2 Responses to “May 2, 2017”

1. malcolmm says:

   May 3, 2017 at 3:43 pm

   While I don’t disagree that the price of “stuff” is falling, I think the numbers are questionable.

   The note on the chart says that prices are adjusted to reflect improvements in quality (I think they really mean performance, quality hasn’t changed much in electronics over the last ten years). Is my current desktop computer significantly more powerful than a computer from ten years ago? Of course, but the programs and websites we use are far more demanding on computer resources today than they were ten years ago. Over time, most stuff becomes more capable, look at cars. This is not the same as a decrease in price though, because in most cases, these improvements aren’t optional and they are often needed.

   We should also factor in the cost of repairing our stuff. Cars are now extremely reliable, but when something goes wrong the cost of repairing it is really high. Some stuff isn’t even repairable unless it is still under warranty, for example Apple smart phones and computers.

   Then there is the stuff that is now very cheap but of very low quality. I replaced my kitchen and bathroom faucets less than ten years ago. I bought reasonably high quality parts, around $200 each. The chrome on the bathroom faucet is starting to rust and the faucet in the kitchen is broken. I’m not hard on stuff, the quality of much of the stuff we buy now is garbage.

2. jiHymas says:

   May 4, 2017 at 1:23 am

   I’ll certainly agree that if you aren’t using the additional power of modern computer equipment then the quality/performance improvements don’t mean very much. And it’s also true that I’m old and grumpy enough that a lot of the modern ever-so-cool enhancements to websites that require all that power could easily be dispensed with.

   But, just for fun, I looked back in my company books for what I was paying for computer equipment back in the good old days. In 2000, I spent $2,200 on a cheap desk-top, while in 2001 I spent $3,200 each on a pair of good ones. I also spent – brace yourself – $6,500 for a laptop capable of running my software with a decent amount of speed, and $600 on a back-up system.

   Nowadays, I spend somewhere around $350 whenever I need a laptop and it runs my software just fine, while allowing me to stream videos and check out Facebook at the same time. I can buy thumbdrives for back-up … 7GB at $1/GB. It always makes me laugh … when I started buying computers in quantity back in the nineties, the rule of thumb was that a hard drive cost $1/MB. The good old days were expensive!