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Life Improvements Since the 1990s

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Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#361

Post by telesilla »

telesilla wrote: post #8

Great we're doing better however I notice most of these are benefits experienced by the middle class and up. How about we do better and also give a leg up for the those in poverty? Even if Macdonalds is serving healthier food, I wouldn't pat ourselves on the back quite yet.

For those reminding me of that poverty has been greatly alleviated with the last decades, I understand very well however this article completely lacked this info and it came across to me as ignoring this important demographic.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#362

Post by nemo44x »

0xffff2 wrote: post #177
nemo44x wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get better pans, then heating up isn't an issue. I think it's nice to have an induction burner but I prefer gas for many reasons. One is the visual feedback from the flame. Another is that a flame is a 3D surface to cook on so I can tilt the pan to get certain sides hot when needed. Induction is good at boiling water though.

As a general rule, the better the pan, the thicker it is and the longer it would take to heat up.

Conductivity matters. Copper pans that are thick heat-up really fast. This is one of their primary benefits in that they change temperature quickly based on the input. The heat-up and cool down quickly. This is why they are popular with chefs - fine tuned control on pan heat which you generally want to change while cooking.

Cast iron is the opposite. They take a long time to heat-up and a long time to cool down. Steel is somewhere in between.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#363

Post by xyzelement »

marricks wrote: post #240
xyzelement wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At any point of human history, one could convince themselves that the future is bleak. There had been pandemics and plagues, cold and hot wars, revolutions and dangerous technologies and -isms. And yet in retrospect humanity's trend has been of greater ingenuity, connectives, safety and well-being. Sure, it's possible that THIS is the high point and it'll all go down-hill from here, but that's like being a broken clo…

I think the tragedy of 9/11 is distinctly different from this one. That one was covered non stop by media networks and lead to titanic shifts in the US and to US foreign policy. Comparing emotional states between now and then seems pretty useless. And sure every new crisis can seem bleak but just considering climate change when the field of people studying it have observable depression I imagine things are a bit gloo…

> The pandemic, with hundreds of thousands of deaths just in the US hasn't had the same sort of coverage.

Sorry, but where are you living/getting news from because I am jealous and I want to be that isolated.

Literally every new story, list of headlines, broadcast, tweet, and conversation today includes COVID. CNN used to have daily death counts and totals. Every single person's life, from the way we study, work, shop etc has changed because of COVID.

If your thesis is that somehow this big crisis hasn't been sufficiently publicized and people aren't aware, I just have a really hard time connecting to your perspective on the world.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#364

Post by jrsj »

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.

I’d just like to go just far enough back to not be around for WW2 so I have to spend the least amount of time in the 21st century as possible. So I guess stick me in 1946.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#365

Post by xyzelement »

thegrimmest wrote: post #318
minikites wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>And yet in reality, somehow the world moved towards a much better place despite those things. It's not "somehow", you're glossing over the very real losses and very avoidable tragedies (fed by bigotry and fear) that happened during the AIDS crisis, which is my whole point. Progress isn't free and by ignoring the real losses and avoidable tragedies we repeat the same mistakes. That's why we have to confront the uncom…

But isn't the point that despite the very real and avoidable tragedies along the way, things have continued to improve quite quickly? So as we continue, we can expect more preventable tragedies (whatever "preventable" actually means), but also more progress to benefit the vast majority of us who do make it? I don't think we need to get bent out of shape about the aspects of human nature that cause horror and tragedy,…

Thank you for explaining my post in different words - I agree with your summary of it.

I don't think you're living up to your name though!

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#366

Post by nemo44x »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #244
nemo44x wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could be, but really I think it's more than that. These jobs pay really well and they offer a career ladder. You will be able to buy a home, have children, take vacations. But you need to show up every day and work. A lot of people who would be qualified for these types of jobs don't want to do that. They'd rather pick and choose and float around at places for less money and less financial security. This isn't lik…

> These jobs pay really well and they offer a career ladder. You will be able to buy a home, have children, take vacations. But you need to show up every day and work. They obviously do not pay commensurate to the risks of job loss, lack of quality of life at a job, and/or to make up for the undesirability for the location they are in. The proof is the data showing wages for factory type work stagnating for many deca…

> They obviously do not pay commensurate to the risks of job loss, lack of quality of life at a job, and/or to make up for the undesirability for the location they are in.

I mean, there's a lot of alcoholism problems and drug issues too.

>People incorporate that knowledge, and let their kids know that those jobs are not worth investing in.

I'm not sure the wisdom of the crowds is a great example here. How many kids are in many thousands of debt and working at dead end jobs or as a barista, etc. because they got a useless degree from a third rate university?

> How many factory towns are there where the factory closes or downsizes and the whole town goes into economic decline? You need to pay a lot to offset that kind of risk.

I don't think I'm describing factory town style jobs of yesteryear. There are many solid jobs in tool and die, machining, etc that are mainly run by small to mid-sized shops. Literally thousands of these around the country.

There are a lot of people making a great living in these places, it's just that there's a shortage of qualified labor. Similar to software companies - there's a shortage of labor and it isn't because they aren't paying enough. Additionally, a lot of people think this kind of work is below them because they went to a university to study a field that they can't make it in.

> The other proof is also that I bet they can get lots of qualified applicants that will “show up everyday and work”. Just offer $200k per year. Or $500k per year. Obviously the purchasers of that type of labor are not offering enough money.

Yeah probably but I'm not sure that's economic. Also, the starting pay won't be the best but you rise fairly quickly through the ranks where the money improves. But like I said before, there are a lot of people making a good life for themselves with a home, a family, vacations, and a solid American life in these places. This life exists for people. But you would think it isn't even available - but it is.

Kids complain that they are 50k in debt from school, can't find a job that pays well and will never be able to afford a home or have kids. But that's not true. There's a career out there in modern manufacturing if they are willing to humble themselves.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#367

Post by ghaff »

pessimizer wrote: post #322
ghaff wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arguably in 1991, you're getting in on the ground floor but it's a mixed bag. Your new grad salary is probably going to be around $40K or so in the US. And dot-bomb is 10 years in the future. And that list of companies is sort of a mixed bag. Adobe has mostly done pretty well through the years. Sun Microsystems did have a very good decade through the dot-com years but then didn't. Apple was really struggling at that…

> Your new grad salary is probably going to be around $40K or so in the US. Of course $40K then is $80K now, and you were working at 9-5 at BigCo, with a pension plan. Interest rates were 3-4x what they are now, the value of the house that you spent a couple of years salary on is probably going to quintuple, and the stock market runup over the next 30 years is going to be unreal.

>the stock market runup over the next 30 years is going to be unreal

Not counting the stock market plunge especially in tech in the dot-bomb era when there's a good change you'll also lose your tech job and very possibly be very underemployed for a few years. Of course if you hold on through that (and 2008), you'll come out well on the other side.

And if you were 20 in 91, you probably don't have a house in ten years in pricey (just not eye-watteringly so) SV 9 years later when the bottom falls out of the market.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#368

Post by nemo44x »

bob1029 wrote: post #311
0xffff2 wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a general rule, the better the pan, the thicker it is and the longer it would take to heat up.

Precisely. This is why I started moving towards induction after I became obsessed with the capabilities of cast iron cookware.

Cast iron is excellent for storing a lot of heat and then releasing it over a long period of time for searing things, etc. I love my cast iron cookware. But it's not a good choice for more delicate cooking where you want to change the temperature of the pan quickly and temperature control matters. Copper is noted for this and is popular in professional kitchens for precisely this reason. And gas allows you to tilt a pan to blast one side which is important when reducing sauces or when you want the oil to rise up the side of something to crisp it, etc. Alas, copper won't work on an induction stove.

I've never heard a chef say that getting a pan hot and staying hot quickly is their number 1 optimization. Except for boiling water, which induction is great for.

But every home cook has different things they like I guess.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#369

Post by sokoloff »

Driving maps/planning is wildly better, not just a little better.

I can remember in the early 90s going to AAA to get paper maps for upcoming trips, buying a Rand McNally almanac for the car, etc.

First getting mapquest and then later in-car GPS and later Waze has been super convenient.

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