Hey John, would you rather be operated on using technology from 1975 or today? Would you rather be treated for a disease with drugs from 1975 or today? Which cars do you prefer; that fine Pinto from 1975, or a car with today's comforts and technology?
How about houses? In 1975 the average size of a home was 1,550 square feet. Today, it's almost 2,200. Which costs more, smaller or bigger? In 1975, only about 40% of all homes had air condiditoning. Today, it's more than 80%. Only about 40% had color T.V's; now it almost 100%. Back then, less than 2% of households even had microwaves. In '75 only about 5 million had cable. Today, 85% of all American households have cable. My house in 1975 would have no chance against a Cat 2 hurricane. Now a Cat 3 is considered no problem. Look at all the other upgrades since then. In the 70's we were stuck with Formica, shag carpet and manual garage door openers. Now we get hardwood floors, granite counters, automatic door openers, hot tubs with timers hooked up to our cell phone and home theaters.
In 1975, American's owned about 9 million recreational boats. Now it's more than 23 million. In '75, only about 55% of the population finished high school. Today it's more than 80%. Only about 15% of American's finished four years of college in 1975, and today it's more than 25%. In 1975, there were less than 100,00 people with computers. How many have them now? Who had any idea there would be cellular telephones available in just another 10 years?
Life expectancy was about 71 years in 1975 while it's 77 years today. Finally, the death rate (per 100,000) from natural causes in 1975 was about 700. Today it's less than 500.
All these things cost lots of money. The reason things cost more now is because they're better than they were in 1975 and, because we have the income to afford them. Why anyone would want to go back to the good old days of the 70's is a mystery to me.
Hey John, would you rather be operated on using technology from 1975 or today? Would you rather be treated for a disease with drugs from 1975 or today? Which cars do you prefer; that fine Pinto from 1975, or a car with today's comforts and technology?
So using the logic you provided above, pushing forward 35 more years, say around 2035, we'll need 3 or 4 incomes per household to afford these wonderful things. I wonder if they'll lower the working age to 10 or 11 years old? Get those kids earning some income.