Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven
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| Sunny Days in Heaven Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven |
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Friday, April 05, 2002 More for your money. Less for your life. Around 1961 or so I got my first "important" bike: a three speed Schwinn you could pedal backwards while it was coasting forwards. Very cool. It probably cost about $60. Today that would be at least $600. Let me tell you what you can get for about $300 today. A 21 speed mountain bike made out of special alloys, unbelievable brakes, gears, and equipment. There is ten times the technology yet half the cost. Ten times the productivity in making the new bike. Ever looked under the hood of a ‘57 Chevy? Nothing there but an engine and transmission. A good shade tree mechanic has no problem fixing almost anything on that car. You can probably fit three small people under the hood in the engine compartment. Look under the hood of just about any modern sedan and you'll be lucky to fit three fingers of one hand anywhere in there. You see a wonder of technology fitted into a pretty small space. You can change the oil and air filters if you insist. You see ten times the engineering and product there in that car, again for about half the price. If memory serves the Chevy would have run about $3000 or over 30K today. One question, though. Were those 60's products expensive or not considering the times? Well, the work had to support one man and his family - one income. In fact, I knew of journeyman machinists, a skilled blue collar job, where the man had up to five weeks of paid vacation a year after twenty years or so. He owned a home, a car, a second house on a lake, and a boat. He put his kids through college and had more than two of them. How many working class people can do that now? A few. Plumbers, some machinists and tool and die makers are still in demand and earn good wages - up to 90K a year for some trades. But that's fairly unusual. To have what my 60's machinist had (also a 4% mortgage), it now takes two incomes of professional, college educated people for the most part. We are more productive as workers, no doubt, but we are also of less value in the marketplace. We have fewer children, but they are more neglected and left to raise themselves on TV, music, movies, fast food, and porn. The 50's were better for people. Even those who were treated unequally. Negroes were generally much better off as a community. They had a high rate of marriages, low rate of illegitimacies. High rate of church attendance and community support, even if they couldn't sit at the same lunch counter. A better standard of education and success in it. In general, minorities were poorer financially, but much richer socially with good neighborhoods, stable communities, and strong values - belief in character. Government left us more alone to work out our own problems. Today, our gadgets are incredible. Our science and medicine is miraculous, and our military is amazing in its growing capabilities. Yet, why do so many have a sense of decline and degeneration? It's not just fuddy-duddyism, us old farts lamenting the good old days. Americans are still the most decent and friendliest people in the world, I think (but then I don't know what Norway, Sweden, or Ireland are like where life is pretty humdrum), still, something seems out of whack. posted by Mark Butterworth | 11:09 AM | |
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