[labcomputer]

Why does it need to be 1000% more entertaining?

Let's take 50" TVs instead. I initially used smaller ones because I don't recall many people having TVs like that in 1998, but the 1998 ad doesn't have 32" TVs and the modern website doesn't have 27" TVs in stock.

50" is one size that Best Buy carried in both 1998 and today. So we can compare like for like.

Today's 50" LCD should be no less entertaining than a 50" CRT from 1998, right? I'm not claiming it is more entertaining, just that it isn't less. Today's 50" costs $330 at Best Buy. 1998's 50" costs $1500 at Best Buy in raw, un-adjusted dollars.

You're getting a 78% discount without making any inflation or hedonistic adjustment whatsoever. You can play pretend in fairy land and say that inflation doesn't exist... and you get to enjoy the same TV plus have spare dollars to spend on other entertainment.

Actually... maybe the the modern, cheaper TV is infinity times more entertaining. After all, a TV with nothing to watch isn't very useful. Your old TV provides little value except as a conversation piece when guests come over (if you don't enjoy free OTA content). On the other hand, with the new TV, you can spend 3x on content what you spent on the TV itself.

[makomk]

This kind of gets at the problem: "the 1998 ad doesn't have 32" TVs and the modern website doesn't have 27" TVs in stock". We're not talking about everyone being able to afford a better TV than before; instead, the TV size at each price and quality tier has gone up over time and people get that size whether they want it or not. A 21" TV used to be a good size for a main set, by around a decade ago you could get a 32" set of reasonable quality for a reasonable price but the 21" ones were bargin-basement with poor picture and sound quality, fast forward to today and 32" are all budget options degraded to the same poor quality (and the same resolution) as 21" ones a decade earlier, with anything smaller a niche product offering poor value. Last I heard 52" was the current tier with good-quality TVs and 42" had already started the quality slide compared to what used to be available in that size.

Also, there's a really obvious reason to think that 1998's 50" TV was not worth $1500 in raw, unadjusted dollars to the vast majority of people: almost no-one bought it at that price. In theory this principle applies to every item that used to be available with both cheaper and more expensive options but now only has the option which is more expensive: that improvement is worth less to people than the price difference when they both used to be available, or there wouldn't have been a market for the cheaper option back then.

[nonameiguess]

For what it's worth, I worked at Disneyland Innoventions back in 2002 when we got early previews of consumer products that weren't on market yet, one of which was the first plasma screen TV with a built-in screensaver. When it became available to retail, it was over $7,000. The very first plasma screen at all from 1997 was originally $23,000. The color television in 1954 was about $12,000. For 15 inches.

I don't think they've gotten 1000% more entertaining, but one effect is people can have a television per room and no viewing conflicts. Back in the day we only had one television per household and you were stuck watching whatever your dad dictated most of the time.

Also, if you look at fcc historical charts (https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-14-672A1.pdf), check Table 3 on page 10 of that pdf, it shows expanded basic cable, or basic cable plus live regional sports, was $22.35 in 1995 and $64.41 as of 2013, but also Netflix existed by then for $7.99 a month.

I'm honestly not that sure how to feel about this. Things like assisted braking, crash zones, seatbelts, and airbags are pretty unambiguous improvements. But I'm not sure the plethora of cheap entertainment options is any kind of a net benefit, hedonic or otherwise. As a kid in the 80s, most of the time my sisters and I entertained ourselves by reading books, playing board games, building things out of legos. Maybe less immediate hedonic reward, but explicitly interactive activities made for better family bonding and active consumption rather than passive was a lot more intellectually stimulating. I can barely even pay attention to a book these days, but I still remember being 12 and the level of thought and imagination they would provoke and it was a heck of a lot more than I've ever gotten out of film or television.