This is straight up AI generated economic disinformation. Are you seriously claiming that computers cost more in real terms today than 20 years ago?? Some of these goods (housing) do cost more, but a lot of these examples don't make any sense.
I built "Middle Class Museum", a tour of things that used to be affordable
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Re: I built "Middle Class Museum", a tour of things that used to be affordable
#32Even with these cherry-picked examples, plug in how things actually were. That $8,200 station wagon with at 48 month loan and the terrible 80's loan rates of 10-12% would be like $750/month now. Most of those cars wouldn't make it to 50k miles without a major repair. There were almost no safety features, seat belts weren't required to be worn and you could drink and drive. This weird fetishization of the past is a me…
Agree, but if we take a wholistic approach, most things were more affordable. This is a satirical take not a literal financial comparison and I designed it to be that, but I think no can disagree that life in 80s and 90s was way more affordable.
Disagree. Presenting partial information like this distorts and confuses people's understanding.
Re: I built "Middle Class Museum", a tour of things that used to be affordable
#33Nice work please continue with this effort. On the car comparative. I have a 2010 RAV4, and my wife drives a 2023 RAV4. I love mine, but even if it was perfectly kept. It is smaller, lighter, it has less equipment, I have seen older RAV4s and they look even smaller than mine. What is is the opposite of shrinkflation ? I don't know if it is social pressures or what is is causing us to expect things that are bigger and…
"Hedonic treadmill"?
I'm annoyed that in the UK the prevalence of "SUV crossovers" has suddenly jacked all cars up by 10-20cm, especially at the bonnet line. Selection pressure (bollards are the natural predator) is at least keeping the width slightly under control.
Re: I built "Middle Class Museum", a tour of things that used to be affordable
#34Pensions used to be free and great, until the company stole from the pension before they went bankrupt and you were left with nothing.
Pensions used to be great when 0.1% expense ratio target date funds were not available. It makes no sense to give someone else control of your savings in this day and age.
I think it depends on your financial literacy, I know a lot of people who have no idea how to invest their money, you would be surprised how many people would be more comfortable with someone else managing their life savings for them
Re: I built "Middle Class Museum", a tour of things that used to be affordable
#35Yeah it's really messed up that middle class people can't afford to...rent movies...anymore?
There's 4,000 movies available for free on YouTube. More if you pay for YT Premium. That's just one example...any streaming stick will give you loads more.
True, you have to have Internet, but you're going to have Internet regardless.
Compare to the 1980s where you had to drive to a Blockbuster and pay $3 or $4 a pop for VHS.
And you can still rent movies. Heck, if you want to live in the 1990s, your local pawn shop or flea market has tons of DVDs you can buy for less than a 1990s rental.
Re: I built "Middle Class Museum", a tour of things that used to be affordable
#36Not adjusting for inflation and quality really damages the integrity of the comparisons, as does cherry picking your base examples. Taking your first, the $47K 3 bedroom starter home with a yard. In 2026 that would be $200K (cumulative inflation is a little over 4x[1]); picking a random US city[2] and looking on Zillow[3] I find that...yeah, you can get a comparable home today. There are certainly arguments to be mad…
> Not adjusting for inflation and quality really damages the integrity of the comparisons, as does cherry picking your base examples. But then they also need to make sure to also match salaries to inflation too.. Because wages have not kept up with inflation, which is the reason for most of this..
> wages have not kept up with inflation
This is not true.
https://econofact.org/factbrief/fact-check-have-inflation-ad...
Re: I built "Middle Class Museum", a tour of things that used to be affordable
#37A townhouse can still be had for <300k in Baltimore
Re: I built "Middle Class Museum", a tour of things that used to be affordable
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agree, but if we take a wholistic approach, most things were more affordable. This is a satirical take not a literal financial comparison and I designed it to be that, but I think no can disagree that life in 80s and 90s was way more affordable.
Disagree. Presenting partial information like this distorts and confuses people's understanding.
You are right, I think I mention that most experiences on the site are satirical but I don't mention it on the landing page to this experience, will add this today, will also add "not inflation adjusted' until I change the numbers to adjust for inflation.
Re: I built "Middle Class Museum", a tour of things that used to be affordable
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pensions used to be great when 0.1% expense ratio target date funds were not available. It makes no sense to give someone else control of your savings in this day and age.
I think it depends on your financial literacy, I know a lot of people who have no idea how to invest their money, you would be surprised how many people would be more comfortable with someone else managing their life savings for them
Someone choosing to be illiterate and getting scammed out of their money still does not make sense. Life doesn’t get much easier than picking the target date fund with the year you expect to stop working.
Re: I built "Middle Class Museum", a tour of things that used to be affordable
#40Even with these cherry-picked examples, plug in how things actually were. That $8,200 station wagon with at 48 month loan and the terrible 80's loan rates of 10-12% would be like $750/month now. Most of those cars wouldn't make it to 50k miles without a major repair. There were almost no safety features, seat belts weren't required to be worn and you could drink and drive. This weird fetishization of the past is a me…
People didn’t finance cars on 4 year loans back then. 3 years was the max, so even with 10% interest that’s only $60 extra a month for 3 years.