“Here’s the thought experiment of the day: If you could be transported back to 1900 with your current income, would you take the deal? The answer is almost certainly no. Sure, your current income would go a hell of a long way in 1900, but you’d still swelter in the summer because all the money in the world couldn’t buy you an air conditioner. Ditto for plane travel, penicillin, automobiles, etc. etc. Even with a lot of money, 1900 looks pretty crappy.”
Would you take the deal if you were sent back to 1973? Mother Jones asks the question and it’s a nice little game of imaginary time travel. But not as much fun to play if you’re of color, gay, or a woman. Or disabled, and probably a host of other things.
I’d go back to 1985, though.
4 responses
Speaking just as a woman and as someone who enjoys technology, I would not go back a single day. Every few months I realize the people around me are getting a little more enlightened (granted this is in part because I teach college and every semester I get to meet new young people). And every few months I realize the new apps and innovations have made my life easier and more fun. Seriously, not a single day.
Actually, 1973 was a wonderful time to be a Lesbian in the US, particularly if you lived in a large metro area. There was a total flowering of Lesbian Culture at the time, with theater, music, publishing, women’s studies courses, conferences, meetings, dances, publishing, art. It was great! You could feel the energy in the air. I came out in 1971, when I was twenty, and consider those years some of the best of my life.
I’ll have to go read the Mother Jones piece, but it seems to me that for a person of middle class income, you’d have to go back pretty far in order for there to be a significant difference in how far your money went, given the way middle class wages have stagnated since then. The advances I’ve seen in my standard of living haven’t come because I make more money than my dad did, but because technology has improved and gotten cheaper, especially when it comes to material comforts. No thanks. I’m a white male and I have no desire to go back either.
Brian, you’re right: From the article “And income level matters too. If you choose a middle-class 2011 income level, then 1973 gets you an upper class lifestyle. But the difference between middle class and upper class isn’t all that big, so you’d take 2011 because of all the goodies we have.”
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