re: Are electronic prices the greatest success of capitalism in history?

A friend of mine a few doors down in the dorm had a 13-14 inch black and white that we could almost see Monday Night football and I am sure it cost more than $88. A long, long time ago.

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They want everyone to get smart TV's.

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Well, somebody certainly does.

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WikiLeaks says Samsung smart TVs were hacked to enable spying on consumers.

In a trove of documents released Tuesday, WikiLeaks included code that it says shows the CIA worked with U.K. intelligence officials to turn microphones in TVs into listening devices.

Samsung smart TVs have microphones so viewers can make voice commands, such as requests for movie recommendations.

The commands typically aren’t transmitted outside the home unless users activate the feature. If the TV is off, there’s no listening being done.

WikiLeaks releases documents on CIA hacking But WikiLeaks claims that documents it obtained show that through a program called Weeping Angel, the target TV appears to be off when it is actually on -- and listening.

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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cia-hacked-samsung-smart-tvs-wikileaks-vault-7/

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... but then turn around and see something as seemingly simple as childcare soar 450% since 1980s.

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Because the government regulates it now.

My wife first got into the business in the early 80's ... Now my daughter is in her final year as a student teacher. Daycare, pre-K, you name it was dirt cheap back in the day because church's had volunteers, and small startups didn't have much overhead, etc.

Now the (local/state) come to inspect: camera's? gotta have; background checks? gotta have; health inspection? gotta have; liability insurance? gotta have. So government regulation, insurance and legal have driven this up.

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In 2006 I paid $2K for a 37" Samsung LCD dumb TV... I think you can get that same TV for $50 today...

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I wasn't there to buy a TV but there was an electronic sales and repair business. This was back when flat screens just came out and this was about 50 inch Plasma screen. I'm guessing the technology didn't make it because of the cost. It was $13,000. Not sure what LCD comparable would have cost but it certainly wasn't that much.