• steeznson@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      They were calling citizens in alternating groups of SSNs like a lottery. When it was my Dad’s buddy’s turn to show up for the medical he thought he’d fake extreme scoliosis, slouched one shoulder back and down, then half limped into the doctors office.

      He was never even asked to take his shirt off and got excused on medical grounds.

      • bnrnrtbgd@sh.itjust.works
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        37 minutes ago

        How did you hear about this? Seems a bit odd he’d brag about it over 50 years later. Yeah, son, I faked a condition to get out of the war like a total coward. Don’t think I’m any less of a badass though. I’m still a total badass.

        • steeznson@lemmy.world
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          30 minutes ago

          My Dad did a student elective in New York in 1977 as part of his medical degree. Met a few friends he’s been lifelong pals with and he talks about then often.

          This guy’s name is Al and they are still pen pals to this day. I think he was a philosophy major so my Dad was impressed he could fake a condition so well (aside from just being impressed by the ballsiness of lying to the authorities to avoid fighting in an unjust war).

  • Pacattack57@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    For the thousands of stories like this, there’s thousands more of people that gave their shit away for peanuts because they didn’t understand the value of what they had. My dad gave away so much shit for no reason it’s mind boggling. He sold a 61 Mustang for 15k in 1998.

  • steeznson@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    Even just the 90s was crazy. Not calculated with inflation because I’m bad at maths but my folks’ house they bought in 1992 has more than quintupled in value.

    • markovs_gun@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      Here’s a rule of thumb - the federal reserve has a target inflation rate that they try to meet, and that is usually around 2%. Therefore, if you want to do a quick party trick you can do the mental math that things have roughly doubled in price since the 90s. Recent covid related inflation, upcoming tariff related inflation, and 1970s inflation break the trend, but typically the value of money halves every 30-35 years.

      • taladar@sh.itjust.works
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        12 hours ago

        A nice rule of thumb is that the doubling time for anything growing by a specific percentage is roughly 70 divided by that percentage. So inflation of 2% annually means something will be twice as expensive every 35 years. A 2% increase in energy use means we will use twice as much energy in 35 years. And those fossil fuel deposits (or other raw materials of choice) that are going to last a couple of hundred years “at current rate of use” will be used up twice as fast at 2% increased use every year in a mere 35 years and four times as fast in 70 years at which point those “hundreds of years” of reserves are probably almost gone.

        • markovs_gun@lemmy.world
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          11 hours ago

          If you want to get real nerdy about it this works because the natural logarithm of 2 is ~0.69

          (1+i)^n = 2

          n log (1+i) = log 2

          n = log 2 / log (1+i)

          For small numbers, log(1+x) ≈ x

          n ≈ log 2/i

          log 2 ≈ 0.69

          n ≈ 0.69 / i

          n ≈ 69/100i

          Which is pretty close to 70/100i which is the approximation.

    • CalipherJones@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      I know someone who’s house value went up by 440% of her mortgage payment every month for 10 years.

      Imagine getting paid four fucking fold on your rent. Jesus Christ.

  • Jay@lemmy.ca
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    14 hours ago

    My first house in 1999 was an older 4 bdrm on 14 acres of land for $50 grand. There were a lot of homes in the 30-40 grand range but lesser yards.

    Now those same houses when they go up for sale are selling for 200-250k easily. (My place would be worth more than that… “hobby farms” like what I are selling for even 300-500k here now.)

        • Jay@lemmy.ca
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          14 hours ago

          I wish I still had it, but a divorce about 15-20 yrs ago took care of that. I loved it, 1950’s bungalow style house, 2 car garage, small(30ft) barn and a bunch of sheds, nicely treed in.

          looking through realtors right now, and spec wise the cheapest thing I can find around here similar to it is up for $389,000 but only has 10 acres.

          Prices are/were cheap here because I’m like an hour and a half away from the city.

          • ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works
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            10 hours ago

            My 1980s era construction is valued at over 400k. Neighbors been selling recently for 450k-480k. It’s wild that they’ve doubled in cost since covid, after doubling in cost after the bank failures before them.

  • gramie@lemmy.ca
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    15 hours ago

    If OP was 20 in the Summer of '69 then he most certainly was eligible to fight in a war.

    • Alaik@lemmy.zip
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      14 hours ago

      Wasn’t it like 8.25% of eligible men were drafted? Which doesn’t include college deferments, “bone spur” avoidance, etc?

      More than 9 out of 10 people didn’t get drafted. It certainly sucked for those who did, but the majority didn’t have to worry about war.

      • gramie@lemmy.ca
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        14 hours ago

        I would not have wanted to take my chances of being one of the 1/12. They not have had to worry once it was all over, but while it was happening a lot of people were at risk of being sent to die in a foreign land.

        • Alaik@lemmy.zip
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          14 hours ago

          Oh yeah I get what you’re saying, and I’d agree cause I’m sure I’d have been picked (Although I guess we could probably look at the records and see if we would have been drafted based on our birthdays). It still doesn’t change the fact the economy was way better for everyone though.