1970s Middle Class Was POOR

Everyone keeps telling me that middle-class living in 1970 is now povery.

Who believes this crap? Do you think I'm a complete idiot? No one alive in the US today is poor by 1970s standards.

You have a supercomputer in your back pocket that can access all of the world's information in seconds. That supercomputer is also a telephone, instant messaging device, camera, video recorder, calculator, voice recorder, music player, video player, radio, GPS, complete map set of every road in the world, flashlight and notepad.

If you don't know how to do something, you can get a step-by-step video that walks you through anything you care to try. You have access to pretty much every song ever recorded by anyone, anywhere and you can play those songs anytime you like, through wireless earbuds no bigger than a dime.

Automobiles are more reliable, water is cleaner, air is cleaner, no lead in the gasoline or its fumes or the exhaust emissions. Laparoscopic surgery means an appendix or gallbladder removal can be out-patient surgery and you're back on your feet in hours, not days or weeks. Dentistry does not involve spitting in a bowl.

Lifespan is 20 years longer. Since 1960, the largest gains in life expectancy occurred between 1970 and 1980—an increase of about three years from 70.8 to 73.7 years. In 2024, it is currently 79.3 years. Stents have cut open-heart surgeries in half.

In 2024, you can buy a four-door 2009 Honda Odyssey with room for eight passengers, a cupholders and individual climate control for every seat.

You can get kiwis, Chinese food, Thai, Japanese, Ethiopian, Korean, Vietnamese, Mexican, Brazilian, Australian food at the local supermarket or a nearby restaurant.

Your TV is not a monolithic block in the corner, it is thin as a dime-store novel, with a screen larger than a station wagon's front windshield, full color, stereo and it hangs on your wall. You have one in every room of your house. You didn't need to run cables to connect them to the antenna on the roof or to anything else.

Even if you're living on the street, take a look at the tent you just bought, stole, got donated to you. That space-age fabric didn't exist in 1980. Neither did the flexible self-stabilizing pole system, which allows tents to be setup on sidewalks. Couldn't do that in the 1970s, because no one could drive the tent stakes into the concrete. Tents could only be set up where there was earth to drive the stabilizing ropes. Look at the sleeping bags, the cooking utensils, the disposable needles and syringes. The K1 auto-disable syringe was invented in the late 1990s. Even life as a drug addict is better. 

Stop telling me you got more for your money in the 1970s.
Anyone who tells me that is clearly either ignorant or a moron or they think I am one. I would rather be poor today than rich in 1970. A poor person today has access to a lot more comforts than even the rich did in the 60s and 70s.

Or, to put it a different way, consider this.

You can easily return to gaining the full value of the 1970 US dollar. Just follow these simple steps:

• Get rid of the HVAC in your house
• Cancel your internet
• Destroy your computer and smartphone.
• Maintain a 1970 Chevrolet Impala as your transportation.
• Only buy used tires for it, so the tires never last more than 20,000 miles.
• Now the Impala will need leaded gas, so you will have to create that yourself.
• If you can't, then coat your food with a light film of lead, and put tincture of lead in your water, to simulate the effects of 1970 leaded gasoline emissions
• Put asbestos into your ceiling tiles and the paint on your house walls
• Return to 1970s dentistry (no suction, just spit in a bowl)
• Stop eating Chinese takeout, refuse to order food delivered
• Stop paying bills on line - checks and envelopes for all communications
• Restrict yourself to watching just ABC, NBC, and CBS.

If you do these simple things, you will start getting the value our 1970 dollars used to buy.

The advantage to the rest of us: since you are no longer on the internet, we won't have to read your tired bullshit about "muh dollar doesn't buy as much as it useta"

The internet will be a better place as you spend your day screaming at clouds instead.

Freaking idiot.