Wile E said: (quoted from post at 10:19:41 09/07/13) Yep and those greedy 8astards at the oil companies and those scummy Arabs ran the price of oil up to the heavens to make everything else expensive too.
A buddy of mine remembers being 10 years old in 1969 and his dad would give him a quarter, (that is 25 cents) and the 1 gallon gas can. He would walk to the end of his street (in the city) and get the can filled up with gas and buy a piece of candy with the left over penny.
You cant even get a bottle of water for 25 cents anymore. Grrrrr.......
And I can recall going to the movies with a dollar in my hand and getting in and still having money left to buy soda, popcorn and candy- for me and my sister!. That would have been around 69 too. BUT- minimum wage in 69 was $1.30. Average income across the nation was $8K a year. Average income now is 42K. So income has gone up 6x and gas 4x. Actually only about 3x if you take the 70 cents of state and Fed taxes out of gas prices.
I won't argue that our buying power has dropped like a rock, but that's partially because of devaluation of the dollar and increased taxes. But you have to compare apples to apples. Look back through some old catalogs on line like Sears. A 23 console color TV out of the 69 Wishbook back then cost $459.00. That was their top of the line. Today a similar $459.00 will buy you a mush larger vTV with lots better picture. But it was just a pipe dream for most people to think they could ever swing a color TV in 69, much less a $459.00 TV!!!! More likely they looked at the much cheaper black and white $189.00 model with the 19 inch screen and saved for months to get it, since credit cards were metal back then and only the very rich had them.
Gotta put things in perspective.
This post was edited by Bret4207 at 05:42:46 09/08/13.
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