This premise was floated by Don Bordeaux at Cafe Hayek.
John D. Rockeller, in adjusted dollars, was the richest man who ever lived.
John D. Rockefeller’s car, if transported in mint condition to 2016, was a clunker.
His house didn’t have television, a computer, an iPhone, or a telephone that could Skype.
He couldn’t call Europe. If he wanted to go to Europe he wouldn’t get there the same day.
John D. Rockefeller’s health care was horrendous. If he cut off his arm, his arm stayed cut off. Erectile dysfunction? Oh well. Bad infection? Sayonara.
His house probably didn’t have central air-conditioning, but even if it did, wherever else he went there probably wasn’t any.
JDR probably had a great phonograph. Mono.
Any supermarket today has more food choices to bring home to your refrigerator/freezer.
You get the idea.
So who’s “richer”?
A case could be made that the ordinary man today is richer than John D. Rockefeller.
And how did we get that way?
CAPITALISM.
STFU Bernie.
Thank God America embraced Capitalism and brought substantial wealth to the average person.
Same could be said for King Solomon. I’ll bet he never ate a bowl of rocky road ice cream in his entire life. Of course he did have a gajillion women at his disposal.
“His house didn’t have television, a computer, an iPhone, or a telephone that could Skype”
You say that like it was a bad thing.
Dude lived to 97 so he was definitely a strong, smart man.
Don’t forget the porn back then was all fat, hairy ladies, so there is that…
Well…duh…it’s called “progress”.
Okay, now let’s turn our attention to how good the inner-city poor have it. Poor people have smart phones and wide-screen TVs. Shaniqua has extensions and acrylics and her son DaShawn wears $200 kicks. They have roofs over their heads and indoor plumbing. I’m going to go out on a limb and say they have adequate food because so many of them are FAT. They get education for their children and medical care for free. And Uncle Bernie wants to give these leeches more.
I say screw that. I work like a Hebrew slave, and I say hold up on the generosity until I have a wide-screen TV and smart phone, and don’t have deuctibles and copays on my health plan.
AMEN BFH ! Every libshit should be made to read it over & over…
What he didn’t have wasn’t available so he didn’t know it existed.
He was happy because he could have whatever was a available at the time.
This is indeed easy: Little to no progress in lifestyle for millennia, until free markets and private property rights were established. Both were stymied by the clerical and secular elite. Note especially the role of religion!
The same outcome was/is seen in any government centric country. Fortunately for the citizens of such countries today, they can live off the gains by the freer countries. Even China was forced to embrace managed free market reforms, and still fear revolution.
No need to use terms like capitalism or socialism. Just push free markets and personal property rights.
Most people get those concepts, though many lie. Like when they say letting millions of unskilled workers into a country doesn’t depress lifestyle for every worker in that country.
Both the left (by definition wrt government) and (dishonest) conservatives are guilty of such lies.
Just think of people today going cross country by horse and wagon, it would be a total shit show.
Amen, old_oaks. My trip through the high deserts of Utah last summer was an eye-opener. My traveling companion and I talked often while driving for hours with no sight of water or trees just how rugged the pioneers were. For them it wasn’t hours – it was weeks.
Could you see pajama-boy doing that for even one hour?
my neighbor has been on government assistance since age 18. she is now 69. free housing, free medical and 900.00 a month for food, utilities. she weighs 320. her current doctor believes she is eligible for surgery to remove the tire around her stomach. she just had free oral surgery and dental implants. she has a smart phone, internet and a car. and a maltese dog with a service/companion permit she got online.
her landlord gave her 30 day notice six months ago and she still hasn’t moved out. different rules.
she has never filed a tax return.
her day is spent watching tv all day long.
That comparison is nothing new. Had teachers in HS in the 70’s saying we were living better than the most powerful Roman emperor or King. And that was before the Internet, iPhone, MP3, CDs, etc.
In today’s dollars…Rockefeller was worth 660 Billion at the time of Standard Oil being split up.
Capitalism is like a rising tide, lifting all boats.
Socialism causes these boats to rot, and eventually sink.
So that is why the muzzies are so
One thing he did have was lots of power.
The sad part is that there is NO SUCH THING as “CAPITALISM!”
The word came from Karl Marx (“Das Kapital”) in an effort to systematize and demonize the concept that people had THEIR OWN FUCKIN MONEY and were FREE TO DO WITH IT WHATEVER THEY WANTED to the effect that “socialism” was the one and only “true and fair” system of coercion and/or philosophy.
We have fallen a great deal, and we’ve a great deal further to go.
This is partly why BOTH political parties are socialist at their cores – they understand little and care not at all.
No stripper heels, frisbees or synthetic fibers ( fleece was a verb).