# What things were quantifiably better in the past? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 4, 2012, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-were-quantifiably-better-in-the-past/617846 "2012-04-04T19:58:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-were-quantifiably-better-in-the-past/617846/41 "2012-04-05T13:45:14Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > Phones used to be full-duplex, and if one person was talking, someone else could break in and you could hear them. > > Nowadays with cell phones, at least in my area, they’re all half-duplex, and if you’re talking to a chatter, you might as well hang up if you need to get their attention. I never noticed that here but I have noticed that cell phones have a much longer lag so if you _are_ trying to get someone’s attention, it will take half a second or so for them to hear you even if they’re in the same city. That’s pretty quantifiable versus the instantaneous connection with landlines. Except that cell phones are cheaper (for me at least) and portable so I’m not going back. ---
**Author:** ![Plumbkrazy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f05b48/32.png) [@Plumbkrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plumbkrazy)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-were-quantifiably-better-in-the-past/617846/42 "2012-04-05T14:07:35Z")
Public education in the United States. This is almost certainly due to lack of adequate funding, but one example: When I was in grade school, my parents simply had to pay for enrollment and show up for parent-teacher conferences. Today, schools require heavy parent involvement to properly educate children. I will do whatever is needed to assist in my kids’ education, but there’s always a little voice in the back of my head reminding me that MY parents didn’t have to do this crap. ---
**Author:** ![LionelHutz405](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lionelhutz405/32/536_2.png) [@LionelHutz405](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LionelHutz405)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-were-quantifiably-better-in-the-past/617846/43 "2012-04-05T14:09:54Z")
Remote television news reporting. These days most of it is Skype or something similar and the video and and audio quality is shitty. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-were-quantifiably-better-in-the-past/617846/44 "2012-04-05T15:08:06Z")
> [@Heracles](#): > > On the planned obsolescence front, there’s light bulbs. But the decline (10000-hour life) occurred in the 1940s or so, so I’m not sure if it counts. > > In this house we have a fridge, a cooktop and a microwave oven that are all 31 years old. The cooking oven was the same age, but died 2 years ago. I doubt I could buy a microwave oven today that would last over 15 years. > > Oh, on another front, [humans who have walked on another world](http://xkcd.com/893). On the other hand, that fridge at least is an ENORMOUS energy hog. My grandmother’s wedding dress cost $35 in 1939. It was bought from a department store but clearly skilled hand work; the seams are cut to take advantage of the selvedge. I tried on $2000 dresses that were not as well made and didn’t have anything hand-done on them (Grandma’s dress has hand beading.) ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-were-quantifiably-better-in-the-past/617846/45 "2012-04-05T15:21:30Z")
> [@kirk1168](#): > > That exactly describes the three playgrounds as they exist _today_ in my town. > That’s why my kids get so confused when people say how great playgrounds used to be.😛 Yeah, my brother is in the playground equipment business, and some of the stuff he sells is pretty awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-were-quantifiably-better-in-the-past/617846/47 "2012-04-05T15:36:49Z")
> [@Plumbkrazy](#): > > Public education in the United States. > > This is almost certainly due to lack of adequate funding, but one example: > > When I was in grade school, my parents simply had to pay for enrollment and show up for parent-teacher conferences. Today, schools require heavy parent involvement to properly educate children. I will do whatever is needed to assist in my kids’ education, but there’s always a little voice in the back of my head reminding me that MY parents didn’t have to do this crap. I’m 54. When I was in school, parental involvement included things like room mothers, who were women who made sure that there were some fun classroom activities, and the PTA, and the committee that had the carnival fundraiser every year. Mothers were expected to volunteer on an as needed basis for field trip chaperones, and of course mothers had to organize carpools or some other way to get the kids to school. Mothers were the crossing guards at the more dangerous intersections. Moms also did volunteer work throughout the school in areas like supervising the lunchroom and playground and library. A lot of work got done by mothers (and I don’t remember ANY fathers being involved, other than to build carnival booths and stands) and they didn’t get paid. Mothers also supervised homework. Occasionally fathers did this as well, but in grade school, it was mostly the mothers. I’m sure that the parents (especially the mothers) did a lot of stuff that I wasn’t even aware of when I went to school. When more families started having both parents work, then schools could no longer get so many volunteers. I think that you underestimate just how much parental involvement there was when you went to school, because it was regarded as normal. Not every family got involved, of course, but we all knew that Sam’s mom would be in the lunchroom a couple of days a week, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-were-quantifiably-better-in-the-past/617846/48 "2012-04-05T15:38:08Z")
Reported. (Not **Lynn** - the spam.) ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-were-quantifiably-better-in-the-past/617846/49 "2012-04-05T15:39:45Z")
I took care of the spam. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-were-quantifiably-better-in-the-past/617846/50 "2012-04-05T16:39:20Z")
> [@Polerius](#): > > Today, as I was changing channels on my DVR, I realized that the speed of changing channels is something that got quantifiably worse compared to the past. > > Yes, of course, now we have HD content, and a DVR allows you to do stuff that you could never do before, but on this one metric (speed of changing the channel), modern technology is worse than what we had 20 years ago. > > Any others? > [@tdn](#): > > In the past it took a while for the TV to come on after you turned it on. Then it was instantaneous. Now it takes a while again. I’ve noticed both of these things - turn on tv, wait, tv finally comes on, wait, change a channel, wait; what the hell? Why is everything I do on my tv taking so long these days? > [@ratatoskK](#): > > silence Was that a response or an order? 🙂 > [@Shakes](#): > > I found a 1970’s blender in my Mom’s attic. My whole adult life I’ve been through a handful of cheap’o blenders from Walmart. > > The old 70’s model I currently have in my kitchen right now could kick the snot out of any one of them out there today. > > And get this: The pitcher is made out of this strange material, I believe it’s called… glass! > > I know, I know, it sounds crazy. You’ve reminded me of another one - furniture. My husband and I are still furnishing our house with cast-offs and used furniture with a few newer pieces mixed in, and the old stuff is so much sturdier and better-built than the new stuff, there isn’t even a comparison. I’m seriously thinking about buying solid wood furniture when we decide to buy new, because even though it is much more expensive than the Wal-Mart crap, you know it will last 10 times as long. Also, houses. My husband has worked in the construction industry for quite a while now, and he won’t buy a new house because of the shoddy craftsmanship. Well, we might buy one if it was made by a high-quality builder, but not one of the dime-a-dozen cardboard houses being thrown up by the hundreds. > [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > I took care of the spam. Was it tasty? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![phreesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@phreesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phreesh)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-were-quantifiably-better-in-the-past/617846/51 "2012-04-05T16:42:08Z")
MP3s are demostrably worse at transmitting the sounds recorded in the studio than previous methods of music conveyance. I know speaker and amplifier fans think the vacuum tube versions are better than the modern versions Seems like Stradivarious had some secret method that we still can’t duplicate in modern instruments. Obviously, as you go further back, environmental degradation is reduced. I think glass bottles for soda are better, but I’m not sure if they’re scientifically better. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-were-quantifiably-better-in-the-past/617846/52 "2012-04-05T16:47:54Z")
> [@phreesh](#): > > \ > I think glass bottles for soda are better, but I’m not sure if they’re scientifically better. I agree with you, and I think that might actually be scientifically quantifiable - glass is probably less reactive with the soda than plastic or aluminum, and I think glass holds the cold better than either other container, too, so you get a tastier, colder drink. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-were-quantifiably-better-in-the-past/617846/53 "2012-04-05T18:48:24Z")
How about printers in terms of planned obsolescence? You can’t kill one of those old HP Laserjets, which is why they quit making them. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-were-quantifiably-better-in-the-past/617846/54 "2012-04-05T20:04:35Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Baseball used to have double headers. You could watch two games for the price of one. They did away with double headers??? I know I’ve been out of touch living far away from the Yankees but I didn’t realize this. \ Holy cow! \ ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2012, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-were-quantifiably-better-in-the-past/617846/55 "2012-04-05T20:10:47Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Telephones, or specifically, the ones you had hooked up to your landline. Fifty years ago they were made out of Bakelite and you could actually drive a nail with the handset. Then they switched to a very heavy plastic case, but even with Touch-Tone phones the innards were still hand-wired and soldered. Then other companies started manufacturing lightweight phones and the quality went to hell. I was just about to mention this. It is true, but it is not a result of competition. In the old days the Bell System owned your phone and you just rented it. Therefore it was good to make the phones last forever. When people owned their own phones, it was expected that they’d buy new ones long before the old, high quality ones would break. I was working for Bell Labs at the time, and I saw a presentation on how we were decreasing the life expectancy of phones. I heard that when it became possible to buy third party phones people rushed to do so - and then returned to AT&T often when they found that these phones were crap. People back then were used to phones lasting forever and assumed that the cheap ones would also. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-were-quantifiably-better-in-the-past/617846/56 "2012-04-06T14:06:36Z")
> [@](#): > > There used to be less [Fewer] people, less [Fewer] crowds, less traffic. > > There were less [Fewer] lawyers, less [Fewer]ambulance chasers. [QUOTE=] The amount [number] and size of lobsters and abalone. [/QUOTE] Many years ago, before the Internet, there were far fewer opportunities for me to be exposed to other people’s inability to differentiate between fewer and less, amount and number. > [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Actually, that goes for cars, too, except for the price details. It used to be that a handy person could disassemble the family ride in the garage or backyard, fix just about anything, and put it back together. Today, if something breaks down on a car, you have to hook it up to a computer to just DIAGNOSE the problem, unless it’s something like a flat tire. This is something I love about the fact that my transportation is a bicycle: I can take care of a lot of simple repair myself. I love tinkering and messing with my bike. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-were-quantifiably-better-in-the-past/617846/57 "2012-04-06T14:29:00Z")
Re: the Op Question: Manners. Conscience. Responsibility. Ethics (somehow we didn’t need to define it and teach it to know it and have it and at every level of society). …and of course, [The Beatles](http://bit.ly/cKHMf). 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-were-quantifiably-better-in-the-past/617846/58 "2012-04-06T14:40:01Z")
> [@belladonna](#): > > Playgrounds, god I miss the playgrounds. In the '70s/early '80s playgrounds had: > > Tall metal slides that actually let you build up speed. Take wax paper with you and it was even better. > > Monkey bars shaped like rocket ships. > > Merry-go-rounds that spun like mad. > > Eagles’ Nests a good story and a half off the ground. > > Teeter-totters without the bumpers to slow them down. > > There’s more, but you get the idea. Playgrounds are pretty lame anymore. Nah, you’re not going to the right playgrounds. They do contain more plastic/vinyl so there’s more static electricity, but everything is also rubber coated so it’s not super hot or cold. > [@Voyager](#): > > They did away with double headers??? I know I’ve been out of touch living far away from the Yankees but I didn’t realize this. \ Holy cow! \ No, they’re just more rare now. Well actually I don’t think they’re scheduled ahead of time anymore, until the need comes up due to rain-outs. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-were-quantifiably-better-in-the-past/617846/59 "2012-04-06T15:16:43Z")
I think this thread is fantastic. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-were-quantifiably-better-in-the-past/617846/60 "2012-04-06T15:34:14Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I’m not sure how quantifiable this is, but most movie theaters sold you a ticket for admission, not a particular movie. There were double features, but even if there were not you could stay and see the movie twice if you wished to. I can’t remember the last theatre I’ve been to that monitored what movie you went to see or how many you’ve stayed for (unless it is a sell-out new release type movie). Most sell a ticket and then take your ticket 10 feet away giving you admitance to over a dozen theatres. They don’t seem to care how long you stay. ---
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-were-quantifiably-better-in-the-past/617846/61 "2012-04-06T16:43:27Z")
Those thick cardboard egg cartons they used to use were much better at protecting eggs than the flimsy foam cartons they use now. You could drop the carton of eggs and maybe not break any of them. Not a guarantee, but more likely than today- any you don’t break now is purely luck. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-were-quantifiably-better-in-the-past/617846.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-things-were-quantifiably-better-in-the-past/617846.md?page=4)