patrick.net

It's not the same, no body never had their boom box pause the music so you could take a call.
Rupert Murdoch never hacked into a Sony Cam or a Cybershot camera, that magelean GPS wasn't selling your data anyone that offered a dollar, but refused FBI's reasonable requests.
That inforgraphic should really be about how much wealth has technology robbed. All of those doodads, were made, shipped and sold by someone.
All of that stuff in the picture those apps for the most part could have been written by just one guy. He doesn't need people.

georgeliberte says

This is in line with the posting that the common person is richer than Nelson Rockefeller was in 1916. They are also richer than most people in 1985.

So a guy with a blue collar semi-skilled job today can keep a wife and two kids in a modest Levittown on one job, and retire by 60 with a gold watch and pension?

Technology may create wealth, but it's trickling up.

The processing power and video conferencing was a bit of hyperbole.
The article could have been rewritten on how a smart phone has as more computing power than an advanced mainframe in the early 80's.

Ironman says

And the scary thing, I've owned a bunch of those items in the first column.

Must you always brag about that Cray-2 Supercomputer?

thunderlips11 says

So a guy with a blue collar semi-skilled job today can keep a wife and two kids in a modest Levittown on one job, and retire by 60 with a gold watch and pension?

Technology may create wealth, but it's trickling up.

As usual you blame that on the capitalism, wrong again. blame it on incessant inflation, blame it on mercantilism brought to you by Nixon and Milton Friedman, And of course the reality that the rest of the world caught up to the US after we bombed the crap out of them.

The really striking thing about this is Moores Law.