You're right. accounting for inflation 5.15 in 2003 would be worth 8.45 in 2023 dollars. That's a 16.5% loss of purchasing power. That's before you account for the soaring mortgage/rent rates. But young people are just lazy these days...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It gets "better." Back then, MCO's were only expected to do Master Control for one television station, because that's all the technology could handle at the time. Each local station had their own Master Control division.

All those got chopped up with technology around the time they switched from analog broadcasting to digital broadcasting. Now an MCO handles up to 15 stations at one time. Half the local stations lost their Master Control offices, and soon, their local news with it.

For example, the station I used to work at no longer functionally exists. They only exist as one reporter and one production assistant in a tiny block inside of a strip mall. They do "cut-ins" for the "local news" that airs from their "sister station" over 200 miles and over 3 hour drive away. Screams "local" to me. What a joke.

So now MCO's can get paid minimum wage with 15x the labor to do!