I remember paying several hundred dollars for a new VCR in the "old days". It was a Curtis Mathes. It was made in the USA.

Manufacturing jobs were created by that VCR.

There was a VCR repair shop in my town. That man made his living repairing things worthy of being repaired. That VCR made a couple of trips to the repair shop--but all in all, it lasted several years until I decided to upgrade and then passed it on.

I bought the VCR at an actual Curtis Mathes store. Not a big box. It was a very successful local small business.

My salary at the time is very equivocal to what it is now, except then I had expendable income.

My utilities were substantially lower. They were all local. I could walk downtown and pay all of my bills in an hour.
There were GOOD jobs with real people sitting at real desks in real communities talking with you. If you had a problem, they would call the guy on the radio and he would be at your house to fix your problem in a short period of time.

My housing was much lower and groceries were lower.

The ONLY things that were higher were luxuries. Which I could afford because we lived in a community with real jobs and real needs--existing off the successes of others.

Nowadays, in the global economy...manufacturing jobs are gone, VCR repair shops are gone, local merchants selling Made in the USA products are gone, local utilities are gone--relegated to nameless/faceless call centers who could care less if you need an extra week to pay your bill.

In it's wake are big box stores employing the people who had GOOD jobs once.

Yeah, I can buy a VCR for $79 now...but look how much it cost!