New subject: The "FIRST PC" and personal timelines (Was: And what were t

22 Apr 1999

I suspect that few of the readers of this list remember the early '50's as I
do.  I wasn't trying to compare or contrast the prices of the antique
computers which were under discussion, but rather point out that few people
would put out a month's pay (gross) for a personal computer, even today.  In
the early '50's there were more people, including some professionals, with
less than $300 after taxes (and they were MUCH lower then) than there were
people earning more.  There wasn't yet a minimum wage of $1.00 per hour,
and, in fact, when I had a minimum wage job in '60, I earned <$5.00 per
8-hour day.  Naturally a $300 computer wasn't on my list of things to buy.

Dick

-----Original Message-----
From: CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com &lt;CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com&gt;
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
&lt;classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu&gt;
Date: Thursday, April 22, 1999 7:20 PM
Subject: Re: The "FIRST PC" and personal timelines (Was: And what were
the80s

...
 >> Just to put things into perspective, a
week's groceries, these days, for a
...
 >> family of four, cost about $150, a decent
mid-priced car costs $15000, and a
...
 >> farily well equipped and appropriately
designated personal computer with a
...
 >> 400MHz pentium, 8GB HDD, 64MB of RAM, OS
installed, all the multimedia
>> features, plus a current-generation modem (V.90) costs $400 less the
monitor
...
 >> with monitors costing $139 for a 15" and
$300 for a 20" type.  These prices
...
 >> are from Best-Buy's ad in last
Sunday's paper.  You can probably do better
...
  > if you
shop. 
 These prices are also based on technology that has
had 50 years to mature,
and therefore the comparison is entirely invalid. 
"If the automobile had followed the same price-performance changes as
the computer industry in the past 50 years, a Rolls Royce would today cost
$4.95, get two million miles to the gallon, go 50000 MPH, and explode
once a day, killing everyone inside."  -- Robert X. Cringley

--
 Tim Shoppa                        Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com
 Trailing Edge Technology          WWW:   http://www.trailing-edge.com/
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The "FIRST PC" and personal timelines (Was: And what were the80s