3 ms·
There's no global reference frame for distance or wealth. You can't point to a spot in space and say "the Earth was here 1000 years ago". All you can say is tha
by dTal 6y ago
There's no global reference frame for distance or wealth. You can't point to a spot in space and say "the Earth was here 1000 years ago". All you can say is that A is x meters from B, right now. And likewise you can't compare wealth now with wealth 50 years ago - it's not a coherent concept, when you could buy a house on a blue collar wage, but not a smartphone at any price. What you can do is say that person A is twice as wealthy as person B.
- freshair 6y agoBut as I describe in my other comment, the value of a dollar varies not only with time but also with location and context. There are places in America today where $200 a month from a blue collar job will keep a roof over your head. In other parts of the country, $200 is worth substantially less for the same purpose. Say what you want about stellar kinematics, but measuring meters simply is not so fraught as this.