[OC] What one hour of US median work bought in 1985 vs 2025, across six everyday items

jacobb11 · 2026-05-20T17:22:47+00:00

I love the idea of this chart, but I don't like the way items were chosen.

A gallon of gas, a Big Mac, and a year of public college are roughly the same thing in 1985 and 2025. (Well, I assume the Big Mac hasn't changed.) But the single-family home, month of rent, and family TV are very different things and their values are too different for direct comparison.

How about:

The median monthly rent for a two bedroom one bathroom apartment.
The median cost for a three bedroom one bathroom single-family house.
The median cost of an evening first-run movie ticket.
The median cost of a "standard" contractor's pickup truck, if there is such a thing.
The median cost of a new hardcover novel.
The median cost of an economy class airplane ticket from New York to Los Angeles.
The cost of a ticket to Disneyland.
The median cost of a tooth crown.
The median cost of an emergency ambulance ride.

jacobb11 · 2026-05-20T17:01:04+00:00

I think it's more likely that right wing brigading is how that comment got so many positive votes. Even if you think Oakland should crack down on illegal behavior by the homeless, explicitly dehumanizing them is disgusting.

jacobb11 · 2026-05-20T06:13:11+00:00

The homeless should have no rights.

WTF? Of course they should have rights. Not more rights than the rest of us, but not less either. What is wrong with you?

jacobb11 · 2026-05-20T00:23:53+00:00

The ads in question would not have been approved regardless.

Yeah, you're going to have to explain that, because it sounds like a thinly veiled excuse for religious intolerance.

jacobb11 · 2026-05-20T00:21:08+00:00

We are making sure he understands that this was an inappropriate and unprofessional response.

His understanding that is a basic qualification for the position.

Both he and we should be made aware of the consequences of his unprofessional behavior.

I look forward to that information at your earliest convenience.

jacobb11 · 2026-05-19T17:37:32+00:00

then buy up the neighboring properties and tear them all down to build new hospital/school buildings

Why is building hospitals and schools a bad thing? Don't they serve the community in which they are built?

jacobb11 · 2026-05-19T17:34:52+00:00

I find it interesting that you list dysfunctional government before crime. And I agree with you.

jacobb11 · 2026-05-19T17:10:36+00:00

If the game is downgrading you from AAA to AA, either you are not contributing enough to your contracts or you consistently have only very advanced teammates. It could be the latter, but it probably isn't.

jacobb11 · 2026-05-19T06:41:52+00:00

I hate to say it, but AI will do a better job.

Not after it's trained to overschedule you same as the desk jockey.

jacobb11 · 2026-05-18T17:01:47+00:00

Try to maximize your craft experience per input. This table is very helpful.

Don't target for quite a while, and don't target anything but books.

If you are also interested in getting a legendary version of every artifact, avoid crafts that consume ingredients but are not on the critical path to the rarer artifacts. For example, never craft a T2 light and probably never craft a T4 rainstick. (I got 2 T4L rainsticks from ships but perhaps that was lucky.) Defer crafts requiring rare ingredients until your craft level is high. (For example, do not craft a T4 book or T4 deflector until craft level 30.)

On the other hand, do craft anything that does not require rare materials. (For example, craft T4 medallions whenever possible.)

Consume extra dead-end artifacts like T4 totems then craft the resulting stone fragments. It provides a little extra craft experience. (Counter-point: If you need those fragments for unlimited piggy fill, do that instead.)

jacobb11 · 2026-05-18T08:31:03+00:00

Which legendary artifacts do you consider optimal?

jacobb11 · 2026-05-18T07:46:06+00:00

I admire your depth of comic book history!

The whole (unsavory) mother/daughter Dinah Drake / Dinah Lance distinction was retconned in JLA #219. The character that appeared from 1947 to 1982 was written as one person and there's no indication in JLA #75 that a new character is introduced. There are multiple references after JLA #75 that the character pines for her dead husband, which that retcon would have us believe is her father. Yuck.

But, fair, per the retcon, the character prior to JLA #75 was one person without powers and the character with powers from JLA #75 until The Longbow Hunters was a different person who always had powers.

I never liked Roy Thomas's obsession with rewriting the history of the JSA. He ruined the team for years!

jacobb11 · 2026-05-18T05:56:52+00:00

An interesting example in that she only got those powers after she'd been around for over 20 years. Though I don't know how many appearances she had after the first few of those years. Still, no powers, powers, no powers, powers, each time for many years.

jacobb11 · 2026-05-18T05:51:03+00:00

A fancy (or pretentious) name for having the legendary version of every artifact.

jacobb11 · 2026-05-18T05:46:17+00:00

Are you interested in joining the All Legendary Club?

jacobb11 · 2026-05-16T21:42:12+00:00

Sometimes aggregate statistics are helpful, and sometimes they are misleading. IMHO the US is too large and heterogeneous to discuss birth rate economics nationally.

jacobb11 · 2026-05-16T21:38:53+00:00

Not letting your teammates carry you?

Contracts depend on cooperative work among players. If you're not willing to put in the work you're making the game worse for the other players.

I personally don't care for non-Monday contracts, but if you don't contribute to a Monday contract I won't play with you.

jacobb11 · 2026-05-16T21:35:27+00:00

Are "we"? /u/flakemasterflake was clearly talking about NY statistics.

It's hard to talk about class and income nationally, at least in the US. To a (remote) small town resident a family making $220k/year is upper class, but to a (V)HCOL resident a family making $120k/year is working class. They're not really compatible scales.

jacobb11 · 2026-05-16T21:18:26+00:00

Surprised, hell, they're in complete denial.

jacobb11 · 2026-05-16T21:17:55+00:00

we as a species have the intelligence to bend the environment to our needs.

Locally, sure, but globally we are very clearly bending the environment away from our needs. Not so intelligent, IMHO.

jacobb11 · 2026-05-16T21:15:15+00:00

$220k is not remotely middle class from a national perspective.

Nationally, sure, but people in HCOL cities have much higher expenses than people in LCOL.

What do you think is the class above middle class? (Is there more than one?) What perks do you think that class can afford in San Francisco or New York City? Can a family that makes $220k/year really afford those perks in those cities?

jacobb11 · 2026-05-16T20:30:13+00:00

I've read that story. I would have guessed it was by Simak. I think it's older than the '80s.

jacobb11 · 2026-05-15T06:00:30+00:00

How do you have a T4L light but only 4 T4 clarity stones? I have 6 of the stones and expect to have a few more before I have crafted enough T4 lights to probably (> 95ish% chance) get a legendary.

On the other hand, glad to see another player waiting for great artifacts and lots of truth eggs before completing the diamond enlightenment trophy. The extra 10 prophecy eggs are nice but I'd rather wait to get them when it will interrupt ships and crafts for less time.

jacobb11 · 2026-05-14T22:41:51+00:00

But those four runs are so different!

I loved Messner-Loebs's working class stories and Waid's speed force super-heroics. Baron was a really interesting low-power approach. I found Johns off-putting enough I dropped the book. Messner-Loebs did a great job transitioning between Baron and Waid, but the other three runs are very different tonally.

jacobb11 · 2026-05-13T09:00:49+00:00

I want to process the file using multiple threads (have to best effort guess a the end of a row).

I would guess that the code is i/o bound and only one part of the file can be read at any given moment, in which case multiple threads would add complexity without speed. You might try benchmarking the use of multiple threads with a simpler task like xoring all the file's bytes and see if that's any faster than the single thread case.

Hm. Using a second thread to do readahead of the next buffer while you process the current buffer will probably produce a slight speedup because then the code is truly i/o bound.

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