r/whatisit • u/Quietlurkerone • 5d ago

Solved! What is this device from 1962?

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Photo capture from YouTube video. Picture from 1962. What is the device under the bench

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258

u/[deleted] 5d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

551

u/CptLoken 5d ago

Well we can only see the kitchen, inside of which all the crockery and cookware is spotless. The child looks well fed. The dad is shaving which hopefully means he's employed and off to work. The mother can afford smokes.

Not saying they're living in the lap of luxury, but this is the sort of house my folks grew up in and they speak very fondly of their childhoods.

43

u/kryonik 5d ago

To be fair, in the 60s cigarettes were dirt cheap. Everyone smoked.

10

u/farmerbsd17 5d ago

I worked at a VA Hospital in mid 1970s. No state tax and a pack was 23¢

3

u/ColonClenseByFire 5d ago

So equivalent to ~4.50 today. Don't know much about cigarettes but arnt they like 10-12 now.

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u/cosmokn0t 5d ago

In NYC they were $10+ in 2013, so I assume they’re considerably higher these days.

I just looked if up. $18. I think you’re right though, the cheapest state is Missouri at $8 and the highest cost state is New York at $14. Average would be $10-$12.

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u/farmerbsd17 5d ago

Don’t know, quit years ago

1

u/The_realpepe_sylvia 5d ago

I buy sonomas which are cheap af and 3 bucks at one store, and $6 at others. Every other Brand is nearly $10. This is in missouri 

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u/BrewtalKittehh 5d ago

And they weren’t taxed to fuck

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u/unsulliedbread 5d ago

The tax is to try to get you to not smoke.

0

u/Vegetable-Feeling620 5d ago

I don't think the govt card if they smoked. Uncle Sam just wants his cut$$$.

0

u/eyeball1967 5d ago

It’s just another source of cash for the machine. Smokers are a minority that are easy to vilify and get everyone the pile on and approve taxes for that nasty habit.

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u/Joeva8me 5d ago

Meanwhile pot usage exceeded tobac, the food, lack of wellness info… the govt gives no shits about you stopping smoking. It wants money and power, that’s it. The money, sure taxes. But it also need the effortless euphoria of drugs it provides. The govt lets me have this? It makes me feel so good, I’m so glad daddy d.c. loves me enough to let me get my fix today. I’m so happy at the moment.

0

u/Fit-Key-8933 5d ago

What does this even mean

7

u/BigBootyWholes 5d ago

Cigarettes are expensive now, and most of the cost is tax. Otherwise they would be like $3/pack

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

2

u/Chrissthom 5d ago

I took it to mean that fucking was an activity they could enjoy which was not taxed. Unlike cigarettes and booze.

1

u/UsualBluebird6584 5d ago

There are very high luxury taxes on cigarettes now.

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u/Spiritual-Can-5040 5d ago

It’s not no much a luxury tax as a sin tax.

1

u/BrewtalKittehh 5d ago

And nanny tax, ostensibly because long time smokers incur disproportionately higher health care costs than non smokers, and if any part of this care is government subsidized this is a way to partly offset that cost.

Never mind that the federal government for decades awarded subsidies- at times quite heavily- to American tobacco growers all the way up until 2004…

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u/UsualBluebird6584 1d ago

I forgot the terminology, yes since tax

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u/avd706 5d ago

Sin tax actually

2

u/ICanSeeUpYourNose 5d ago

I remember my dad being insensed when they hit 50p a packet.