OT---A way of mentally accepting today's high price of everything

[BroadwayVa]

In 1962 I was a Junior Engineer in Development of Electronic Weapons systems--I got 6000. per year
My house cost 15500 brand new that year.
A gallon of gas was 40 cents---a bakers dozens of corn from the farmer was $1.00

Today a person in a comparable job would be getting anywhere between 60,000 and 90,000
A comparable house would be between 200,000 and 300,000

If you divide the 60,000 and the 90,000 by the 6000 earned in 1962 and you obtain a multiplier of 10 to 15

If you multiplied the 40 cent gas by 10---it should be $4.00/gal today, a Dozen corn should cost 10 to 15 dollars. A house should cost between 155000 to 230,000. Electricity for my home in 1962 ran about 40 dollars per month today it should cost 400 to 600 dollars per month . My mortgage was 128 dollars a month including insurance and prorated taxes today that would be between 1280 to 1940 per month.

When today s prices are compared to 1962 and adjusted for inflation normal necessary items actually take a less percentage of one pay.

 

[diggerfoot]

Quite the contrary for many of the most important things. Indeed, I wrote a book about it. Using census and BEA data, and using periods from around 1970 to 2005, the ratio of housing costs to median family income rose dramatically (and, contrary to you, confirmed by my own experience of living in the house I was raised in). Health costs to median family income also rose dramatically. Education costs as well. In other words, the most important and expensive aspects of a household has increased much faster than the income coming in.

I expect the trends have tailed off since 2005, perhaps even reversed slightly, yet the well-documented phenomenon of "spending cascades" is still more applicable to our economy than "rising tides."

 

[meyers7]

The other thing is the amount of stuff we are paying for now. In 1962, you didn't have to pay for cell phone, cable TV, cable internet, Netflicks every month. Lots of people didn't own more than 1 TV or 1 car, didn't own a microwave, computer, tablet, dishwasher, snowblower, dvd player.