This month in 1979 Sony introduced the first Walkman (initially called the Soundabout), a small portable cassette-tape player designed to be used with headphones. It was priced at $199.95. In today’s dollars that’s $540. Today, of course, you will spend considerably less for a product that is considerably better. A Sony CD Walkman at Best Buy costs $50. Lesser-known brands can be had for about 20 bucks. MP3 players are more, but that will be temporary. Par for the course even in a badly hampered capitalist economy.