For example, ’s list of the best TVs of 2012 recommended a 51-inch plasma HDTV for $2,199 and a budget 720p 50-inch plasma for $800. But while, say, new cars are priced near where they were 10 years ago, in the same time frame TVs have gotten so much cheaper that it defies basic logic. Like so many other gadgets, TVs over the decades have gotten much better, and much less expensive. That’s probably why our family kept using the TV across three different decades-that, and it was heavy. My parents don’t remember what they paid for the TV, but it wasn’t unusual for a console TV at that time to sell for $800, or about $2,500 today adjusted for inflation. This whole contraption was housed in a beautifully finished wooden box, implying that it was built to be an heirloom. I remember the screen being covered in a fuzzy layer of static as we tried to watch Hockey Night in Canada. You couldn’t always make out a lot of details, partially because of the low resolution and partially because we lived in rural Ontario, didn’t have cable, and relied on an antenna. It was huge, for one thing: a roughly four-foot cube with a tiny curved screen. The television I grew up with-a Quasar from the early 1980s-was more like a piece of furniture than an electronic device. This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday.
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