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Hello, I'm Roberta from Florida
and I was reminiscing with a friend the other day… and we talked about how life used to be when we were younger and how everything was so much cheaper.
I got so excited that I did a bit of research and the differences between then and now are really astounding(even though they exaggerate a bit or my memory is playing tricks on me).
Anyway I found this page and I thought you might find it useful as well. https://thedetailedhistory.com/20-ex...ck-in-the-60s/
Last edited by Roberta70; 02-20-2018 at 10:30 AM..
I think much of the "things were so much cheaper in the past" talk really just boils down to the classic nominal fallacy. Yes, in nominal terms, things really were cheaper. In real terms, though, that isn't necessarily the case. For instance, a car that costs $30,000 today might have sold for $3,000 at one time. That's not cheaper, though, if a job that pays $100,000 today only paid $10,000 at that time; that would be a break even in real terms.
Even ignoring the nominal fallacy, though, it can be difficult to compare cost of living from different times. First of all, there are a lot of items that we now take for granted that simply were not available in past times (or were hideously more expensive). What did a cell phone sell for in the 1960's? You cannot answer since none were available. What did a 32" color TV sell for in 1968? You can now get this size TV for under $200 most places (it's small by today's standards). In 1968 that would have been a big TV and probably cost more even in nominal dollars, let alone in real terms.
Finally there's the question of value vs. price. Even if an item today is more expensive in real dollars, that does not mean you are getting less value for the money than you did in the past. For example, in the 1960's cars rarely lasted over 100,000 miles. Cars now sometimes go over 200,000 or even 250,000 miles. Even if today's car is more expensive in real terms, you might still be getting better value for today's car than you did in the past.
Hello, I'm Roberta from Florida
and I was reminiscing with a friend the other day… and we talked about how life used to be when we were younger and how everything was so much cheaper.
I got so excited that I did a bit of research and the differences between then and now are really astounding(even though they exaggerate a bit or my memory is playing tricks on me).
Anyway I found this page and I thought you might find it useful as well. https://thedetailedhistory.com/20-ex...ck-in-the-60s/
Then… my memory didn't play tricks on me after all . Well it's somehow true that you can't compare times, but in my opinion we can compare the quality of the items from back then. My point of view is that many things were better built back in the days.
Inflation is the "secret" tax that drains the resources of savers. In 1967, minimum wage was $1.40. Adjusted to today, that would be over $8. And yet, whenever the idea of raising minimum wage comes up, the usual whiners are outraged. Five and Dime stores are now Dollar stores.
As for relative costs, the ones that were inexpensive back then are easy to spot.
Insurance of all types is more costly.
Home ownership and rents, especially on the east and west coasts have become outrageous.
The bite of taxes on the poor and middle class has increased in percentage. Sales taxes were less common and a lower percentage.
Health care and drug costs are so completely out of control that they threaten the economy as a whole.
A few items are more expensive now due to shortages. As an example, cod used to be dirt cheap until it was fished down.
Then… my memory didn't play tricks on me after all . Well it's somehow true that you can't compare times, but in my opinion we can compare the quality of the items from back then. My point of view is that many things were better built back in the days.
I would rather have a brand new car from 1968 then one of these turds they build today.
I got out of the military during the Vietnam era and used my Vet's benefits to get a college degree. The pay scale for a new graduate with no prior experience was around 8,000 dollars. I bought a new Chevy Camaro for 3,000. One bedroom apt with no air con 100 per month. Weekly grocery bill for two about 15.00. Things were not cheap in relation to my salary.
I remember certain goods manufactured domestically as being very expensive. Shoes, appliances, etc. When cheap imported goods from the Far East flooded the market, clothing, shoes, appliances, pretty much everything manufactured abroad where labor was very cheap, became much less expensive.
Cost of living and wages were much lower decades ago as well. Even when I started working in the mid-late 90s, minimum wage was $4.75/hour. I still have old pay stubs from back then and a 40 hour paycheck was $163.00.
I remember gas at 67 cents a gallon and cars for $3,000. Houses were $20,000 - $40,000. However, my dad made $55,000 a year and the made us one of the better off families in town. Now a family would struggle to get by on $55,000 and probably have to live in a trailer. Some things were crazy expensive. Designer jeans $40 - $80, and you had to wear designer jeans. Silk shirts $50 or more. Velure shirts were a bit cheaper but still at least $20. On the other hand, a movie as $1.50 and happy hour featured 50 cent beers and $1 drinks. Eating out (at McDonalds) was a rare treat for our family, we got McDonalds maybe once or twice a month, not virtually every day, and no kids were lining up in the morning before school for a Caramel Mocholotto Latte Frappe Krappe. (McDonald's advertising was that a family of four could eat there - burgers fries and drinks, and get change back from a $5 bill). But $5 was an amount that you could not just go out and spend willy nilly.
Minimum wage was $3.35 but if you got tips it was $2.50. Factory work paid extremely well by comparison though. I had an acquaintance who killed someone while drunk driving and went to prison for three years. When he got out, they got him a job at Cars and Concepts for $16 an hour. To us, that was an amazing amount of money. He was able to buy a new car at 21 years old.
Now I get jeans for $8 at Ross, and dress shirts for $12 when I find a good sale. You can get a decent pair of running shoes for $30 - $40 on sale and they are the same or better quality/design than my $120 ASICS Pumas from 1980. I can now buy a used car with 400 horsepower for $1500. Then you woudl spend $5k to get that kind of power out of a car. Except now, replacement parts cost as much as a beater car.
While the dollar figures involved were smaller, we lived less extravagantly than an average family today. A color TV was lucky. Two was extravagant, three was ridiculous. Cable TV was a luxury. Everyone did their own oil changes and basic car repairs (no one has time for that now). When computers came out, they were $2,000 - almost as much as a car, and basically they were good for word processing and very simple games unless you were a programmer. It was rare to get to go anywhere for a vacation ad if we did, it was camping and we brought sandwiches to eat along the way. A soda was a rare treat, not a staple (at least until Towne Club came along). We almost never stayed in a hotel, almost never flew on an airplane. Jiff peanutbutter was a rare treat, usually you got the cheap stuff that was no where near as good. Typically you had maybe three or four pairs of jeans, three pairs of shoes (I probably have 20 today), parents cut their kid's hair to save money. Average houses were smaller and considerably less fancy. Owning a VCR (or a laser disk player) was a big deal. If you wanted a decent stereo system (which everyone wanted), you saved for two or three years.
What I use for an easy comparison- a year of college tuition was $3,800. An average car was $3,800. Today, A year of college Tuition is $13,000, but a car is at least $20,000, except for the cheapie cars. Gasoline was 67 cents now it is $2.19. A gallon of milk was 80 cents, now it is about $4.00 (I think, I never look just put i in the cart and buy it).
So some things were comparatively cheaper and some way more expensive. Overall the standard of living was lower in part because technology was super expensive.
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