to https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/tx/austin/ https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/tx/au... the average cost for an apartment in the neighborhood of the University of Texas at Austin is $2,581. :-)
JoeAltmaier 7y ago
I started college in 1976. $300 per semester, 16 hours. Textbooks cost around $100 (all of them together). But I earned $2.75/hr at the college computer lab as a lab monitor. So yeah.
- nullc 7y ago
  Obligatory inflation and alternatives correction: $100 USD in 1976 -> $462 today (per CPI) $100 invested in S&P500 in Aug 1976 -> $8890 today.
- itcrowd 7y ago
  At $600 per year (1978 dollars, two semesters), inflation correction puts it at about $2400 per year in 2020 dollars. That's on the high end of what domestic students pay in Europe today for a full-time bachelor or master degree program (per academic year).
  - JoeAltmaier 7y ago
    For comparison, my college is about $3000/semester now. And textbooks can cost around $1000. So, 10X.
    - itcrowd 7y ago
      > So, 10X. No, that's not how inflation works.
      - JoeAltmaier 7y ago
        Thanks, Pedant! I need you to explain everything to me.
      - craftinator 7y ago
        Educate us, dear commentor.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
vlunkr 7y ago
I went to community college and I knew tons of people that paid their way through with low-skill jobs. It certainly requires some discipline though.
fortran77 7y ago
Back in my day, you were able to take the "First Class Radiotelephone Exam" at the local FCC office and be able to get a job at radio stations easily. I worked my way through college this way. This license no longer exists. It was several hundred multiple choice questions about operating commercial radio stations.
- jrockway 7y ago
  Are you sure that these licenses no longer exist? The FCC has a detailed section of their website about them: https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/commercial-radio-operator-license-program https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-divis... I am not sure what relevance they have these days. The FAA seems to handle everything involving aviation radios. I know nothing about shipping. Everything else seems to be computer-based (so you don't operate the radio, you operate a computer that operates the radio in accordance with FCC rules).
  - fortran77 7y ago
    The licence that remains is equivalent to the old "General Radio Telephone" licence. This was a much easier, shorter test and wasn't considered the equivalent of a "degree" by employers. Read to the bottom of the page. It lists the "First Class Radiotelephone Licence" as "no longer operative" https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/commercial-radio-operator-license-program/commercial-0 https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-divis... When I renewed mine, it was "downgraded" to the General Radiotelephone license.
TMWNN 7y ago
The University of California system did not charge tuition for in-state students until 1970. https://www.dailycal.org/2014/12/22/history-uc-tuition-since-1868/ https://www.dailycal.org/2014/12/22/history-uc-tuition-since...
- clashandcarry 7y ago
  It was a "registration fee" as the UC system was intended to be tuition free The UC system stayed free of the word tuition that way.

pjc50 7y ago

Really highlights the workings of "Baumol cost disease" in general: TVs themselves have got cheaper, so everyone can have one for a fraction of their income. The relative cost of repair labour has gone up, as well as the devices getting less repairable, so TV repairmen are no longer a major source of employment. While college - which entirely consists of paying for the skilled labour of others, as well as buildings - has gone up hugely by comparison. Someone should calculate the historical cost of college in terms of how many televisions you could have bought instead.

dkdk8283 7y ago
Not limited to TVs. Appliance repair in general has been replaced with disposable appliances. Human rights violations in countries like China is to blame for reducing the value of skilled labor.
- mikepurvis 7y ago
  It's true, and a huge shame, particularly as it's driven appliances to be made with parts not designed to last beyond a 10 year lifespan. That said, it's been interesting to witness the recent rise in YouTube repair guides coupled with online parts stores. Obviously not for everyone, but I've had good results repairing two different washing machines, a stove, a coffee grinder, my hot tub, a laptop, a video game controller, etc. For a lot of those I would have felt completely overwhelmed and not known where to start without a video tutorial.
rbanffy 7y ago
The TV set index seems like a nice counterpart to the Big Mac Index.
duskwuff 7y ago
> The relative cost of repair labour has gone up, as well as the devices getting less repairable, so TV repairmen are no longer a major source of employment. I think you're missing another important factor. TV repair was a major source of employment because early TVs were highly failure-prone! A TV was usually the most complicated piece of electronic equipment in the house. It would often have dozens of tubes that could burn out, and older models were assembled with point-to-point wiring (instead of circuit boards) which was prone to short circuits. It wouldn't be unusual for one to need repair or tuneup work a few times a year. Modern TVs, by comparison, rarely require repairs. A new flatscreen TV is likely to provide continuous, problem-free service until it is obsolete. That's the real reason why TV repairmen are rare now, not because TVs are cheaper or harder to repair.

dreamcompiler 7y ago

I started college in EE at UT Austin in 1978. The rent on my two-bedroom apartment was $180/month. My textbooks cost about $300/semester. My tuition was something like $10/credit hour/semester. I don't remember the exact number because even on my very limited budget, it was in the noise. I stayed in Austin for grad school. Pre-turtleneck Steve Jobs came to campus in 1984 and gave a talk about how great his new computer was, and told us he'd let us all buy one for half price. I bought one of those "Macintosh" things, plus a Lisa to develop for it, and the rest for me was history. Interesting tidbit: Because Macs were cheap for students in Austin, a lot of great Mac developer talent sprang up there. Jeff Kodosky prototyped a really cool visual programming language on the first Mac, then hired several UT students to productize it into a commercial engineering tool. He called it LabView. https://www.ni.com/en-us/about-ni/leadership/kodosky.html https://www.ni.com/en-us/about-ni/leadership/kodosky.html

wolfhumble 7y ago
According to https://www.usinflationcalculator.com https://www.usinflationcalculator.com monthly apartment rental of $180/month would be $713 today, and the textbooks of $300/semester would be $1,188 today. According to https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/tx/austin/ https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/tx/au... the average cost for an apartment in the neighborhood of the University of Texas at Austin is $2,581. :-)

JoeAltmaier 7y ago

I started college in 1976. $300 per semester, 16 hours. Textbooks cost around $100 (all of them together). But I earned $2.75/hr at the college computer lab as a lab monitor. So yeah.

nullc 7y ago
Obligatory inflation and alternatives correction: $100 USD in 1976 -> $462 today (per CPI) $100 invested in S&P500 in Aug 1976 -> $8890 today.
itcrowd 7y ago
At $600 per year (1978 dollars, two semesters), inflation correction puts it at about $2400 per year in 2020 dollars. That's on the high end of what domestic students pay in Europe today for a full-time bachelor or master degree program (per academic year).
- JoeAltmaier 7y ago
  For comparison, my college is about $3000/semester now. And textbooks can cost around $1000. So, 10X.
  - itcrowd 7y ago
    > So, 10X. No, that's not how inflation works.
    - JoeAltmaier 7y ago
      Thanks, Pedant! I need you to explain everything to me.
    - craftinator 7y ago
      Educate us, dear commentor.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]

vlunkr 7y ago

I went to community college and I knew tons of people that paid their way through with low-skill jobs. It certainly requires some discipline though.

fortran77 7y ago

Back in my day, you were able to take the "First Class Radiotelephone Exam" at the local FCC office and be able to get a job at radio stations easily. I worked my way through college this way. This license no longer exists. It was several hundred multiple choice questions about operating commercial radio stations.

jrockway 7y ago
Are you sure that these licenses no longer exist? The FCC has a detailed section of their website about them: https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/commercial-radio-operator-license-program https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-divis... I am not sure what relevance they have these days. The FAA seems to handle everything involving aviation radios. I know nothing about shipping. Everything else seems to be computer-based (so you don't operate the radio, you operate a computer that operates the radio in accordance with FCC rules).
- fortran77 7y ago
  The licence that remains is equivalent to the old "General Radio Telephone" licence. This was a much easier, shorter test and wasn't considered the equivalent of a "degree" by employers. Read to the bottom of the page. It lists the "First Class Radiotelephone Licence" as "no longer operative" https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/commercial-radio-operator-license-program/commercial-0 https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-divis... When I renewed mine, it was "downgraded" to the General Radiotelephone license.

TMWNN 7y ago

The University of California system did not charge tuition for in-state students until 1970. https://www.dailycal.org/2014/12/22/history-uc-tuition-since-1868/ https://www.dailycal.org/2014/12/22/history-uc-tuition-since...

clashandcarry 7y ago
It was a "registration fee" as the UC system was intended to be tuition free The UC system stayed free of the word tuition that way.