I constantly run the inflation caculator when people point back to complain about prices. Like the classic photo from the early 1970s showing a woman fueling a car with the price listed at 49 cents... but that puts gas at just under todays rate, inflation adjusted. Even more, measuring fuel efficiency, our current gas is 50% cheaper per mile. Then factoring the environmental impact of smog.... then factoring the lifetime drivability of the car etc. etc. etc... driving a car is significantly cheaper per mile than 50 years ago.
Lines up well with my example! I ran the gas example and it shows that the cost has actually dropped from .13 time price to .096 time price even though it went from 50 cents to $3.5/ gallon
I use measuringworth.com for hourly compensation data, but there are lots of other sources as well. The important thing is to measure the rate of change in prices vs the rate of change in hourly wages. Also use hourly wages, not weekly or annual or household.
I constantly run the inflation caculator when people point back to complain about prices. Like the classic photo from the early 1970s showing a woman fueling a car with the price listed at 49 cents... but that puts gas at just under todays rate, inflation adjusted. Even more, measuring fuel efficiency, our current gas is 50% cheaper per mile. Then factoring the environmental impact of smog.... then factoring the lifetime drivability of the car etc. etc. etc... driving a car is significantly cheaper per mile than 50 years ago.
Thanks for reading. You might like this article: https://galepooley.substack.com/p/for-the-time-it-took-to-get-one-mile
Also I am working on a simple Time Price Calculator. Would you like to try out the beta version? https://caydenpark.github.io/simple-calculator/
Just enter values in the yellow boxes. We also have a drop down on the wage rates that lets you pull in historical blue-collar and unskilled rates.
Best,
Gale
Lines up well with my example! I ran the gas example and it shows that the cost has actually dropped from .13 time price to .096 time price even though it went from 50 cents to $3.5/ gallon
I use measuringworth.com for hourly compensation data, but there are lots of other sources as well. The important thing is to measure the rate of change in prices vs the rate of change in hourly wages. Also use hourly wages, not weekly or annual or household.