Posted on 06/26/2010 3:11:21 AM PDT by Scanian
Head to the local big-box electronics store and buy yourself: a Panasonic home-theater system ($500), an In signia 50-inch plasma HDTV ($700), an Apple 8GB iPod Touch ($175), a Sony 3-D Blu-ray disc player ($219), a Sony 300-CD changer ($209), a Garmin portable GPS ($139), a Sony 14.1-megapixel digital camera ($200), a Dell Inspiron laptop computer ($450) and a TiVo high-definition digital-video recorder ($300).
This is not an endorsement of any of these products. I don't own any of them (though if the manufacturers are keen to find out my opinion, they can send me some non-returnable demos). But you can fill your shopping cart with these items for less than $3,000. The average American worker needs to work 152 hours to earn that much money.
In 1964, however, the average American worker could buy one pricey stereo from Radio Shack after working 152 hours. My colleague at the American Enterprise Institute, Mark Perry, a University of Michigan economist, crunched the numbers.
What's the point? There's a big one. We're constantly told that the American working man is so much worse off than he used to be. And if you measure income one way, you can make that case.
Indeed, the Democratic Party in recent years has become obsessed in looking at the economy only in that one negative way to justify its avocation: giving more stuff to the poor and middle class because they are "falling behind."
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
If education were privatized, we would be even better off.
Interesting perspective, with many sublime messages about opportunity for those who have the desire to work for it, unnecessary government intervention, and the benefits of free market capitalism.
I wonder if that’s just too oblique for the liberal enclave the NY Post writes to.
Everything mentioned is made in China.
That’s because it’s cheap mass-market stuff.
Here you go:
http://www.musicdirect.com/product/74548
Made in US, high-quality, so not as cheap.
Scanian:
Could you afford to buy all of those goods if they were manufactured here?
I believe that Mr. Goldberg was writing about the purchasing power of the average American in 2010 as compared to that same advantage decades past, not the state of manufacturing in the country.
I would “guesstimate” that if those same items were all manufactured here, in this country, your tab at the checkout counter would be something in excess of $30,000. What do you think?
In 1910, a man had to work 10 months to buy a house. Today, a man has to work 5 years. (Interest not included.)
This is article is idiotic. Mom was at home in 1964. She did not have to work if you were middle class. Housing was cheap. Food was cheap. Utilities were cheap. The public schools were very good. No need to fork out for private school educations
As for all those electronics wonders...Jonah can take them and shove them up his chubby ass. They don’t contribute to human happiness. They are tools for entertainment and amusement and hypnotizing the godless masses. Can easily get along without them and yes they are imported leading to the trade deficit of today...Which is just more piling on of debt
My great grandparents bought a 5 bedroom house with an attatched garage and heated outbuilding on 5 lots for around $4500 in the early 40s.
The Post is a Newscorp enterprise and is in effect a print adjunct to Fox News.
Not much of a liberal audience there.
You said it.
If a man will accept the square footage and features of the average 1910 house, he could pay for it in less than 10 months. It has not become more expensive; we have become use to expecting far more.
The difference between 1964 and today is that when the man brought the new TV home in 1964, everyone was very satisfied with it and enjoyed it for many years until it finally wore out and died.
When the man from today brings home that SUV-load of stuff, a “new” version comes out next month and the entire family starts moaning about how their life is cheapened by having to use “old” electronics.
To draw a perspective on just how technology has drastically lowered real prices on these sort of things, I can tell you that in 1959 the brother of a good friend of mine bough a color TV, round screen perhaps 13-15 inches across and paid $995.00.
Inflation adjusted that TV should cost $7460.00 today. Looking at it the other way, a basic 15” color set purchased today for $250 should have cost $33 in 1959.
Keep in mind the early color sets were awful with green tint and a need to constantly adjust the color mix.
Here’s a neat inflation calculator for you to play around with. It works forward and backward and is a fun little tool.
It is interesting to note that a gallon of gasoline costing $.30 in 1959 should sell for an inflation adjusted price of $2.25, not far from the $2.48 I am paying here in central NJ.
http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl
>>If a man will accept the square footage and features of the average 1910 house, he could pay for it in less than 10 months. It has not become more expensive; we have become use to expecting far more.
It isn’t just the square footage (but that’s a big reason for the difference). Its also the features. Central heat/air, receptacles every 6 feet, vapor barriers, more insulation, better roofing materials, hurricane-proofing, carpet, dishwasher, multiple bathrooms.... The list of “basics” in today’s home that would have been unnecessary luxuries in the 1910 house is endless.
In the future, yes. Robotics is going to change everything. The day will come when you'll walk into Wal-Mart and have custom jeans made for you on the spot by robots for a few dollars. The shipping charges and time delay from China will make them uncompetitive.
So? Is that a problem?
Today neither parent has to work, as long as they stay unmarried, have children, and refuse to take a job that pays too much. The welfare class is the new leisure class. This is the wave of the future. As high-tech automation continues to take over, there just aren't going to be many jobs for the left side of the bell curve. Families with one income will become common again as low-end labor becomes obsolete.
Isn't it funny then that technology is the first thing that the medical deliver folks blame for their ever increasing real prices. (I have a new proposal to lower medical costs which is for the mass marketing of those stretchers the FIFA guys bring out whenever some soccer player looks like he is about to die. 75% recover upon merely seeing the stretcher and nearly all of the remaining players recover after a short ride on one of those things.)
ML/NJ
Check out the Victorians and masonry homes on Milwaukee’s near south side. The craftsmanship is outstanding and not producible without shelling out big bucks today.
The cabinetry built into various rooms of these homes, made of quarter-sawn oak, curly maple and other exotic woods, by German craftsmen couldn’t be duplicated for less than $100,000 today. Many of these homes had hand-carved fireplace mantels. Dining rooms boasted hand-crafted cabinets with exotic etched glass and beveled mirrors.
And dimensional lumber actually equated to its stated measurements. Today, we’re moving toward a one by three inch “2 x 4.”
Do we need to compare the old slat walls of 1910 with the crappy sheetrock of today?
The craftsmanship and material was far superior back in 1910 compared to the flimsy McMansions sprouting up all over exurbia today. It’s my understanding that other old Eastern cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburg also have excellent examples of turn-of-century hand-crafted homes.
You could in no way build a 1910 crafted home today for 10 months salary.
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