Reason TV: The best Christmas ever?
posted at 3:35 pm on December 17, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
The last time Nick Gillespie, editor in chief at Reason TV, asked us to think about all the reasons to be thankful, it finished on a very pessimistic note. This time my friend Nick is a lot cheerier about Christmas, asking us without irony to consider our considerable blessings in a tough Christmas season. Unemployment is in double digits, jobless claims are still bouncing upwards, and the retail sector is about to lay a huge goose egg. Still, Nick reminds us that even with the temporary economic turndown, our free-market system has created a much higher standard of living, enabling us to rebound from our current dip — if we allow it to work properly:
We’re going through some tough economic times right now, but this holiday season, take a moment to appreciate how good we really have it.
Need proof? Just think about how much Christmas presents sucked in the 1970s compared to today.
Thanks to our market-based system, we’re wealthier, we have more choices, and we enjoy more leisure time than ever before.
I’m not sure whether I was more disturbed by Nick’s bitter irony in the previous holiday greeting, or by his cheeriness in this one. But he’s right about the power of the free market, its innovation, and its ability to lift the standard of living through competition and access. It’s a lesson we need to remember, perhaps especially as we go through one of our more difficult Christmases in a generation.
Blowback
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Guess I should be cheery at my daily call from my mortgage company.
Lanceman on December 17, 2009 at 3:38 PM
I have a decent paying job, a roof over my head, clothes on my back, food on the table. I also do not fear that the tribe next door is going to attack me or that I’ll get smallpox
Oh, and indoor plumbing and toilet paper!
Much better off that 99% of humanity from an historical POV.
rbj on December 17, 2009 at 3:39 PM
Hey, they brought back the Carousel of Progress. “There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow/Shining at the end of every day.”
Cicero43 on December 17, 2009 at 3:39 PM
St. Nick…
Seven Percent Solution on December 17, 2009 at 3:41 PM
I am thankful for everything. I deserve nothing, but have been blessed. I’d like to thank clients of mine who might be here. I am so fortunate and I need to remind myself of that regularly.
It was fate that I was born in America to the parents that I have. I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to know Christ and live in freedom with the ability to worship and speak as I please.
God is awesome! And I love him. Merry Christmas to my Christian friends, and Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends.
ThackerAgency on December 17, 2009 at 3:42 PM
I’d much rather suffer through the worst that the US has to offer than any other country in the world.
myrenovations on December 17, 2009 at 3:43 PM
Coleco football rocked!!!
Did Humpbot get a cameo at 1:22?
WashJeff on December 17, 2009 at 3:46 PM
Hmm…we live longer, and work less?
Give it a few years. Obamacare will ensure that we croak at 60 from treatable cancer, and those of us who don’t can look forward to working until age 80 because the Social Security payments will only buy you a can of Alpo a week for you and Fluffy to split.
TheMightyMonarch on December 17, 2009 at 3:50 PM
Thank you for that. It was the exact perspective I needed. God bless you and you family. Merry Christmas.
milwife88 on December 17, 2009 at 3:50 PM
St. Nicholas or St. Stimulus, I’ll take jolly old St. Nick. All the gifts in the world can’t compare to playing 10,000 hugs and kisses with the grand kids.
fourdeucer on December 17, 2009 at 3:51 PM
And if these liberals have their way, if it comes down to you, or fluffy going hungry…you’ll go hungry, or worse….you’ll be alpo for fluffy.
capejasmine on December 17, 2009 at 3:53 PM
And thank you and your husband for the sacrifices you make for the rest of us.
Patrick S on December 17, 2009 at 3:55 PM
For some reason* I find it humorous that a libertarian has to be the one to tell conservatives to buck up.
Merry Christmas, Ed.
chimney sweep on December 17, 2009 at 3:56 PM
Gawd, I had one of those vibrating things!
Help me out, here. What’s a ‘humpbot’?
Lanceman on December 17, 2009 at 3:56 PM
I’ve got no complaints. I have plenty to be grateful for–loving wife, nice house, no debt, relatively healthy. I live a blessed life and I thank the Lord every day to be alive. I just finished teaching my last class of the semester and I am looking forward to a peaceful three weeks off. Going to watch Band of Brothers on Blu-Ray and Magnum p.i. seasons 1-4. Also going to build the wife a nice big coffee table for the upstairs rec room.
robblefarian on December 17, 2009 at 3:58 PM
Toys in the ’70s were so much better. They were real toys with flashing lights and sounds and many were made from steel. Kids don’t have toys today. They have gaming consoles which rob them of the joy of playing with toys, and of the requirement to have an imagination, something that toys and dolls generate. Now kids just experience a virtual reality on a TV screen that others imagine for them. Toys are dead, I’m afraid.
keep the change on December 17, 2009 at 3:59 PM
See this thread for Humpbot and it symbolism.
WashJeff on December 17, 2009 at 4:04 PM
Kill Obamacare, and it WILL be the best Christmas ever.
KeepOhioRed on December 17, 2009 at 4:08 PM
keep the change on December 17, 2009 at 3:59 PM
.
LEGO’s and NERF toys have kept my kids engaged in real life imaginative play quite nicely. There are plenty of “cool” toys today that don’t rely on digitized reality.
common sensineer on December 17, 2009 at 4:08 PM
Patrick S:
Thank you. Merry Christmas.
milwife88 on December 17, 2009 at 4:09 PM
Knex building toys are also great for the kids. Going to build some cool coasters with my son this year.
WashJeff on December 17, 2009 at 4:12 PM
Right, which is why I disagreed with the author who said that ’70s toys were not as good as today. If there are any good toys today, they are vestiges of the ’70s, like Lego and Nerf.
keep the change on December 17, 2009 at 4:12 PM
Now I see. I never clicked on it when I commented on that thread.
Lanceman on December 17, 2009 at 4:14 PM
Let’s see – in the 70′s we had Atari, TI99, Erector Sets and GI Joe. Things that taught children skills. Now we have Wii, x-box, lesbian Barbie. The toys are chintzi and made in China. In the 70′s they were tinny and made in Japan. I think Mr. Gillespie has changed his taste in toys from children’s toys to things he likes as a man. Any parent will tell you, the thing the kids like most is the box the toy came in.
Here’s hoping my senators Coburn and Inhofe can derail the liberal agenda. As I approach the estacion period of my life, I will feel blessed if we can set this country straight (not in a gay sense) for my grand children and the rest of the world. Glorious day on the farm.
Old Country Boy on December 17, 2009 at 4:23 PM
We’re about to celebrate the birthday of a man who made it possible for all of us to be reborn.
And on a more terrestrial note, it’s snowing in Copenhagen.
hawksruleva on December 17, 2009 at 4:27 PM
Hey – I worked at Coleco back in college. Their forays into electronics is what doomed the company, especially the Adam computer.
They should have stuck to swimming pools and such.
A bit of trivia. Coleco stood for COnnnecticut LEather COmpany. They started out in the ’30s selling leather supplies to shoemakers.
Grew very big in the ’70s and then died an inglorious death.
Grantman on December 17, 2009 at 4:29 PM
Erector sets have been replaced by K’Nex.
I had some cool 100-n-1 electronic kits in the 70′s. The new style of kits looks much more flexible and they can be connected to computers.
The “cool” toys of the 70′s exists and many have been improved. It is up to the parent to make these type of toys available to their kids and insure their interest in them.
WashJeff on December 17, 2009 at 4:32 PM
So you are saying I cannot get support for my Colecovision anymore?
WashJeff on December 17, 2009 at 4:34 PM
WashJeff,
Sigh. Sorry buddy, it looks like you’re on your own.
Grantman on December 17, 2009 at 4:39 PM
Grantman – Radioshack started the same way as Tandy Leather. Does the selling of dead skin somehow gravitate you toward advanced electronics/
Old Country Boy on December 17, 2009 at 4:44 PM
What a coincidence,this article and thread incorporate two different conversations I had within the past week.
In reference to the toys,I have to go back to the 50′s and 60′s,but the point is still the same.I told the story of one year a friend received a toy robot that was that year’s”must have”,and when he brought it out it kept us all amused for about 5 minutes,then we went back to the toys we could really have fun with.Anyone remember the “Great Garloo?”
A couple days later,I and a friend(whoI hadn’t seen in a while)happened to get onto the subject of GM’s loss of market share.Our conversation eventually moved to the innovations that American industry discovered and then sold to foriegn countries,who developed products that contributed to the decline of American industry.
I guess I could go on for quite some time commenting on why and how these things happen,but I would rather say that one more thing to be thankful for is good friends,who are willing to listen to an old man’s rants.
So thank you Reason,Ed and all you good folks at HotAir for the reminder.
DDT on December 17, 2009 at 4:53 PM
I believe this was the best Christmas ever.
Still recall reading the book when I was a little girl and thinking how grateful I was for my awesome Suzy Homemaker easy-bake oven.
The Ugly American on December 17, 2009 at 4:56 PM
I thought my LED wristwatch was pretty cool, too. At the time.
70s Christmas gifts didn’t totally suck.
UltimateBob on December 17, 2009 at 5:05 PM
The Ugly American on December 17, 2009 at 5:06 PM
Oopsie…not sure how that strikeout got in there.
Too much caffeine.
The Ugly American on December 17, 2009 at 5:08 PM
They still have GI Joes, but now they’re only about 5 inches tall. The talking GI Joe that I had was a 12-incher.
Any sexual imagery there is purely unintentional. ;-)
UltimateBob on December 17, 2009 at 5:11 PM
Says the guy that didn’t get a powder blue leisure suit as a present.
All kidding aside – it ain’t what’s in the box that makes it better or worse. It doesn’t even have to be the boxes themselves. It’s the people you’re spending or not spending it with that make or break the holiday(s).
Wether that’s appreciated, or not.
Wind Rider on December 17, 2009 at 5:18 PM
I had a GI Joe & Barbie & Ken & then I had the Luke Skywalker & Han Solo dolls.
Han Solo & GI Joe would team up on the Kens & kick a$$.
I also had a full size Millenium Falcon spaceship.
So I don’t think all the toys of the 70s sucked.
Troll dolls-now they sucked.
Badger40 on December 17, 2009 at 5:25 PM
Liberty works.
Collectivism doesn’t.
spmat on December 17, 2009 at 6:08 PM
The fact of the matter is, even our poor are better off than the majority of the worlds population. Give thanks.
flyfishingdad on December 17, 2009 at 7:51 PM
Dude, I remember my Schwinn Stingray bike I got in the 70′s. That thing was so cool. (too bad some turd stole it a year later) Heck, that Stingray was so cool it made a comeback, I’ve seen them popping up again in bike stores the last few years.
flyfishingdad on December 17, 2009 at 7:57 PM
Thanks Nick great nostalgia piece. If we really think about it the gifts of yore possessed more tangible benefits than the ‘stuff’ available today.
Personally, I am just grateful every day I wake up above ground.
MSGTAS on December 18, 2009 at 9:49 AM
FIFY Ed
Amendment X on December 18, 2009 at 10:36 AM