Open Thread

What’s on your mind?

Comments

[Kazinski]

I was rather shocked when I walked into my local Costco today and saw a 65" 4k UHD QLED TV on sale for 399$.

I don't get it, I thought Trump's tariffs ended that kind of deal forever.

https://www.costco.com/p/-/tcl-65-class-q77k-series-4k-uhd-qled-smart-tv-allstate-3-year-protection-plan-bundle-included-for-5-years-of-total-coverage/4000364007?langId=-1

I didn't buy one of course, I have a perfectly good Samsung 65" that I bought 3 years ago for around $600.

But I still remember quite a few of my previous TV purchases for context.
(please no psychoanalysis about why I would keep this kind of memory when I can't remember the last name of the first girl I had sex with).

The first TV I ever bought was a 19 inch color TV for 270$, specifically watch the Raiders, my favorite team since I was born in Oakland, beat the Eagles. (A year later I divorced the Raiders when they moved to LA. Fuck Al Davis, I didn't care a whit when they moved back. That's like when your stripper girlfriend moves back in after she leaves you for a pimp bf, and then can't find her enough tricks (not a personal experience, but I was born in Oakland so I understand the whole emotional thing)).

About 10-12 years later after that TV crapped out I bought a 27" color TV for amazingly 270$ same price as the first one.

Next TV, that I remember, was about another 10-12 after that after the HD age started, it was when the first EDTV flat screens were selling at about 3000$, I instead bought a rear projection "puppet theatre" 48" HD for about 1700$. My calculus at the time was fully HD TVs prices were dropping do fast that in 2 years I could buy a full 1080p flat.screen tv for less than my rear projection screen TV would cost, which was on paper better than the 720p, and the upgrade to 1080p would cost.

And I turned out to be right.

But I guess I should have just waited for the $399, 65" 4k TV.

That's a 45 year long affordability crises.

[AmosArch]

Remember the rules: If 'Line goes up' during a Democrat President. The economy is doing great and you rubes just don't understand. If 'Line goes up' during a Republican President, its all lies, and even if it were true its stuff that has no relevance to real people just the ultrabillionaires.

If one sector grows so fast it seemingly carries the entire rest of the economy on its back during a Democrat Presidency then Bill Clinton and Al Gore are visionaries being the vanguard of enabling and advancing technology and science through their championing of the Internet. If the same thing happens during a Republican Presidency than Drumpf is selling out the country for the AI bubble because it gives the false mirage of making the rest of the economy look good.

[Kazinski]

No. Just stop.

I am not trying to compare any of the prices back then or the relative level price/technology to today.

That would be absurd.

Even though a $270 19" tv in 1980 (1070$ today) would buy you a 55" HD TV today for 270 in 2025 dollars, it doesn't consider the reality of a 7$ latte that didn't exist in 1980. That 270$ in 2025 dollars might buy you a much better TV, and leave you money left over, but not enough to buy yourself a 7$ latte for more than barely half a year today.

And that doesn't even consider Uber Eats.

How dare you.

[bloocow2]

So, as someone who is objective and non biased in these matters, how do you think your economy is doing? Do your best to answer without a tu quoque.

[Frank Drackman]

Remember going to buy a TV with my Parents in 1969, Mom said it would be "Color", I was so excited!!!
It was "Color", 2 Colors, Black and White
Didn't get our first Color Set, a Zenith until 1972, it was one of my Birthday Presents in 1983 right before starting Med School, lasted until 1988, replace it with a 25inch Walmart Brand (with a Remote! boy I was living)
First really expensive TV was a 40 inch Mitsubishi in 1998 for $2,000 I think it's still the largest production Tube TV ever made, had to be 400lbs, free delivery to our Rockville MD townhouse was included.
Remember playing $2,500 for a 59" Panasonic Plasma in 2008, I think that was the time of "Peak TV" and it wasn't "Smart", just had a fantastic picture (still does) got a 65" Panasonic a few years later cheaper, the last of the Plasmas (still great picture)
The Plasma's are for my Man Cave, TV's only got a Finite Lifespan, no use wasting it on Mrs. Drackman's drivel.

Frank

[Malika la Maize]

That’s an odd product choice:

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, prices for televisions are 99.38% lower in 2025 versus 1950 (a $993.81 difference in value).

Between 1950 and 2025: Televisions experienced an average inflation rate of -6.56% per year. This rate of change indicates significant deflation. In other words, televisions costing $1,000 in the year 1950 would cost $6.19 in 2025 for an equivalent purchase. Compared to the overall inflation rate of 3.51% during this same period, inflation for televisions was significantly lower.

https://www.in2013dollars.com/Televisions/price-inflation

Also, weren’t the tariffs on electronics paused?

[Malika la Maize]

The editorial board of The Wall Street Journal is dismissing a conspiracy theory about 2020 election integrity in Georgia that has gained more traction among Republicans in recent days.

“The nation’s MAGA minds are still looking back at 2020 and stretching to justify President Trump’s delusion of a stolen election,” the Journal wrote in an editorial published Sunday. “The latest involves the embarrassing news that Fulton County, Ga., failed to have its poll workers sign many of the tabulator tapes for early voting.”

The newspaper conceded that “unsigned tabulator tapes are a problem,” calling the mistake in Georgia “widespread during early voting in Fulton County” enough to indicate the municipality’s election office “deserved an overhaul.”

“Yet an error by poll workers isn’t a reason to throw out tens or hundreds of thousands of ballots cast by Georgians who did nothing wrong,” the newspaper continued, noting the issue is “getting more attention than it deserves because Mr. [Brad] Raffensperger is running for Governor, and his GOP primary opponents are using the Fulton County mistake against him…”

“Elections are supposed to run by the book, and Fulton County’s blunder is bad for public confidence,” the Journal wrote. “Yet so are Mr. Trump’s constantly shifting claims that the 2020 election was stolen, with every irregularity claimed as supposedly proving history’s biggest fraud.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5665452-wall-street-journal-trump-2020-election-fraud-georgia/?tbref=hp