On Thu, 22 Apr 1999, Richard Erlacher wrote:
> The previous comment should have made it obvious it was NOT within the reach
> of the "average" American. First of all, it was over a month's pay for the
> average American, it was equivalent to six months' groceries for a family of
> four, and you could get a refrigerator or a washer, neither of which were
> routine discretionary expenditures for the "average" American of that time.
> That was during and immediately after the Korean war, when a 4-bedroom house
> on a 1/4-acre lot cost $4600. That same house, now, in California would
> cost you $4600 a month to rent. People's attitudes about what's important
> enough to spend your money on have changed considerably.
Don't you mean YOUR attitudes, Richard? Get this through your thick
skull: YOU do NOT represent the mass thought process of humans. Time and
again you insist on applying your OWN personal values and opinions upon
the rest of the world when you make an assertion, and fail to realize
there are 6 billion people out there with ideas differing from your own.
> $300 was not an expenditure an "average" American would consider lightly in
> 1952. That was the year I came to this country. There was an election
> between Adlai E. Stevenson (Democrat) and Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican).
> It was BEFORE the first test of a hydrogen bomb.
Sure, but the point is that it could CONCEIVABLY have been afforded by
anyone who wished to save their money for 6 months so they could collect
the parts together to build one. Just because YOU would not have chosen
to build one does not mean everyone else in the world would have made that
same choice. Everyone on the planet does not share your values, contrary
to your belief and opinion.
I know if I were alive back then, and I had the same excitement for
computers that I do today, and an opportunity to build my own computer
came up for 1/10th of my yearly salary, I sure as hell would have saved
the money to build one.
1/10th of the average American's yearly salary is about $3,000 these days
(thereabouts) and I know plenty of people who would save up that amount to
buy a righteous computer with all the trimmings in our time. So $300 out
of a $3,600 yearly salary (or whatever) back then is not only possible but
very do-able.
> People weren't crazy then as they are now . . . and all the loose nuts
> hadn't yet learned to run to California.
Whatever.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
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Received on Fri Apr 23 1999 - 00:19:25 BST