Hacker News Reader

Comment by okket | Hacker News Reader

Somewhat related tangent (sorry), but see also this thread about how radical the Sears catalog was in the era of Jim Crow:

https://twitter.com/louishyman/status/1051872178415828993

View on HN

A little further down in that thread there's a link to an article about Sears mail order homes. I live in a century old neighbourhood and there's a couple dozen Sears homes within a 3 block radius of me. They're still standing, still lived in, still looking good. They were built to last.

I live in one of the Sears catalog homes. Still haven't figured out exactly which one, as it has had some additions and changes made in the intervening years (its a 1927). Seems well enough built. Except for the electrical - knob and tube is a crazy way to do it.

It's what they had at the time. My knob and tube was installed by someone very skeptical of electricity. So they ran the hot and the neutral about two feet from each other. They only come together at the outlets and the fuse panel.

Pretty wild that the quoted example of a racist caricature is still a product on store shelves. To be honest, I'm surprised I haven't heard of any protests or boycotts of Quaker Oats due to this.

One mans cheap junk is another man's increased standard of living.

Did you read the linked twitter thread? It's not about a mere "increased standard of living". Really tone deaf.

I read the thread in its entirety before commenting. Access to and ability to afford goods and services is what defines one's standard of living. Not having to deal with racist policies gave blacks access to a standard of living they otherwise couldn't attain. Instead of having to pay whatever some goods cost plus a lot of their time Sears let them buy those goods for the cost and a minimal amount of time allowing them to spend the time elsewhere.

There's an obvious (or at least I thought so) modern parallel with poor people and cheap imported consumer goods. An increased standard of living encompasses a wider variety of improvements than just moving to a town with a Whole Foods and some breweries.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com