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Comment by singularity2001 | Hacker News Reader

singularity2001·

What is often forgotten is the hyperdeflation of technology. All your gadges would be worth many millions in pre 2000 dollars. Your car is probably better in many ways than a million dollar car from 1980.

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The value attained by owning a car hasn't changed all that much.

They are clearly safer and more convenient, but cars in 1980 made it from A to B most of the time too.

If anything, the value of a car is lower than ever in history because decades of sprawl (and recently ride-sharing apps) have contributed to unprecedented traffic nearly everywhere

Everything is way more accessible than pre-2000's, but I would argue that the overall quality of the user-experience is probably worse. If you buy a TV today, you get amazing image quality, but you also have to live with the fact that the TV spies on you and that the software it runs on will discontinue in 5 years. (this of course doesn't matter because it's been designed to break before that point). I would gladly take an old CRT over a modern smart-tv.

No you wouldn’t take CRT.

If you want a high end old tech TV you can easily get one for free on Craigslist - demand for these is so low you can’t give them away.

Life expectancy for the poor in the US has gone down. That should not happen regardless of technological advance.

wasnt the hyperdeflation even higher in the 90s when Moore's law still worked? My laptop and phone are both 4 years old and still sellable on ebay.

Now do rent.

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