Would you rather live then or now?

[missjo]

But that's the point!

It is a real piano, and a great one at that, built by a smaller company that was around in the thirties and forties, too. The muting is mechanical and, in principle, not a modern thing, but the device that optically measures your keystrokes and turns it into sounds in your headphones is decidedly post-Golden Era.

One day we had a massive electrical problem in the city, no electricity anywhere.
People were hanging out of the windows, not knowing what to do.
I opened my window, placed my 78 gramaphone on a table and played a few records.
People were confused, didnt understand how it worked without electricity and once I told them they all enjoyed the music and applauded every time a song ended!

All these modern gadgets, they are fun, but I wouldnt miss them much.

 

[missjo]

I'll team up with a skinny guy and we'll deliver pianos. lol

Hello sir, I would like to order a piano please.
I live on the 3rd floor and I want to buy the heaviest piano you have.
Oh and I want it delivered at night so you must be very quiet!
Oh and you must go trough a porceline shop before you can get to the stairs...

 

[Rosie]

Is this a new idea? No, afraid not!

I've often wanted to do just that... find a plot of land and build my very own town... have all the best of the 1930's with out racism and Depression. Drive the old cars, cook out of old cook books, have a small radio station that broadcasts old programs and music... have a nice movie house that plays old movies only, have a full service gas station, a market place, a ballroom, everything about a nice humble small town from the 30's but with out the bad stuff!

I'd say, let's do it!!!

=WR=

Sounds like a commune, but a nice non-hippie-ish one. I'm in.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Rich ey?
I'll be the femme fatale then, at least till you put me in your will and then you will have a mysterious accident, all filmed in black and white of course lol

Okay, I live in the big haunted house on the hill just outside of town.
The old Same place.
Stop by for tea and a rousing game of croquet any time. lol

 

[Irena]

I've often wanted to do just that... find a plot of land and build my very own town... have all the best of the 1930's with out racism and Depression. Drive the old cars, cook out of old cook books, have a small radio station that broadcasts old programs and music... have a nice movie house that plays old movies only, have a full service gas station, a market place, a ballroom, everything about a nice humble small town from the 30's but with out the bad stuff!

I'd say, let's do it!!!

=WR=

I'll be the postmistress! But, even though I'll know everyone's business, don't count on me to share...

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

Where would this fictional town be located? Where ever it is, we're still going to have taxes!

What's the mortgage going to cost? I might have to move back to Modernland, I can't afford to live in Fantasyland. Imagine if the prices were that of the past? Think of all of the people who would move out there just because it's so cheap! We'd get a riot of modern folks raiding our town and setting house keeping. They'll go to the food store and think, "10 cents for a cart of milk?", "I think I'm going to like it here!"

I'd enjoy it for a while, but after the Great Invasion of the SUVs, I'm going to live in the underground world.

With a lot of the advances in technology, with the exception of a computer perhaps, and advances in medicine, among other things, I'd stay here. I guess if you were raised under that sort of atmosphere. I'd rather recruit than join. You're adding onto this society in the modern age. Even better than living it then. You're living it now.

I'm look at it in a view point of being born in time for being the age I am in the 30's. Being raised to that point, I'd have a much better understanding than I would if I were to journey back to it. There are a lot of things that have changed over the decades. You know the general lifestyle of it now, but I am sure there were many things not recorded that you'd find out the hard way.

 

[missjo]

Where would this fictional town be located? Where ever it is, we're still going to have taxes!

Well I'd like it to be somewhere in England but a southern european county might be more suitable, cheaper, warmer for those that like sun, etc.
I dont mind paying taxes.

What's the mortgage going to cost?

Depends on the building!
Mind you we could start small, get a large farm with some land and a few outbuildings.
A friend of mine bought a farm in France, one large house and a few sheds, barns, etc.
Those were houses on their own.
He didnt pay much for them.
Mind you, if other communes can do it, so can we.

I might have to move back to Modernland, I can't afford to live in Fantasyland. Imagine if the prices were that of the past? Think of all of the people who would move out there just because it's so cheap! We'd get a riot of modern folks raiding our town and setting house keeping. They'll go to the food store and think, "10 cents for a cart of milk?", "I think I'm going to like it here!"

It wouldnt work.
So in our village we would use modern money and modern prices or we would have a little Bureau de Change where we could change our modern money into 1930s money so we could have low prices.
Although we pay 10 cents for a bottle of milk, they would be a dime we just paid a dollar for
Just like disney money!

I'd enjoy it for a while, but after the Great Invasion of the SUVs, I'm going to live in the underground world.

Only pre-1945 SUVs would be allowed onto the terrain!

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

The Chevy Suburban was introduced in 1936, if memory serves. It was a work truck back then, of course. You didn't see 'em parked in front of the department store in the big city.

 

[The Reno Kid]

Is this a new idea? No, afraid not!

I've often wanted to do just that... have a small radio station that broadcasts old programs and music... have a nice movie house that plays old movies only, I'd say, let's do it!!!

=WR=

Hey Wild Root,

I just put my radio station on the air today to do just that. It only gets out about half a block now, but once I get a proper antenna up (it's built, but not installed), you should be able to pull it in anywhere within a mile or so of my house. At this moment, Have Gun, Will Travel is on the radio. Unfortunately, I'm about to turn the radio off so we can watch Double Indemnity at the Pyramid Theater (aka our TV set). Sometimes, life is good.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Well, 1930's-town will need a projectionist for the friendly downtown movie theatre. Just tell me where to sign up, and I'll bring my splicer and my carbon rods. And I'll also bring my typewriter so I can work days at the radio station!

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

If I were born in that time, I don't know where I'd be. I'm Jewish, which means I could have been born in Austria or Russia, another country entirely.
My grandparents or even my parents could have taken the ferry to Ellis Island, depending on where and when I am born, would be the effect of my life. I could might as well have been a victim of Nazism, along with my parents. Or living in Rochester and my immigrant grand/parents who own a little family store on 103rd Street (I'm not familar with Brooklyn streets if I'm wrong). If you are of Irish decent, or Italian, your nationality depends on your life style. You just got off the boat in 1932 and are being attacked by tomatoes from native New Yorkers. Nationality had an effect on the life you led.

Oh and I'm the little James Stewart movie maker with big dreams in 30's town.

"I'm going to see the world, then I'm going to college, and then I'm going to build things!"

 

[carebear]

Before the war was really the last time you had a "frontier". Mass air travel and the intrusion of the war into previously little-visited regions ended all that. Once "civilization" intruded and the rest of the world was dragged into the 20th century (and then abandoned back to tribalism in a matter of decades) the chance to be truly free, reliant on yourself and your skills alone unencumbered by government watchdogs and disapproving "progressive" nannies, disappeared.

In the '30's, if you had courage and gumption, you could be in Cairo or Shanghai in near American/European levels of comfort, healthcare, all the "modern" conveniences, and in just a few hours of boat or air travel be miles from nowhere, seeing things never before seen.

Nowadays you'll just find failed socialist states, endemic poverty, tribal wars fought with modern weapons and death.

 

[The Reno Kid]

And I'll also bring my typewriter so I can work days at the radio station!

KWD already has a perfectly functional 1927 Royal. If you can crank scripts out of it, you're hired!

 

[missjo]

Nowadays you'll just find failed socialist states, endemic poverty, tribal wars fought with modern weapons and death.

Or worse, failed kapitalist states, like pretty much most western countries!

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

Hello sir, I would like to order a piano please.
I live on the 3rd floor and I want to buy the heaviest piano you have.
Oh and I want it delivered at night so you must be very quiet!
Oh and you must go trough a porceline shop before you can get to the stairs...

Then tune it, but silently please.

 

[carebear]

Or worse, failed kapitalist states, like pretty much most western countries!

Most, if not all, of Western countries were more mercantalist than capitalist until the early 20th century. Due to the choices of government and the exigencies of the Depression and wartime they quickly went from capitalist to socialist, solidly after WWII (shown by increasing central control of the economy and nationalization of major industries). Capitalism didn't die naturally in Europe, it was strangled in its cradle.

The US is heading that way as well, some bizarre melange of corporate control of government and nanny-state socialism. We need another TR.

At least in Western Europe/US your odds of being infected with bizarre new viruses or caught up in a civil war are still lower.

<edit>
missjoeri,

I just realized that by using the "k" you may have subtly meant more or less what I wrote out above. If so, I apologize for missing your sarcasm.

 

[missjo]

Most, if not all, of Western countries were more mercantalist than capitalist until the early 20th century. Due to the choices of government and the exigencies of the Depression and wartime they quickly went from capitalist to socialist, solidly after WWII (shown by increasing central control of the economy and nationalization of major industries). Capitalism didn't die naturally in Europe, it was strangled in its cradle.

The US is heading that way as well, some bizarre melange of corporate control of government and nanny-state socialism. We need another TR.

At least in Western Europe/US your odds of being infected with bizarre new viruses or caught up in a civil war are still lower.

<edit>
missjoeri,

I just realized that by using the "k" you may have subtly meant more or less what I wrote out above. If so, I apologize for missing your sarcasm.

Well communism never had a change in europe either (or anywhere else) and it seems a healthy mix of capitalism, socialism and secularism would work best but nobody finds the right balance.
Either way, right now society (not nesecarily the goverments) is much too kapitalist, its all about making money and profit, idealism and taking care of people seems to be less important.

 

[carebear]

I would say "taking care of people" is best done by individuals and voluntary associations of individuals rather than by the force of government decree which only breeds resentment from those whose labor is stolen to be given to those in some government determined "need" and a sense of entitlement and disdain by those receiving the stolen fruits.

But I'm a libertarian idealist, I don't ask for help from others and I don't feel it should be required of me by force (all government action is inherently coercive, thus "force"). Let me alone to take care of me and mine (and those I choose voluntarily) as best I can and I'll grant others the same freedom.

 

[missjo]

I would say "taking care of people" is best done by individuals and voluntary associations of individuals

I agree but that would be in a ideal society, history shows that this never really worked, no matter how generous people were there were always people that were extremely poor or being left behind.
Also it can be very degrading to have to go and ask for money from these groups, its easier to ask money from the state that in a way you have a right to.

rather than by the force of government decree which only breeds resentment from those whose labor is stolen to be given to those in some government determined "need" and a sense of entitlement and disdain by those receiving the stolen fruits.

Ive never felt any resentment paying taxes to allow people to go to school, have medical care, shoes on their childrens feet.

But I'm a libertarian idealist, I don't ask for help from others and I don't feel it should be required of me by force (all government action is inherently coercive, thus "force"). Let me alone to take care of me and mine (and those I choose voluntarily) as best I can and I'll grant others the same freedom.

Yes you can decide to do that, I myself have never had to ask for help from the state and would hesistate to do so.
But others are not that fortunate.

 

[carebear]

Yes you can decide to do that, I myself have never had to ask for help from the state and would hesistate to do so.
But others are not that fortunate.

"Misfortune" is a handy term but it is more useful to look at particular external effects on personal choices when trying to determine what got folks where.

It allows for tailored, minimalist solutions that can compensate for external factors beyond one's control and allow one to move forward with personal responsibility. A broad safety net that eliminates personal responsibility to do the best with what one has inhibits that and leads to a lack of improvement over generations.

Equality of outcomes is a nice idea but it isn't a realistic goal. We would do better to work for an actual equality of opportunity and access so that each individual can maximize themselves to the best of their ability.