zlacker

The author mentions his father's "$2000 computer", a figure has no impact in 2025, when $2,000 doesn't seem like a particularly large amount of money to have spent on a state of the art PC.

I'm of the opinion that writers should make it a habit in pieces like these to always include prices that have been adjusted for inflation. In this case, $2,000 corresponds to $6,731.61, which provides better context for the story.

>>Supern+(OP)
How did people justify that cost? Was 6k ”more affordable” back then? Was there more money to spend?

>>xattt+E3
Well, some people needed it for work, or for university. Some people got it from work to be able to work at home. Others may have had experience with 8 bit machines and had money when the PC hit the stores.

>>xattt+E3
My parents saved up for years and then kept the same computer for years more. It was normal to have a machine for 10 years, and just one per household.

Upgrading with a hard disk, a second floppy drive, or upgrading the graphics card was common.

>>Supern+(OP)
Typical people I know today think it’s normal to spend $300 a month on a family phone plan ($3600 a year).

Back then, you had 1 phone which cost around $50 a month in inflation adjusted dollars.

>>xattt+E3
> Was there more money to spend?

In California, there certainly was. The US economy had already started its decline, but from such a high that well-to-do Americans hadn't noticed. By contrast, because Europe had had to be rebuilt after WWII, the general populace had benefitted far less from the postwar boom.

In 1982, my family had a relatively comfortable middle class existence, but buying a home computer that cost (at the time) about half as much as a one-bedroom apartment would have been absolutely unimaginable to my parents. The ZX81 they bought for me cost £99.