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This picture showed up on my Facebook feed - it shows a TV showroom from 1974. Because it's online, I wasn't sure if it was real. But something caught my eye (well, something other than that remarkable carpet that somebody picked out because they thought it looked nice): The price of $1,650 for a TV. Gemini says that $1,650 in 1974 would be worth $11,177 today.
Is that right? Were people really spending $11k on a television in the 70's? So I ask Gemini, and it tells me that a top-of-the-line TV in 1974 cost around $1,200, or perhaps a bit more - that's $8,000 today. Still. I can't imagine spending $8,000 on a television. Our local Best Buy has an Insignia 75-inch 4K TV on sale for $399 - that's 5% of what one of those relics in the picture cost.
Think of how much television has improved since then. And the price has dropped by 95%.
Of course, that's just TV. Who cares. It's not important.
Education is important. Expanding young minds, creating the leaders of tomorrow, and all that. Important stuff. So our government has understandably invested in improving our educational system. This is a worthy use of government funding. Of course. Who could argue that? Both political parties agree on this. So our government has spent an enormous amount of money on education.
And in 20 years, the quality of our educational system dropped dramatically. All while the price went up by nearly 200%.
When government spends money on things, those things become lower quality and more expensive. When government does not spend money on other things, those things become higher quality and less expensive.
Every time.
But our government continues to spend money on important things.
So in our current political system, things that are not important (TV's, toys, furniture, etc.) become higher in quality and much less expensive. And things that are very important (medicine, education) become lower in quality and much more expensive.
And Democrats want to continue our current political system.
And in our next election, about half of the voters are going to vote Democrat.
And we can't figure out why things are so screwed up.
It's a mystery.
Discussion (62)
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Government takes your tax dollars and doles it out to 'adminstators' in the education and medical fields but those expenditures have nothing to do with education or medical care.
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You're right. Gemini said that cheaper TV's were $400-800 in those days, with more expensive models at $1,200 and more.
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And, perhaps more importantly, decreases the quality of important things.
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