Ah yes, how well I remember attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the late 1970s and only having money to make one long distance phone call per month to my girlfriend in Pennsylvania. There were three cost tiers, the highest during the day, 2nd the evening, and cheapest from 11pm to 8am or something like that. So we took advantage of the time zone difference and planned for the best rate so we could talk the longest. Nowadays no one I know thinks at all about "long distance"
I was recently re-reading a diary entry from 1986. I was living in England and was an undergrad at the time. I made a call to California and specifically mentioned the painfully high cost per minute. Today: Free! (at the margin)
In 1967, I bought a brand new Chevy Camaro for $2500. Base model had a radio, heater nothing else. No power steering or power brakes. $23,525 in todays dollars. The 2024 base model Camaro with a six cylinder engine is $30,905. Base model includes; pw, pb, power steering, AC, radio with satellite and terrestrial capability, safety features...airbags, head rests that limit whiplash and crumple zones. Wireless connectivity and 335 HP from a six cylinder engine. For the difference of $7380 in current dollars, the driver and passengers are more comfortable, safer, more likely to survive a bad collision and can speak to anyone without having to find a phone booth.
I'm not sold, my gut is cherry picking. My guess with a different basket of goods, you get different results, i.e. technology gets cheaper to a point as it matures and commoditizes but I'm guessing labor went up as in the cost of a maid, a cook, a plumber, etc increased in real terms. Likewise I'm just not sure canned beans got cheaper nor fresh apples nor a deli sandwich and I'm pretty positive most insurances were cheaper as were restaurants. Also you are ignoring things that got worse such as dishwashers, laundry machines, toilets, shower heads, etc. Finally on the phone thing prisoners still pay those sort of rates but I'm betting they actually had a way better rate in the 1950s.
Although I'm not cherry picking. I'm accurately reporting the ads. There were a number more and none of them was an ad for a product or service that is as expensive today.
Check out humanprogress.org for a vastly wider range of data points. Yes, things like a maid or cook might have become relatively more expensive but the vast majority of good and services have become tremendously cheaper.
And remember, if maids are more expensive, that means people who would have cleaned houses now have more valuable things to do with their time. That's good.
Honestly though, I see way more housecleaners now than when I was 20. Merry Maids wasn't a thing then. Neither were mow-and-blow crews. I expect hiring a maid, cook, or landscaper was quite the luxury. Anyone have any data on that?
Funny story. When I got to my first academic job at the University of Rochester in 1975, I dealt with Rochester Telephone, which was independent of Bell. Rochester Telephone required me to buy a phone. I bought a nice red one. Then I moved to Oakland in 1979 and San Francisco in 1980 and kept using my red phone because I owned it. When I went to leave San Fran for Arlington, VA in December 1981, Pac Bell told me that I had to leave the phone. I said no way because I own the phone. Pac Bell said I couldn't. I said I did and that I had bought ii from Rochester Telephone. The Pac Bell person told me that I had to leave it. I said that if she could show me evidence that Pac Bell had provided it, I would. That was the end of it.
Ah yes, how well I remember attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the late 1970s and only having money to make one long distance phone call per month to my girlfriend in Pennsylvania. There were three cost tiers, the highest during the day, 2nd the evening, and cheapest from 11pm to 8am or something like that. So we took advantage of the time zone difference and planned for the best rate so we could talk the longest. Nowadays no one I know thinks at all about "long distance"
I was recently re-reading a diary entry from 1986. I was living in England and was an undergrad at the time. I made a call to California and specifically mentioned the painfully high cost per minute. Today: Free! (at the margin)
In 1967, I bought a brand new Chevy Camaro for $2500. Base model had a radio, heater nothing else. No power steering or power brakes. $23,525 in todays dollars. The 2024 base model Camaro with a six cylinder engine is $30,905. Base model includes; pw, pb, power steering, AC, radio with satellite and terrestrial capability, safety features...airbags, head rests that limit whiplash and crumple zones. Wireless connectivity and 335 HP from a six cylinder engine. For the difference of $7380 in current dollars, the driver and passengers are more comfortable, safer, more likely to survive a bad collision and can speak to anyone without having to find a phone booth.
I'm not sold, my gut is cherry picking. My guess with a different basket of goods, you get different results, i.e. technology gets cheaper to a point as it matures and commoditizes but I'm guessing labor went up as in the cost of a maid, a cook, a plumber, etc increased in real terms. Likewise I'm just not sure canned beans got cheaper nor fresh apples nor a deli sandwich and I'm pretty positive most insurances were cheaper as were restaurants. Also you are ignoring things that got worse such as dishwashers, laundry machines, toilets, shower heads, etc. Finally on the phone thing prisoners still pay those sort of rates but I'm betting they actually had a way better rate in the 1950s.
Although I'm not cherry picking. I'm accurately reporting the ads. There were a number more and none of them was an ad for a product or service that is as expensive today.
Check out humanprogress.org for a vastly wider range of data points. Yes, things like a maid or cook might have become relatively more expensive but the vast majority of good and services have become tremendously cheaper.
And remember, if maids are more expensive, that means people who would have cleaned houses now have more valuable things to do with their time. That's good.
Honestly though, I see way more housecleaners now than when I was 20. Merry Maids wasn't a thing then. Neither were mow-and-blow crews. I expect hiring a maid, cook, or landscaper was quite the luxury. Anyone have any data on that?
And remember when phone equipment was rented?
And when calls had to go through an operator.
Yes.
Funny story. When I got to my first academic job at the University of Rochester in 1975, I dealt with Rochester Telephone, which was independent of Bell. Rochester Telephone required me to buy a phone. I bought a nice red one. Then I moved to Oakland in 1979 and San Francisco in 1980 and kept using my red phone because I owned it. When I went to leave San Fran for Arlington, VA in December 1981, Pac Bell told me that I had to leave the phone. I said no way because I own the phone. Pac Bell said I couldn't. I said I did and that I had bought ii from Rochester Telephone. The Pac Bell person told me that I had to leave it. I said that if she could show me evidence that Pac Bell had provided it, I would. That was the end of it.
My mom rented five phones from 1963 until 1997 when she passed away. I wonder what the total fee was.