Comparing the prices of typical household purchases in the 1940s versus today.
I got this article from the NY Times. At the end of the post, you can go to the article to read more. It has links to some of the other research that is mentioned here. This is very thoughtful blog article and I hope that all of us will realize the truth in these statements.
pd
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By Catherine Rampell
With job losses and mounting debt, consumers have been anxious, depressed and angry. But is their quality of life really suffering all that much?
Mark J. Perry, an economics professor at the University of Michigan, Flint, says no, at least in historical terms. Using the prices from old Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs, he has been comparing the prices of typical household purchases in the 1940s versus today on his blog.
Rather than using the dollar amounts for each product, though, Professor Perry has been looking at how many hours the average wage-earner at the time would have to work to pay for the goods.
For example, a 9.2-cubic-foot Sears Coldspot Spacemaster Refrigerator was listed in the 1949 Sears catalog for $224.75, Professor Perry writes. In 1949, the average hourly manufacturing wage was $1.26. This meant the average manufacturing worker had to work for 178.4 hours (4.5 weeks) in 1949 to earn enough money, before tax, to purchase the refrigerator.
Today a Sears model 9.5-cubic-feet refrigerator sells for $339.99. At the current average hourly manufacturing wage of $18.03, today’s average manufacturing worker would have to work for only 18.9 hours (2.4 days) to purchase the refrigerator.
He has found similar comparisons for toasters and washing machines. The moral?:
We hear a lot of comparisons of today’s economic conditions to the 1930s and the Great Depression, as if we’re about to slip back to the living conditions of the 1930s and enter Great Depression II. Hopefully some of these comparisons will serve as an antidote to all of the daily gloom and doom.
A comparison of the price of a typical household appliance in 1949 (178.4 hours of work to purchase a refrigerator) to the price today (only 18.9 hours of work) is just one of hundreds of examples that demonstrate the significant increase in the average American’s standard of living over time…
Despite the current economic slowdown, consumers have never had it so good. Ever. Anywhere.