Art Woolf is a columnist for VTDigger. He recently retired as an associate professor of economics at the University of Vermont.
We have a lot to be thankful for on this day of Thanksgiving but let’s think about thankfulness from the perspective of just one person — an average Vermonter. That would be someone 44 years old, born in 1975.
Coincidentally, we’re hearing a lot from politicians about how the middle class has stagnated, or even shrunk, over the past 40 years. If that statement is true, the average Vermonter doesn’t have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving Day.
I don’t think that statement is true, and here’s why:
To start with, take life itself. The chances of a baby dying are lower today than in 1975. Back then, out of every 1,000 babies born in Vermont, 13.7 died before their first birthday. Today, that number has fallen by more than half. If infant mortality rates today were the same as in 1975, 74 Vermont families would experience the pain of losing a baby instead of the 27 who actually did.
And speaking of life, a baby born in 1975 could expect to live, on average to the age of 73 (that’s for the U.S. — we don’t have Vermont-specific data). The average baby born today can expect to live six additional years. Surely that’s something to be thankful for.
Some of those babies born in 1975 got childhood cancer. Only one-third of the children who were diagnosed with leukemia in 1975 survived for five years. Today, more than two-thirds of children diagnosed with leukemia can expect to live at least 5 years.
If children, or adults, get sick, countless pharmaceuticals are used today that were not available when the median-aged Vermonter was born in 1975. The most widely used prescription drug in the U.S. today is Vicodin, a painkiller whose generic version costs less than a dollar.
It is certainly true that the overuse, and misuse of hydrocodone and other drugs — especially narcotics — is a major problem today. But as anyone who has experienced excruciating pain will tell you, living without painkillers makes life a lot more unpleasant.
Half of the 10 most widely used prescription drugs in the U.S. today, used to treat high blood pressure, cholesterol, infections, diabetes and other illnesses, were not available in 1975.
In other dimensions of health, we also have a lot to be thankful for. To take just one example, replacing a failing knee or hip was a relatively new and complicated procedure in 1975. Today it’s routine and the recovery time is far shorter. There are twice as many replacements today as in 1975.
For people with heart issues, angioplasty is a safer and much less invasive procedure than open heart surgery. It also was not available in 1975. Today, nearly 1 million procedures are performed each year in the U.S.
Thanks to better early detection and treatment, breast cancer is more survivable today. In 1975 the breast cancer death rate was 31 per 100,000 people and 75% of women diagnosed with breast cancer lived at least five years. Today the death rate has fallen by one-third and the five-year survival rate has increased to 90%.
On a more mundane level, think about our daily lives in 1975 compared to today. We wake up and get a cup of coffee. A drip coffee maker in the 1975 Sears catalogue cost $24. Today you can buy a similar one online for about $15. But if you were an average-paid worker in 1975 it took you about five hours of work to earn $24. Today the average paid worker needs to work less than an hour — in fact it’s closer to one-half hour — to earn enough to buy a coffee maker.
A similar story holds for the refrigerator that keeps your milk cold. A 1975 refrigerator cost $700, the equivalent of about 150 hours of work for the average American. Today you can buy a decent refrigerator for the same price — $700 — at your favorite appliance store. That takes about 25 hours of work for the average-paid worker. And today’s refrigerator uses half as much electricity as its 1975 counterpart.
For lots of other household products — microwave ovens, dishwashers, washers and dryers, televisions, to name but a few — things are a lot cheaper, in terms of the work hours needed to buy them, than in 1975. And there are countless goods that average Americans buy today that didn’t even exist in 1975 — cellphones, personal computers, Post-It notes, the ability to watch more than 3 channels on your TV or a streaming device, listening to “Morning Edition” on your radio, and reading VTDigger. And it was nearly impossible to find stores selling sushi, blueberries or just about any fresh fruit except apples and bananas, in the winter.
Then you drive to work. The top-selling vehicle in Vermont is not a Prius, it’s a Ford F-150, which would have set you back $4,451 in 1975, the equivalent of about 1,000 hours of work. Today you can buy an F-150 for anywhere between $28,000 and $60,000. Let’s call it $30,000. That will also cost you 1,000 hours of work. And remember, today’s F-150, and all cars and trucks, are far better quality than they were in 1975. They get better mileage, last longer, pollute less, are safer, more comfortable and have a lot more amenities.
In the spirit of thinking globally, we should be especially thankful about people who are not as fortunate as we are. There are literally billions of people on the planet today who are not living their lives in what the World Bank calls “extreme poverty,” which is less than what $750 per year would buy you in the U.S. In 1975, 1.8 billion people worldwide, more than half of the world’s population, earned less than that amount. A truly miserable existence.
In the last 40 years that number has been reduced by more than half, even as the world’s population has grown. About 730 million people still live in extreme poverty, 10% of everyone on earth. But that is the lowest share it has ever been in human history. That’s something to be truly thankful for.
