The world in 1975 (2007)
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The world in 1975 (2007)
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Re: The world in 1975 (2007)
#2>Radio stations played a great variety of really good new music.
Please. The lack of variety in the public sphere is exactly what led to the "underground" music scenes. In the 70's the new unheard music was punk and the like.
When I left for college in '79 it was an absolutely jaw-dropping, exciting experience to find an entire music store filled with this "alternative" music that no one played (outside of college stations, which played anything. Even then, some of the college stations still played Top 40. What was the point of that?)
>Most Americans had never heard of espresso.
True, although if you were paying attention to the movie, "Shaft" ordered espresso. I noticed this but still didn't understand what it was supposed to be.
>Doomsayers were worried about something they called the "greenhouse effect".
To be fair, early in the 70's it seemed to some researchers that the historical trend was downward and we were headed into a new ice age. This was widely reported. Later on more work was done to get better global temperature proxies and it was decided that the trend was upwards.
Re: The world in 1975 (2007)
#3A discussion from 2009: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=503640.
Re: The world in 1975 (2007)
#4> There were no DVD's or even VCR's -- movies could only be seen in theaters, or older movies on TV.
You could also buy a super 8mm film version, probably not the entire film though.
Re: The world in 1975 (2007)
#5> There were no DVD's or even VCR's -- movies could only be seen in theaters, or older movies on TV. You could also buy a super 8mm film version, probably not the entire film though.
My parents used to check out a movie projector from the library. Can't remember anything we watched, though.
Re: The world in 1975 (2007)
#6"There was no pizza delivery. Even supermarkets had much less pre-made food, so people had to at least try to cook."
Eau contraire, in 1976 I was delivering J&B's pizza to save up for college.
And our freezer was filled with TV dinners. We had 'TV Trays'. Today, we have trays for our notebook computers: http://www.aliexpress.com/popular/notebook-computer-stands.h...
Re: The world in 1975 (2007)
#7> You payed by cash or check
You can still do this using a debit card. I'm not 100% sure how your credit is affected if you never get a credit card though. I know there are other ways to build up credit. Also, credit cards make products more expensive, there's probably a transaction fee for debit cards too.
> There were no ATM's. To get cash out of your account, you went to a bank teller, and there was no fee.
But you could only get money out of your own bank? You can now get an account at many banks/credit unions that waive atm transaction fees.
> Only rich people had credit cards. If you had debts, a credit card was harder to get.
100% agree that we need to bring this back. If you don't have good credit, 760+ you shouldn't be allowed to have a credit card with high interest rates.
> Nobody went into debt for college. You either saved money in advance or worked your way through.
Why is college so much more expensive now? Even online/"low cost" programs.
> There was no pizza delivery. Even supermarkets had much less pre-made food, so people had to at least try to cook.
Really, no pizza delivery?! Well I guess with oil shortages that's believable.
> The work week was five hours shorter. You can still see this in the old phrase "nine to five." People actually did work nine to five, with a paid hour for lunch.
There are many people who work multiple jobs to make ends meet and the vast majority aren't doing what they want.
> Tapping a phone was difficult, both technically and legally, and you could safely assume your phone calls and letters were private.
:(
> Everybody was afraid of "crime" (illegal acts by people of lower social class) and "terrorism" (political violence outside a state monopoly).
Yup, more of that now even though we're safer now than at any other time in history.
> Doomsayers were worried about something they called the "greenhouse effect". They said if we didn't reduce our carbon emissions soon, the world would heat up and we would have ecological disasters.
Not just doomsayers, but looks like oil companies knew about it too but decided to keep it hidden.
> There was an oil shortage, and people responded by driving less, in more fuel-efficient cars.
I saw the first Hummer H2 I'd seen in years a few weeks ago costco pump in the bay area when oil prices were ~$2.15/gallon. It all boils down to economics.
Re: The world in 1975 (2007)
#8> There were no DVD's or even VCR's -- movies could only be seen in theaters, or older movies on TV. You could also buy a super 8mm film version, probably not the entire film though.
We did have video tape recorders, though. Setting up and running them for classes was part of my college work-study job around 1971-72. The units I operated were made by Ampex and were about the size of a suitcase. They used a wide tape which had to be threaded onto the take-up reel, similar to an audio reel-to-reel tape recorder. The tape head had to be cleaned with alcohol between each use, and there was a tracking control which you often adjusted to avoid getting a stripe across the picture.
Re: The world in 1975 (2007)
#9> You payed by cash or check You can still do this using a debit card. I'm not 100% sure how your credit is affected if you never get a credit card though. I know there are other ways to build up credit. Also, credit cards make products more expensive, there's probably a transaction fee for debit cards too. > There were no ATM's. To get cash out of your account, you went to a bank teller, and there was no fee. But yo…
"Why is college so much more expensive now?" there's only a bazillion posts on HN about this, look up student loan threads.
Re: The world in 1975 (2007)
#10> You payed by cash or check You can still do this using a debit card. I'm not 100% sure how your credit is affected if you never get a credit card though. I know there are other ways to build up credit. Also, credit cards make products more expensive, there's probably a transaction fee for debit cards too. > There were no ATM's. To get cash out of your account, you went to a bank teller, and there was no fee. But yo…
"Why is college so much more expensive now?" there's only a bazillion posts on HN about this, look up student loan threads.
i realize it's "easier" to get a loan now so they jack up the prices, so it's just that greed?