To notice that..

[Lanark2]

Just as everything gets cheaper and most entertainment is virtually free..all the wages go down to nothing.

I don't know how I could afford the books and records I used to, or even rent a TV like I used to. Its scary because after it all converges as it will, we will start to be charged..but will have no spare money!!?. What's going on?

[5Foot5]

I am sorry but I have no idea what you are talking about. Could you explain a bit more what you mean about everything getting cheaper and what is converging with what?

[Lanark2]

I mean that, like we should all have loads of spare cash now so many things and services are so cheap and/or free, but all that's happened is no wages growth instead, or fall in many cases, so I feel like I have less, even though much of what I do is free..

[capsium]

Funny, I was thinking the other day how many modern 'necessities' we didn't have 2 or 3 decades ago and subsequently didn't pay for.

Mobile phone costs, internet provider, TV providers other than TV licence. Keeping up with the latest technology to stay online. These costs are not insignificant. Books, years ago, were often borrowed from the library and music 'taped' off friends / the radio. Libraries are undergoing huge cuts and tapes are obsolete. Car ownership seems to be more obligatory as public transport services have been cut. 6th form pupils also used to receive free school transport to school. We got tuition fees and grants to pay living costs at university...

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

Your second post is not clearer op .

I don't quite understand because if the thjngs and services you use are cheap or free, then you should be feeling better off. Unless because you think you should be better off you are therefore are spending too much on other stuff.

What do you mean about converging?

[Tessticklesyourfancy]

I agree about many costs. We didn't have internet at home fifteen years ago, as for mobile phone contracts and things like SKY TV ditto. My first mobile phone was pay as you go because I used my house phone when I was in the house and didn't feel the need to talk or text while moving from a to b. I don't remember queues of people outside phone boxes unless it was at a bus or train station. I didn't own a car until I was thirty, I used the bus to get to work or go shopping. I did buy books clothes ect but there wasn't the tech stuff around and I've never felt the need to constantly replace soft furnishings and pictures with the changing seasons.

[Teacaddy]

Just as everything gets cheaper and most entertainment is virtually free

It does???

[LovelyBrewandBiscuits]

like we should all have loads of spare cash now so many things and services are so cheap and/or free

What like housing? And childcare?

[LifeofI]

Sorry to not answer your post but im just wondering, why would you rent a TV?

[ouryve]

Actually, many things are cheaper. Technology is incredibly cheap compared with, say, 15 years ago. I pick that number because I found an early noughties Tesco receipt, a few months back. The only thing that was much, much lower in price was bread and cereals. Bread cost half as much. Milk was about £1 for 2l. Meat was only about 20% cheaper than you'd see in Tesco, now. Veg was more variable, though spuds cost less than half what they do now.

Not everything is cheaper, mind. Housing costs were significantly lower than they are now, as was fuel. Public transport was much, much cheaper.

[Costacoffeeplease]

In the 70s and 80s it was normal to rent a tv as they were very expensive to repair so hardly anyone bought one outright

[Pettywoman]

Loads of people used to rent TVs. There was Radio Rentals on the high street. We had our own but it was shit. Black and white and only got BBC1.

[capsium]

Ouryre technology may be cheaper now but we didn't use as much a couple of decades ago. I personally didn't even go online at home in 1996 - most people didn't. We had a home computer just for desktop publishing and games and could easily manage without it. There was no online banking, phone banking was still very new at that time.We only had terrestrial tv and weren't unusual in that. Mobile phones were only just becoming more popular but I didn't have one and my DH only had one from work (so we didn't pay the bill).

[Costacoffeeplease]

And do you remember party lines? When we got our first phone in the 70s there weren't enough lines to go round and we had to share with a neighbour across the road! Unthinkable now

[DaisyAdair]

We rented our TV and if times were hard (which they often were)we'd exchange our colour set for a black and white one because the licence was so much cheaper.

[UhtredRagnorsson]

Let's see.

Power - more expensive these days
Water - WAY more expensive these days (but I used to live in a cheaper place, so maybe it's not more expensive everywhere)
Insurance - more expensive (because of additional taxes)
TV - the TV licence is more than it was. On top of that one has, if one wants, sky/virgin. That costs - we didn't used to have those costs.
Internet - back in the day, there wasn't internet. Now there is. The price for broadband has fallen from when it was introduced (2000) but obviously it's a cost that wasn't there in say 1993
Mobile phones - again, they are cheaper than they have been but in the 90s we didn't have them at all
Cinema tickets - price has gone through the roof
Theatre tickets - ditto
Gigs - ditto
Transport - petrol costs more, trains cost more, the price never ever goes down
Cars - purchase price may have gone down at the cheap end.
Books (you specifically mentioned books) in real terms these are now more expensive than they used to be. Inflation has been tiny for years, the price of books has gone up.
CD equivalents - probably cheaper. And you can buy by the track which is obviously cheaper than buying a whole CD for one song. Or you can choose to pay for something like apple music or spotify which might work out cheaper but on the other hand you don't own anything. Or you can just watch stuff on you tube but that requires internet and kit to access it etc so is it really cheaper? Maybe maybe not.

Clothes are cheaper than they used to be.
Some food is cheaper than it used to be (some isn't).

[jay55]

Hosing costs have soared while we can now buy a jumper from next for a tenner when it was forty quid in my teen years.

[ouryve]

I personally didn't even go online at home in 1996 - most people didn't.

I'm old enough to be a grandmother, myself, thankyou. I can google how to suck eggs.

We got online in 1998, as 56K modems became affordable.

By 2001, people were beginning to have access to broadband, either via cable or ADSL, which is another reason I went back just 15 years.

[ouryve]

Another to put 15 years as a comparator - Firefox is 15 years old, next year. It was firebird, when I first started using it.

And yes, clothes are so much cheaper, now. Unfortunately, if often shows. I have a 20 year old M&S sweatshirt. Made in the UK and still looks pretty good if you ignore the baggy 1990s sleeves. No pilling and hardly any fading. It cost me £18 in the sale, back then. You can still buy £18 sweatshirts, but they probably won't last 20 years.

[UhtredRagnorsson]

Broadband was introduced in 2000 but it wasn't ubiquitous for many years. It wasn't even available in many places, let alone affordable.But we didn't NEED broadband back in those days (I had it cos I worked from home but I was the exception not the rule) - there was internet banking but only a few banks did it. There was no iTunes, no amazon streaming - none of that stuff. It was more expensive but you didn't have to have it. It may be cheaper today than it was in 2000, but now you HAVE to have it or you are disadvantaged as so many things have moved online. So you aren't comparing apples with apples, you are comparing them with kelp.

[capsium]

I can google how to suck eggs.

I wouldn't need to google, ouryve

My point was more intended to emphasise the fact that, whilst what technology there was may have been more expensive (15 / 20 years ago - whatever), most people did not even expect to own a lot of it.

Now, increasingly, our lives are run in such a way, to be able to connect to the Internet is practically a necessity, as is owning a mobile phone. Although service costs may have come down it is difficult to opt out of using these services completely.

[UhtredRagnorsson]

capsium - exactly. What is now a necessity was a luxury back then. Therefore costs are up. apples/kelp.