wrote:
$800 is comparable to $2k in 89. A new car could be had for $13k (my
brother bought a shelby daytona turbo z so not a hunday)


Not quite. $800 in 1989 is about $1246 in 2005

See

http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

But that's neither here nor there. The computing power you can buy for
$1246 today is 50 times what it was for the same money in 1989.