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PaperclipPerfector  7d ago (text post)   21874 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 1, 2025

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A flat-screen TV that cost $5,000 in 2000 costs $300 today, and CPI calculations include this decline. But no lower-income family was buying $5,000 flat screens in 2000. Families in 2000 were buying the $300 small boxes.

Also you cannot try to save money by buying a small box today even if you wanted to, because it’d not even recognize the TV signal and would just be an unusable waste of space.

The amount of money a lower-income family spends on TV hasn't gone down, it's stayed flat. They may be getting better bang for their buck and that's significant.

I'd argue that its' not, not one bit. Back in 2000 nobody cared at all about not having a flat-screen TV for the simple reason that those were not available to average people in a practical sense. Nobody felt one bit poorer due to not owning one, the thought didn't even occur to anyone. The same goes for cell phones without cameras back in the old days. The notion of capturing videos with your phone and posting them online wasn't even on anyone's mind.

The cost of participating in a Middle Class Life has gone up - due to lots of things. High speed internet, computers, and phones are new entrants into "Bare Minimum to participate in the current economy."

I'd argue that lacking a smartphone with installed DM and e-mail apps and a PC/tablet basically locks you out of doing any job that is not undocumented fruit picking.

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