It would have cost HOW much?

[gwyneth]

The Fed calculator bases 'purchasing power' on the overall value of the dollar using the consumer price index and whatever economists used before that.

It would be interesting if it did take into account both the products' relative value, as Tom Slick and others note, and relative earning power.

Tom's shovel is a great example--besides the $100 his hypothetical 1913 shovel would cost today, its $5 probably represented more of a worker's income.

According to the Dept. of Labor, the average manufacturing worker in 1909 made $3.80 per hour in 1999 dollars, and worked 55 hrs per week (10 hours per day, with a half day on Saturday).

That's about .18 an hour in 1913!

People who like statistics may be interested in this site, which has enough charts, data, maps and graphs to keep anybody wandering for hours:

http://www.bls.gov/home.htm

[LinuxRandal]

I looked at this last night, and it does show a huge variance. The DeWalt Radial arm saw, that I had a price for in 1952, would go for a little more then it said now. A mass produced house, built for veterans that sold for $7000 in 1948 would now be around $56,000. (used examples from the Mr. Sawdust book, cut all framing for 1500 houses in 65 days).

I don't know every factor that this uses, but I do figure it misses things like fuel increases, and the costs passes along from too much bad credit out there (the customer still pays for others mistakes). I know what my house was bought for in 1957, and close to what it sold for orignally (late 20's), it hasn't kept up do to changing neighborhoods, schools, etc.

[Rand]

My insurance agent sent me a birthday card that was meant to show how things have changed since I was born. It showed the average cost for several items in 1964 and 2007. Most items, a gallon of gas, a gallon of milk, a new car etc. cost about 8 times more now than they did 43 years ago. The average cost of a new house has gone up 14 times!!!

[ironhat]

hello everyone!

Hello yourself, pakn69! Welcome aboard. Throw us a line or two and call this 'home'. Good folks and good conversation not to mention some really good heads-on-shoulders.