(OT) 1950 prices of a year at Harvard, a new car, gallon of gas, milk; others

[News]

1950 prices of various consumer items, services when the dollar was fully
redeemable in silver or gold; and silver dimes, quarters, and half-dollars
freely circulated as money.

One year at Harvard University, before the Government set-up the Dept. of
Education (1979) and meddled into the industry with myriads of regulations:
$600.

A gallon of gasoline: 26 cents.

An average new car to drive paying the aforementioned gas at 26 cents per
gallon: $1,500.

A gallon of milk: 84 cents.

A cup of coffee--including free refills, a silver dime (10 cents).

A plane ticket from New York to Los Angeles: $60-$75.

A postage stamp: 3 cents.


Source: "On the Spot" (tv show)

[★ The Last 30 Days ★]

Americans would buy their milk in "gallon" bottles ?!?

In Australia, before we converted to metric, we used to get our milk
"home delivered" in a milkies' truck. Our bottles were in "pints", not
"gallons". We used to get four pints of milk delivered each week.

I remember having to wash out the old milk bottles and put them on the front
porch for the "milkman" or "milkie" as we called him, to collect ~!!! ☻☺☻

In the 1980's the milkman died (sadly) and we had to pick up our milk from either the "milk bar" (similar to a corner store or convenience store) or supermarket.
Milk was then changed to 1 litre cartons or 2 litre plasic bottles.

The old "pint" glass milk bottles and the milkman or milkie never to be seen again !

That's progress, I guess !!!!

HOOROO

_________________________________________________________________

[Bermuda999]

On Saturday, January 12, 2013 2:30:36 AM UTC-5, ★ The Last 30 Days ★ wrote:
> Americans would buy their milk in "gallon" bottles ?!?
>
>
>
> In Australia, before we converted to metric, we used to get our milk
> "home delivered" in a milkies' truck. Our bottles were in "pints", not
> "gallons". We used to get four pints of milk delivered each week.
> I remember having to wash out the old milk bottles and put them on the front
> porch for the "milkman" or "milkie" as we called him, to collect ~!!!

> In the 1980's the milkman died (sadly) and we had to pick up our milk from
> either the "milk bar" (similar to a corner store or convenience store) or
> supermarket.

I used to enjoy the Korova milk bar.

[★ The Last 30 Days ★]

Ahhhhhhh, yes, the Korova Milk Bar, Alex's (Malcolm McDowell's) haunt in Clockwork Orange ! I remembereth it well, especially the titty milk dispensers !

Yeah, well milk bars are now an endagered species because of Seven Elevens and other convenience stores, even gas stations and supermarkets have made it very hard for the old milk bar or corner store to survive these days.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_bar

Ahhhhhhhhhh, the good ol' days were the best days of my life !

HOOROO

_____________________________________________________________

[★ The Last 30 Days ★]

On Sunday, January 13, 2013 12:32:16 AM UTC+11, Bermuda999 wrote:

Which one, the one in London or the one in Melbourne ?!?

http://www.clubsguide.com.au/melbourne/venue/korova-milk-bar

HOOROO

_____________________________________________________

[★ The Last 30 Days ★]

There was a Korova Milk Bar in White Plains, New York, but apparently it's now closed.

http://www.yelp.com.au/biz/korova-milk-bar-white-plains

HOOROO

___________________________________________________________

[Michael OConnor]

On Jan 12, 2:01 am, "News" <m...@sb.net> wrote:
> 1950 prices of various consumer items, services when the dollar was fully
> redeemable in silver or gold; and silver dimes, quarters, and half-dollars
> freely circulated as money.
>
> One year at Harvard University, before the Government set-up the Dept. of
> Education (1979) and meddled into the industry with myriads of regulations:
> $600.

It's funny but when you hear the whining about the greedy who don't
pay their fair share, that the Universities always seem to get a free
pass, as Harvard has a tax free endowment estimated to be worth
billions of dollars. With college costs having risen roughly tenfold
over the past 30 years, has the quality of a college education
improved that much? You never hear any talk of price gouging when it
comes to a college education. I've always believed that you can get
an education every bit as good as Harvard or Yale at any State
University in the US; the only difference is the name on the diploma.
In fact, if you have access to a public library; you can get a quality
education there for free just from all the textbooks they have
available.

[Sarah Ehrett's Lesbian Love Interest]

Meaningless numbers, unless you put them into context. Minimum wage in 1950 was $0.75 an hour.

So, in 1950 a minimum wage could buy three gallons of gas, today the wage would need to be near $12/hr.

It used to take longer than an hour of work to buy a gallon of milk, today it is way less than an hour.

It took about 100 hours of min wage to fly from LAX to NYC, today it can be done for about 30 hours.

You can figure out the rest if you want to continue to not make your point.

[Brad Ferguson]

In article <97471218-416a-427f...@googlegroups.com>,

This is old, old stuff. There's a bit in A Connecticut Yankee in King
Arthur's Court (1889) where Hank Morgan tells a guy how much money
people are making back in the 19th century. It's an amazing amount to
people used to dealing in milrays. The guy oohs and aahs about how
much money people are making and how rich they all must be, and
completely ignores Hank when he tries to tell him that prices have
increased right along with wages, and that few are rich or even
well-off.

The numbers from 1950 are indeed meaningless, as there's no real
comparison possible. More people can afford more stuff today, and
there's much more stuff available for your money -- for instance, this
thing I'm typing on right now. People who want to return to a 1950
standard of living are, of course, free to do so. They can always go
live under a bridge or something and hope it doesn't rain.

[BobF]

On Sat, 12 Jan 2013 21:07:57 -0600, "News" <m...@sb.net> shouted from the
highest rooftop:

> Not meaningless. Most people (95+%) were *NOT* on the minimum wage.
> They were earning maximum wages.

And what, pray tell, was a maximum wage?

--

"But the thought of being a lunatic did not greatly trouble him;
the horror was that he might also be wrong." - George Orwell, 1984

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wax-up and drop-in of Surfing's Golden Years: <http://www.surfwriter.net>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Sarah Ehrett's Lesbian Love Interest]

On Saturday, January 12, 2013 7:07:57 PM UTC-8, News wrote:

>
> The poor and middle-classes will always be hurt by the Federal Reserve
>
> inflating the currency...

Right there, you know nothing. Stop reading rich peoples' propaganda and try to think for yourself. If you are low to middle class and have a mortgage, student loans or any other debt, you'd invite inflation. With high inflation and low debt interest, you're almost making money as you sit.

The people who don't like inflation are the billionaires who sleep on their money filled mattresses. The banker who owns your 3.5% mortgage would not like 10% inflation. The trust fund kids who live off the interest would soon have to look for a job if their money was eroded by inflation. Those who have nothing, have nothing to lose.

[J.D. Baldwin]

In the previous article, Brad Ferguson <Brad Ferguson> wrote:
> This is old, old stuff. There's a bit in A Connecticut Yankee in
> King Arthur's Court (1889) where Hank Morgan tells a guy how much
> money people are making back in the 19th century. It's an amazing
> amount to people used to dealing in milrays. The guy oohs and aahs
> about how much money people are making and how rich they all must
> be, and completely ignores Hank when he tries to tell him that
> prices have increased right along with wages, and that few are rich
> or even well-off.

You're missing the point. (I know you aren't, really.) Roy is one of
those guys who gets all wound up about the fact that inflation
*exists*. Unstable or generally high inflation is a bad, bad thing,
but most of the western countries figured out how to whip that back in
the early 1980s. (We are all monetarists now.) But setting monetary
policy to try to achieve zero inflation would be utter foolishness.
Even Saint Milton himself noted that, over and over. Reagan,
Thatcher, even His High Holiness Greenspan are all on the record as
agreeing.

> The numbers from 1950 are indeed meaningless, as there's no real
> comparison possible. More people can afford more stuff today, and
> there's much more stuff available for your money -- for instance,
> this thing I'm typing on right now. People who want to return to a
> 1950 standard of living are, of course, free to do so. They can
> always go live under a bridge or something and hope it doesn't rain.

(From Roy's OP)

A gallon of gasoline: 26 cents.

An average new car to drive paying the aforementioned gas at 26
cents per gallon: $1,500.

A gallon of milk: 84 cents.

[...]

Here's my favorite, though:

10-minute long-distance telephone call (within the U.S.): $6.70

(In 1945, it was $11.00 and in 1940 it was $23.00.)

Got that? If I wanted to call my grandma in Albuquerque in 1950, it
would cost me 8 gallons of milk to spend *ten minutes* on the phone
with her. (She might have been kinda freaked out to hear from her
11-year-old daughter's future son.)

Now if I want to spend 25 gallons of milk's worth of money on a phone
call, I can spend well over half an hour talking to someone in the
freaking *Congo*. And that's if I don't feel like using Skype. And
note that I picked a commodity (milk) that has, itself, gotten
cheaper. If I use gasoline as a basis, the effect is really dramatic.

Telecommunications is sweet.
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone objects to any statement I make, I am
_|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / bal...@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it.-T. Lehrer
***~~~~----------------------------------------------------------------------

[Congoleum Breckenridge]

On 1/12/2013 2:01 AM, News wrote:

Adjusted for inflation in (2011 dollars)

> One year at Harvard University, before the Government set-up the Dept.
> of Education (1979) and meddled into the industry with myriads of

> regulations: $600. ($5529.57)
>
> A gallon of gasoline: 26 cents. ($2.40)

>
> An average new car to drive paying the aforementioned gas at 26 cents

> per gallon: $1,500. ($13823.94)
>
> A gallon of milk: 84 cents. ($7.74)
>
> A cup of coffee--including free refills, a silver dime <10 cents>. ($.92)
>
> A plane ticket from New York to Los Angeles: $60-$75. ($552.96-$691.20)
>
> A postage stamp: 3 cents. ($.28)

[David Carson]

On Sat, 12 Jan 2013 21:07:57 -0600, "News" <m...@sb.net> wrote:

> It isn't meaningless when you consider that prices have far outstripped
>wages, and when you take into account REAL WAGES, the citizens have never
>been as well-off as they were before that fateful day in August 1971,

How much did it cost in 1950 or 1971 to publish articles and messages to
millions of people in an instant?

[Brad Ferguson]

In article <kcv1q0$l0e$1...@dont-email.me>, David Carson

Technically, you are correct.