Life was better back then - or was it?

Thriving Together
#1

I watched this video again and why I was impressed with it are some interesting points Grant Ryan made.
50 years ago if someone got Leukemia they would have probably died. Today there are cures.

You almost had to be rich to have a set of encyclopedias 50 years ago. I remember we got a set and it took quite a while to pay it off. Now all we have to do is get on the internet and find tons of information. We don’t need that big set of books. There are even encyclopedias online.

50 years ago we could never have watched a You Tube Video interview. In fact if we wanted to call a friend who was not near you, it would cost $1 a minute or more. Now we have our cell phones and text and call is free. I remember just a couple of years ago skyping with a friend in Sweden who was in a car riding from the south part of Sweden to the north part and it didn’t cost us anything except our internet connection.

To me it was very interesting because when I was a child we didn’t even have a television. We listened to our stories on the radio and our baseball games and soap operas. Now we have Netflix, Disney + and so much more.

People have talked about “the good old days” and how much better it was. Here is an interview with an author who talks about how we are much better off today.

With this in mind I thought maybe we can have a discussion about this. What in your past was more expensive than it is now or harder to get? I, personally would not like to relive any of my past. How about you? Bill Murphy Jr. interviews Grant Ryan, author of Comparanomics - YouTube

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#2

Altho I am tending to how much I am watching and listening to (of anything) right now (just to help my auditory channels stay a bit calmer), I’m guessing they talk about how much radical improvement in quality and quantity of life we have…

On a personal level, I’d not want to relive anything in my past, yet I also can see and sense how certain things have gotten out of balance. Industrialism really did change our level of material comfort and more. But it did pollute more intensely – until more people realized it and we at least started to tend to that.

Zoning helped to control “rampant” development, but it also tends to keep those with less resource from being able to have a home at an affordable price. We have printed lots of money to allow more and more people to go to college, yet we’ve also allowed administrative bloat and then burdened people with debts that can’t even be discharged in bankruptcy.

Perhaps this is the tending and awareness that sometimes my own sense of “the good old days” is not so much a call to go back to the past. Perhaps it is a call to incorporate and reactivate what mattered to us “then” into our Now?

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#3

I guess posting an interview is not a good idea as I am also careful about how much I watch or listen to also. I don’t know if anyone did listen to it and that’s ok. When I listened to it I found it very interesting and thought we could have a discussion. I don’t even remember what it was about. Feel free to delete this whole post if it feels right to you.

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#4

If I gave the impression that it wasn’t a good idea to post the interview, that was definitely not my intent. I like that you posted it, I like that it is here even perhaps years from now if someone is attracted to this topic.

Y’all welcome to post what attracts you! Yeah, it helps sometimes if you include specifically what you took from it, which you did. So… THANK YOU!

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#5

No Rick, I did not get that impression that it wasn’t a good idea to post it. I realize that it would have been better if I had included what specifically I took from it. So I watched the interview again and added more before the link. Maybe it will start a discussion or maybe not.

I appreciate that you wrote your ideas. Thank You!

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#6

Thanks for adding those specifics. I recall waiting to call my grandmother after 5pm on Sunday so we could AFFORD 3 minutes with her. We had an egg timer.

My boy can ask Alexa how something is done, and she’ll access Wiki-How and tell him. He’s asked thousands of questions at this point.

I’ve learned how to repair certain breaks of the dishwasher and the like using youtube videos instead of hiring someone.

And we can all meet tonight for circle without paying for gas (or airplanes and hotel!).

Thanks Jean!

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