Posts by aparition42@social.quodverum.com
(DIR) Post #9qvWX4OlLscNxOlZOy by aparition42@social.quodverum.com
2020-01-12T12:59:35Z
0 likes, 2 repeats
I'm not just talking about cell phones, mind you. Until 1984 you had to rent your rotary phone from the phone company. When AT&T was forced to divest, customers were given the opportunity to buy the used rotary phone they'd been renting for $19.95 which is $49.39 in 2019 money.The monthly cost of service was closer to $70, and that didn't include any "long distance", which in certain circumstances could be just the other side of the city.
(DIR) Post #9qvWX4jg67Lf0GYH0C by aparition42@social.quodverum.com
2020-01-12T13:03:51Z
0 likes, 2 repeats
The big mistake many armchair economists make is trying to compare unlike services and products through the narrow lens of inflation.They ignore the fact that phones today cost more because phones today DO more. Even if you remove internet access from the equation, if you actually did a like for like comparison of call time and distance for a given month, odds are your phone bill would have been much higher in 1984 than it is today.
(DIR) Post #9qvWX54aqM4w38KybQ by aparition42@social.quodverum.com
2020-01-12T13:17:30Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
Inflation may cause the base value of currency to go down, but innovation and invention constantly makes the actual purchasing power of money to go up.In 1983, no one had the power to purchase a cell phone. In 1984 the first Motorola Dynatac was sold for $3995, almost 10 grand in 2019 terms.If we reverse the inflation calculation, today's $19.99 prepaid flip phone would have cost $8.08 in 1984. That's a 99.8% reduction in cost.
(DIR) Post #9qvWX5LFqPPEso8HZY by aparition42@social.quodverum.com
2020-01-12T13:23:25Z
0 likes, 3 repeats
THAT is the power of capitalism. The story is the same if you look at health care, housing, transportation...These things haven't gotten more expensive, they've gotten more available.Sure the "value of a dollar" has gone down, but the POWER of a dollar has skyrocketed in previously unimaginable ways.Socialists go on about the wage gap growing (largely an artifact of inflation) while ignoring the fact that even impoverished Americans have luxuries previous generations couldn't dream of.
(DIR) Post #9qvWX5dgjs9Rnyl0Iy by aparition42@social.quodverum.com
2020-01-12T13:30:35Z
0 likes, 3 repeats
Just a few hundred years ago, kings had fleas.No amount of money, clout, or political power could rid you of fleas. It was simply a fact of life.Then, around the turn of the previous century, a bunch of underrated genius entrepreneurs started independently inventing and improving vacuum cleaners.Not because a government program decided to fund research with tax-payer dollars, but because capitalism allowed individuals to pursue market niches for personal enrichment.
(DIR) Post #9qviF2ElqamPUYG8mW by aparition42@social.quodverum.com
2020-01-12T13:37:30Z
0 likes, 3 repeats
The vacuum cleaner is one of the most important inventions of the previous century, because it can kill fleas in all stages from egg to adult.In the late 1800s most people didn't know about the connection between fleas and disease. Why would any democracy vote to spend vital taxes and resources in an effort to eradicate household dust?Collectivism simply cannot produce the levels invention and innovation that advance the world, improve the human condition, and elevate ALL people.
(DIR) Post #9qviF2TexEgoEjE1zM by aparition42@social.quodverum.com
2020-01-12T13:43:11Z
0 likes, 5 repeats
Final side note. The first domestic electric vacuum that worked essential like modern ones was released by the Hoover company in 1908 for $60. Accounting for inflation, that would be about $1600 today.So rather than worrying too much about inflationary policies decreasing the value of currency, we should worry much more about anti-entrepreneurial policies crushing the spirit of invention and innovation that actually increases the power of our currency.-end-
(DIR) Post #9qvnEAEn7Gtjmlfmim by aparition42@social.quodverum.com
2020-01-12T16:51:54Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@HunDriverWidow Now watch people that love to scream about the public health risk of "anti vaxers" turn blind eyes to thousands of people literally crapping in their streets.
(DIR) Post #9qvsLD21crX2FVseOm by aparition42@social.quodverum.com
2020-01-12T17:49:11Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Debradelai One of PDJT's greatest strengths is distraction. The opposition looks exactly where he wants them to.Harder for the intrepid firefighters at cable news to broadcast troop movements and battle plans to the enemy when they're all busy analyzing typos in the President's tweets.
(DIR) Post #9qvvANY6Tw0tXsPc92 by aparition42@social.quodverum.com
2020-01-12T18:20:51Z
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@darulharb Peverse incentives again. Just like the cobra effect @fribbledom was discussing earlier this week.When you write the rules of the game, you're choosing how people will cheat.But of course, they know that. This is all part of the plan for the open borders crowd.Manipulate pity to create benefits for "victims"; act surprised when suddenly there's a lot more victims; use the "increasing attacks on immigrants" to garner even more pity to manipulate into even more benefits.
(DIR) Post #9qvwnRZVYkHhGlGDGy by aparition42@social.quodverum.com
2020-01-12T18:39:07Z
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@Angela It's a complete coincidence that massive donations from foreign governments, global conglomerates, and international NGOs have largely fallen off since the Clintons lost their pretext to direct political power.
(DIR) Post #9qw3cZRmdbtCBjPTQO by aparition42@social.quodverum.com
2020-01-12T19:09:06Z
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1/2In reference to Iran's "proxies" and the regime's plausible deniability thereof.One of my mother's favorite movies is the John Wayne classic, "Big Jake".In it, the titular Jake (Wayne), a hardened gunfighter, seeks to rescue his grandson from kidnappers.The gang leader, pretending to be just a messenger, meets with Jake to arrange the ransom hand off.Despite the messenger's insistence that he's not involved, Big Jake warns him with one of the greatest film lines ever penned.
(DIR) Post #9qw3cZmhNqcTEbCB1c by aparition42@social.quodverum.com
2020-01-12T19:09:24Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
"And now *you* understand. Anything goes wrong, anything at all... your fault, my fault, nobody's fault... it won't matter - I'm gonna blow your head off."https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBH6d-3-30E
(DIR) Post #9qwjkbl47qnBkNwaDg by aparition42@social.quodverum.com
2020-01-13T03:47:39Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@HunDriverWidow I'm shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, to find out that Warren doesn't care about the homeless, under-homed people, young familes, and low-income people that would be "disproportionally affected" by the inevitable contraction of the housing market that would obviously result from such a policy.I can't wait for her to find out just how few Americans care more about nebulous threats of heavy rain and mild winters than they do about the rent going up.
(DIR) Post #9qwujXwpuBP98W96tU by aparition42@social.quodverum.com
2020-01-13T05:50:43Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@umad80 @ThomasWic The best part being that the tweet is actually perfectly accurate.It's a photo titled "first snow of the year" because it's a photo of the first snow of the year.They didn't tweet that it was happening currently.If I post a vacation photo captioned "Me on the beach" after I get home, it's not a lie.In fact, "live tweeting" is a term specifically because the vast majority of tweets AREN'T sent in real time.
(DIR) Post #9qxjUbKI9qH2vskQz2 by aparition42@social.quodverum.com
2020-01-13T15:19:28Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@EngOnDemand Odd that the "Teachers should be paid more than football players" crowd never mentions this.
(DIR) Post #9qxtedM0TNbPetyMoy by aparition42@social.quodverum.com
2020-01-13T17:13:19Z
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@ThomasWic Impeachment has ALWAYS been a political farce.The impeachment of Johnson was led by a dying political party bitter by being left out in the cold.They actually passed an unconstitutional law in order to claim Johnson broke it.Not only is Johnson's impeachment now little more than a bit of trivia for US history buffs, the Radical Republicans are practically forgotten.They disappeared because they couldn't shift focus away from seeking vengeance and crushing their enemies.
(DIR) Post #9qyxoMU6dpqnD4cCbg by aparition42@social.quodverum.com
2020-01-13T17:55:49Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
Idiotic Anti-Trump pedants are now arguing over whether it's truthful to use the word "imminent" to describe something which may happen in a few days or weeks and whether such a threat warranted immediate decisive action.This from the crew that has spent the last 50 odd years telling us that the death of the entire planet due to fossil fuel use is "imminent" and we must act immediately without question.
(DIR) Post #9qz3S4HMFSia6HPAx6 by aparition42@social.quodverum.com
2020-01-14T06:37:49Z
0 likes, 3 repeats
@Jackie I love it when their claim about what the President said is immediately debunked by the actual quote just below it.Maybe there's just too many English as a Second Language students in journalism, but if you understand sentence structure at all, he didn't say Democrats are a disgrace, he said defending a terrorist is a disgrace.Not that Democrats AREN'T a disgrace, but that's not what he said.
(DIR) Post #9r5xb3GeZLkgM83o0G by aparition42@social.quodverum.com
2020-01-17T14:35:11Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@EngOnDemand This kid gets it.