How different was the world before you arrived?
Before GPS, before rest-stop lattes, and before anyone legally had to wear a seatbelt, millions of Americans piled into their cars and just... drove. A lot has changed since the golden age of the American road trip — some of it wonderful, some of it quietly terrifying in hindsight.
In 1990, a $100,000 salary was genuinely exceptional — the kind of number that bought a house, put kids through college, and left room to spare. Today, that same figure is a starting point in many American cities, and somehow it doesn't feel like enough. What happened?
Before WebMD, before telehealth, before AI symptom checkers — when something felt wrong, your options were limited, personal, and often surprisingly human. The way Americans navigate illness has been completely transformed in a single generation, and the story is more complicated than it first appears.