Minor Thoughts from me to you

I just wanted to write about how rich I am. Right now, Toyota's engineers are giving my car it's 30,000 mile checkup. They'll rotate my tires, change my oil, check all of my filters and fluids, etc. While they do that, I'm sitting in air-conditioned comfort. I have my laptop. Thanks to Toyota's "free" Wi-Fi service, I can browse the web while I wait. I have my iPod with me. It's chock full of economic lectures, audio books, music, and sermons. I also have the latest edition of Reason Magazine, thanks to Barnes & Noble's magazine rack.

I truly am one of the richest people to ever walk the planet. I sit in comfort with the ability to listen to what I want, read what I want, and watch what I want. All of this is available to anyone in the United States. How wonderful is that?

We're richer than we've ever been before. Don't believe me? Don Boudreaux takes a walk through a 1975 Sears catalog:

Other than the style differences, the fact most noticeable from the contents of this catalog's 1,491 pages is what the catalog doesn't contain. The Sears customer in 1975 found no CD players for either home or car; no DVD or VHS players; no cell phones; no televisions with remote controls or flat-screens; no personal computers or video games; no food processors; no digital cameras or camcorders; no spandex clothing; no down comforters (only comforters filled with polyester).

It seems to me that people were poor back in the '70's.