I missed the staff meeting but the minutes show Gunner
wrote back on Sun, 05 Dec 2004 06:55:05 GMT in
rec.crafts.metalworking :
On Sun, 05 Dec 2004 03:47:36 GMT, "Gary Brady" wrote:

How did people survive before health care, retirement and other
benefits, like back in the 1900's?
Bernd

To give you some reference point, I was born in 1955. The appendectomy that
I had in 1963 cost $150.

How much did the average automobile cost in '63?

And how long did you have to work to get that 63 Ford, and how long was
it expected to last? What kind of milage and what kind of options?

That's the "fun" of trying to compare prices over the decades. What
was the price of a mega-byte of memory in 1963?
How long after the appendectomy were you laid up in 1963, as compared
to 2003? Compare Gall bladder surgery. After a friend had her's out with
an overnight stay, and two 1" incisions, I heard all sorts of Gall
bladder surgery stories, going back to my Mom's in 1959, with a six inch
scar and a two week hospital sojourn. Anybody want to go back to that
level of medicine? Less "costly", but also "less effective".

And we expect more today as well. 72 is rather "young" to be dieing.
--
pyotr filipivich
We didn't have these sorts of problems when I was a boy,
back when snakes wore shoes and dirt was $2 a pound,
if you could find it. We had to make our own from rocks!