Readers suggested a topic on comparisons. "Do Americans have more or less to be grateful for than they did in 1980? That’s the time the old post-New Deal liberal order, unions and industry were starting to collapse, precipitating the era we have been in since, or had been through 2007 or so. It’s also the time that those born from 1930 to 1955 or so took over our institutions from the Greatest Generation, and those born afterward entered the labor and housing markets."

"There were real gains in information technology, and the information and entertainment people had access to. And, though it was expensive, health care. But much of the rest of the apparent gains in the standard of living over the past few decades have been funded by debts, public and private. And now that has collapsed, the standard of living is falling."

"In the early 1990s recession, when people were down, I put together a spreadsheet with a variety of economic, social and environmental indicators comparing the so-called 'good old days' with the 'recent bad years' to show things were, in fact, better. I’m pretty sure that for most people, especially young people, I could make the opposite case today."

One said, "Fancier toys do not make a for a better life. 20 years ago I wasn’t constantly keeping my ear to the ground, hoping to dodge the next wave of layoffs. I would gladly trade my flat panel TV and high speed internet for some peace of mind."

And finally, "I think we have a great deal to be grateful for, such as modern new inventions and greater prosperity. With all the news talk about how this decade compares with that, it’s often not even comparable. My first computing experience began in High School with a Wang card-reader that barely did arithmetic. Shortly thereafter, a hand calculator emerged, priced about $450 that could do multiplication and division and even had a percent key. Wow."

"By 1980, my College had a computer that worked with punch cards. By 1985, it was fully integrated with computer data consoles and a few programming languages. Apples, Amiga, Commodore and IBM laptops had all entered the market. I started out with a 16k laptop that was an amazing 4 times the previous model for data storage, with a floppy disc, rather than cassette tape storage. We also had the first COLOR 'RGB' consoles. I started out with amber and green screens. You can see where this is going."

"I used to stay up nights drinking beer with computer geeks and downloading data on a 1200 baud modem. Soon we got a 2400 bps modem and WOW, we doubled out data stream. It was like magic.
We didn’t have the Web, web-sites, internet access (only university inter-library access and bbs services). We didn’t have cell phones. My first dial-up systems used a rotary telephone. Most kids don’t even know what that is."

"My college car was a 1972 Datsun pickup. It was built poorly, but mechanically unstoppable. Cable TV? You must be joking. We started out with 5 network channels in the 1960s. That was it. World satellite communications? Didn’t exist. VCR’s had begun to be developed. Then we got DVD’s around the 1990’s or so. My 8-track and cassette players have been replaced by CD’s. Online music?? MP3 players?? What’s that?"

"Shopping 'malls' were new creations. We had local stores and strip centers for 1/2 my adult life. Look around your house. I still have VINYL records and still play them. I like to put the stylus down on the track I want to hear. But lots of the stuff you have didn’t exist in 1980."

"Online library? Forget about it. You need to look something up? A trip to the local library and a dig through the Card Catalog (no computer files). 3×5 cards. Index cards. Rotary Business lines with phone books delivered for every phone. The advances of medicine and available care could fill a book. I never had an MRI before 1999. I could go on for the rest of the day. A lot has changed and in many ways our lives are much easier and more efficient. I think my standard of living is mostly improved. I am communicating with you in ways that were not possible in 1980 or even 1990. But all this has come at a cost. We spent way too much to achieve a greater, bigger and richer society. I say that collectively, as I personally did not."

"There have been vast improvements to people’s lives, but societies live by way of comparison. We all live better than most Regal Elites of past generations to whom 'salt' was a luxury, ice was shipped around the world for cold (before refrigeration), Books were rare, and 'climate controlled' buildings were simply a dream."

"The simple truth is that whatever 'new thing' some people are able to possess, others will feel left out and 'oppressed' because they don’t have one, too. And somehow, it’s not fair and the government should 'do something' about it. We live in a world of scarcity, not abundance. Human efforts have created more abundance, but the desire to 'fairly distribute' it will remain a source of conflict so long as humans are working to debate and resolve the issues. Unfortunately 'credit' allows people to live more abundant lives and create the illusion that they are more 'wealthy' than they really are. This includes societies as well as individuals."