| ▲ | Supernaut 5 hours ago |
| The author mentions his father's "$2000 computer", a figure has no impact in 2025, when $2,000 doesn't seem like a particularly large amount of money to have spent on a state of the art PC. I'm of the opinion that writers should make it a habit in pieces like these to always include prices that have been adjusted for inflation. In this case, $2,000 corresponds to $6,731.61, which provides better context for the story. |
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| ▲ | xattt 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| How did people justify that cost? Was 6k ”more affordable” back then? Was there more money to spend? |
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| ▲ | Supernaut 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | > Was there more money to spend? In California, there certainly was. The US economy had already started its decline, but from such a high that well-to-do Americans hadn't noticed. By contrast, because Europe had had to be rebuilt after WWII, the general populace had benefitted far less from the postwar boom. In 1982, my family had a relatively comfortable middle class existence, but buying a home computer that cost (at the time) about half as much as a one-bedroom apartment would have been absolutely unimaginable to my parents. The ZX81 they bought for me cost £99. | |
| ▲ | magic_hamster 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Well, some people needed it for work, or for university. Some people got it from work to be able to work at home. Others may have had experience with 8 bit machines and had money when the PC hit the stores. | |
| ▲ | trollbridge 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | My parents saved up for years and then kept the same computer for years more. It was normal to have a
machine for 10 years, and just one per household. Upgrading with a hard disk, a second floppy drive, or upgrading the graphics card was common. | |
| ▲ | 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | [deleted] |
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| ▲ | trollbridge 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Typical people I know today think it’s normal to spend $300 a month on a family phone plan ($3600 a year). Back then, you had 1 phone which cost around $50 a month in inflation adjusted dollars. |
