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Life Improvements Since the 1990s

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Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#31

Post by ghaff »

victorbstan wrote: post #26
ghaff wrote: post #17

>Imagine dealing with the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic in 1989 instead. I've wondered about this. No vaccines presumably. But, also, the sort of work from home, online shopping, remote school, etc. that many people/companies were able to more or less adapt to basically wouldn't have been possible in 1990--and, arguably, much before 2000 if that. It's true that there was less air travel, including international travel…

1796 – Edward Jenner develops and documents first vaccine for smallpox.

For one thing, a very different disease. For another, how long did it take him?

And depending upon how you count, it took decades to develop a polio vaccine.

I would not bet on a COVID vaccine being developed and tested in about a year in 1990.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#32

Post by everdrive »

ghaff wrote: post #25
iambateman wrote: post #14

I often ask people: “if you could be 20-years old in 1991 or 2021, which would you pick?” An incredible number of people pick ‘91. Some people even ask to go back to the seventies. This article explains why I would much rather be young now rather than before.

There are a lot of things that younger people in particular take for granted today that were basically not available in 1990. I occasionally think that if I had to go back to 1990 and do my job as a product manager, I'd probably quit in frustration over just not having the information I needed to do my job.

But you'd only be competing against other similarly hampered project managers. Depending on how well you worked without the modern internet, you'd simply find your same place in the bell curve.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#33

Post by BrianOnHN »

iambateman wrote: post #14

I often ask people: “if you could be 20-years old in 1991 or 2021, which would you pick?” An incredible number of people pick ‘91. Some people even ask to go back to the seventies. This article explains why I would much rather be young now rather than before.

Definitely depends on race. As a white guy '91 would have been easy sailing.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#34

Post by nivenkos »

jacob019 wrote: post #6

I like how the EU is listed under technology.

And then brings in legislation like the Cookie notices and Link Tax, but does absolutely nothing to protect and drive the European Tech industry (where is the European FAANG?), allowing monopolistic American corporations to ship all the high-paying jobs to the US.

Europe had ARM, a whole slew of microcomputer companies (and still the Raspberry Pi foundation today), Nokia, Linux, MySQL, etc. - all largely sold off or destroyed. Such a loss of potential.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#35

Post by moron4hire »

BrianOnHN wrote: post #33
iambateman wrote: post #14

I often ask people: “if you could be 20-years old in 1991 or 2021, which would you pick?” An incredible number of people pick ‘91. Some people even ask to go back to the seventies. This article explains why I would much rather be young now rather than before.

Definitely depends on race. As a white guy '91 would have been easy sailing.

Being a white guy in 2021 is easy sailing.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#36

Post by Clubber »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #7
crymer11 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Average hourly wages have, but what about the median?

I do not understand why averages are so often used rather than deciles or even quintiles.

Not always, but a lot of times people pick the number that supports their conclusion. For example, worker pay. If you want to make it seem higher, include the executives and do a mean average. Life expectancy works the same way. It's not that adults typically died at age 30, it's the number is a mean and includes child deaths which was a lot at the time. If you have 4 people, 2 are 60 and 2 died at birth, the mean age is 30. (60 + 60 + 0 + 0) / 4 = life expectancy of 30.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#37

Post by tedheath123 »

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #11
crymer11 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Average hourly wages have, but what about the median?

Average vs. median have grown fairly proportionally since 2000 [0]. Note, this chart is adjusted for inflation. [0] https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/gs-live/uploads%2F1527022...

Would it be fair to say that this chart shows real US median incomes to be stagnant since the late 80s?

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#38

Post by kiba »

victorbstan wrote: post #26
ghaff wrote: post #17

>Imagine dealing with the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic in 1989 instead. I've wondered about this. No vaccines presumably. But, also, the sort of work from home, online shopping, remote school, etc. that many people/companies were able to more or less adapt to basically wouldn't have been possible in 1990--and, arguably, much before 2000 if that. It's true that there was less air travel, including international travel…

1796 – Edward Jenner develops and documents first vaccine for smallpox.

Variolation already exists back then, but with a survival rate of 1-2%. What Edward Jenner did was to confer scientific status on the idea of vaccination and investigated cowpow as a much safer method of inoculation against smallpox.

Heck, decade earliers, George Washington inoculated his troops against smallpox against the wishes of the continental congress.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#39

Post by ghaff »

everdrive wrote: post #32
ghaff wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of things that younger people in particular take for granted today that were basically not available in 1990. I occasionally think that if I had to go back to 1990 and do my job as a product manager, I'd probably quit in frustration over just not having the information I needed to do my job.

But you'd only be competing against other similarly hampered project managers. Depending on how well you worked without the modern internet, you'd simply find your same place in the bell curve.

Well, sure. It would just be incredibly frustrating. As would lack of information generally.
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