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Before pitch decks, before venture capital, before anyone used the word 'ecosystem' in a business meeting, people started companies with a good idea and someone in town who believed them. The machinery around entrepreneurship has grown enormously — but whether founders are better off for it is a genuinely interesting question.
Thirty years ago, you could decide at lunch to catch a game that evening and walk up to buy decent seats for face value. Today, attending major sporting events requires the financial planning of a vacation and the timing of a stock trade.
In 1950, a complete set of golf clubs cost less than what most golfers spend on a single driver today. The transformation from simple hickory sticks to space-age titanium has turned golf from an everyman's game into an equipment arms race that would make NASA jealous.
In 2020, a college athlete accepting a free meal from a booster could lose their eligibility permanently. By 2024, freshman quarterbacks were signing NIL contracts worth millions. This seismic shift happened in less than five years—and it fundamentally changed what it means to be a college athlete in America.
After World War II, a median American home cost roughly two years of an average worker's salary. Today that same calculation stretches to seven or eight years in many markets — and that gap isn't just about inflation. Something more fundamental shifted in the relationship between Americans and the homes they hoped to own.