You could still learn stuff in 1991 jfyi
Re:Where our economy is, for the young
by cwbrandsma on Friday October 02, 2020 @01:09PM
(#24664707)
Finding the information was harder. There were libraries, my town library was in the basement of the city hall building, and my local mechanic has a larger building.
If the library didn’t have it, you could hit a small book store, whose specialty was romance novels for local farm wives.
Basically, anything you would actually want would be special order, hoping the book dealer knew what you were talking about in the first place.
Re:Where our economy is, for the young
by animal_spirits on Friday October 02, 2020 @01:02PM
(#24664619)
Oh yes of course but its way way way easier today with magnitudes more subjects covered in depth
The rewards for finding the information needed to learn were geometrically higher relative to the difficulty. It's easier to learn today; the (monetary) value of that learning is lower.
Great! Now as soon as that Swiss army knife can also provide food, shelter, and medical care you're good to go.
(Ironically, an actual Swiss army knife can provide the first 2 better)
Re:Where our economy is, for the young
by animal_spirits on Saturday October 03, 2020 @09:28AM
(#24671954)
Yeah thats the problem. I'm definitely not happy with this trade-off. I'd rather have an apartment than a smartphone. But growing up I unfortunately spent too much on technology. Video games, laptops, cell phones that I didn't take care of and broke too quickly, the list goes on. I wish that I didn't value these things so much growing up and kept the money for other uses.
I am also 24, and I would say that tool in your pocket is also an extremely pernicious drug.
In more marxist terms, we have traded variation of consumer goods for precarity in our ability to live our lives. You can play video games, but your boss can fire you at a whim and your landlord can kick you on the street. You can't become class mobile without taking on huge debts and possibly not making it.
I wouldn't say that. I am 24 and I have some pretty incredible tools in my pocket right now that someone in 1991 couldn't have even dreamed of. The problem is, instead of owning a good car or having an apartment to live in, I have the pinnacle-of-technology swiss-army knife of information processors (smart phone, macbook pro, desktop computer) within reach. That is where I think the value of things have changed over time. It went from the opportunity to _have_ to the opportunity to _learn_