What Would Most Surprise A Visitor from 1991?

[Capetan Mihali]

I'll throw one out there: smoking.  The price of cigarettes, the crazy warning labels, the smoking bans, and general prohibitionist attitude towards tobacco these days.  All of this was definitely underway in 1991, but I think the speed and severity of changes across the world in the last 20 years would have to be kind of surprising.  1991 was hardly the 50s for obliviousness to tobacco danger, but I remember sitting in a cloud of cigarette, cigar, and pipe smoke at all the Jewish holidays, with matching ashtrays set out on the table. 

[Eddie Teach]

And dressing a Roomba in a sexy french maid outfit is a bit of a fail. 

Like this?


Pervert.

[Malthus]

I'll throw one out there: smoking.  The price of cigarettes, the crazy warning labels, the smoking bans, and general prohibitionist attitude towards tobacco these days.  All of this was definitely underway in 1991, but I think the speed and severity of changes across the world in the last 20 years would have to be kind of surprising.  1991 was hardly the 50s for obliviousness to tobacco danger, but I remember sitting in a cloud of cigarette, cigar, and pipe smoke at all the Jewish holidays, with matching ashtrays set out on the table.

That was already underway, though. The change over the last 20 years isn't nearly as significant as the 20 years before that (1971-1991). In the 70s, people still smoked damn near everywhere - there were ashtrays in elevators. No longer in the 90s (at least, not here).

[The Brain]

Yeah on old photos they're smoking away in the NPP control rooms. Not in 91.

[DGuller]

In the 70s, people still smoked damn near everywhere - there were ashtrays in elevators.

[Razgovory]

In the 70s, people still smoked damn near everywhere - there were ashtrays in elevators.

C'mon I know Russian food is bad, but you people didn't eat out of ashtrays.

[The Brain]

there were ashtrays in elevators.

So your ancestors could get to the top floor?

[DGuller]

there were ashtrays in elevators.

So your ancestors could get to the top floor?

[dps]

If I visited directly from 1991 I would be surprised that everything was so fucked up.  In 1991 all things seemed possible.  The Cold War was over.  Peace and prosperity were supposed to follow.  Everyone was talking about the peace dividend.

And then somehow everything went wrong.

The Soviet Union falls, and, subsequently, the world goes to hell?

Exactly WTF!

Aren't a lot of our current ills also attributed to unrestrained capitalism?

Yes, it's a common but mistaken attributation.

[DGuller]

Yes, it's a common but mistaken attributation.

Not so mistaken at all, IMO.  I think we would be a lot better off had we not switched most our focus in the last few decades to making money from money.  In the end, we created a giant financial industry, the large part of which is a casino that serves to enrich a select few (mostly casino operators), and bring the world economy to the brink of disaster for the rest of us.

[dps]

Yes, it's a common but mistaken attributation.

Not so mistaken at all, IMO.  I think we would be a lot better off had we not switched most our focus in the last few decades to making money from money.  In the end, we created a giant financial industry, the large part of which is a casino that serves to enrich a select few (mostly casino operators), and bring the world economy to the brink of disaster for the rest of us.

I don't really disagree with that, but it's badly mistaken to call what we had before the downturn (and by-and-large, still have) "unrestrained capitalism.  And I still maintain my position that the problem wasn't lack of regulation, but the wrong types of regulation.

[DGuller]

It was unrestrained in ways that mattered.  Large part of the problem was that capitalists found a way to bypass regulation, and thus repeated the mistakes that originally brough forth the regulation in the first place.  Another large part was that the biggest regulator was an Ayn Rand student who didn't believe in regulation, and enjoyed the acclaim he got for not doing his job.

[Princesca]

I think that it would surprise them that Dick Clark is still alive. 

[Razgovory]

I don't really disagree with that, but it's badly mistaken to call what we had before the downturn (and by-and-large, still have) "unrestrained capitalism.  And I still maintain my position that the problem wasn't lack of regulation, but the wrong types of regulation.

I hear this excuse all the time when a deregulation scheme fails.  It reminds me of the communists who claimed the reason the Soviet Union failed was because it wasn't true communism, which saves them from admitting to themselves the problem might lie in the under lying ideology rather then it's execution.  The problem is the ideology that you should remove all the regulations you can get away with.

[grumbler]

I think that it would surprise them that Dick Clark is still alive. 

That surprises this visitor from 2011!