An example I can get my head around...
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Nobody can argue that pretty much everything except wages has increased in price since 1976. The other day I did some remembering and some checking and some calculating and came up with this: My first job as a Welder in 1976 paid 18 bucks an hour, and Gasoline was about 60¢ a gallon. Therefore, I could buy about 30 gallons of Gas for one hour's pay. If I was lucky enough to land a job paying 18 an hour now (I'm not even getting ten dollar an hour offers), I'd have to work almost a whole day for that same 30 gallons of Gas. At Minimum Wage, I'd have to work two days for the 30 gallons. And Housing Prices are even worse!
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People that make minimum wage cannot afford to drive a car. It's too expensive! Car Registration! Smog test! (required in California) Insurance! Oil change! Mechanical repairs! No, they just take public transportation, walk or ride their bike. P.S. Minimum wage in 1976 was $2.30! Furthermore, welders today make about $18.00/hour. Are you sure you were paid that much back then?
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Yep. It was a Boilermaker Shop. I was a TIG Stringer Pipe Welder - rather specialized. Of course, they "went out of business," and laid everybody off, only to re-open a few months later under a new name as a non-Union shop. They even offered me my old job back -- at about half the pay, and with greatly reduced benefits. That was kind of my point: If I'm lucky, I can find a job now that pays the same as the (admittedly good paying) one I had 35 years ago! Meanwhile, almost everything else has gone way, way up in price. Even with the numbers mentioned, a Minimum Wage Worker in 1976 could buy almost 4 gallons of Gas for an hour's pay. A Minimum Wage Worker today couldn't even get two!
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I have said something like this recently ..... sometimes I had more money back then (and not a good paying job) - then I do now .... Much of that does have to do with ...... what does an hour of work buy? The cost of SO many things have gone up greater than earnings. I should be going forward ..... not backwards
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I ponder that everyday. Look at the price of groceries! It's basically reached a point where we work to eat. Hopefully sooner than later, gas and oil will be replaced with more environmental/economically efficient means, society will readjust, business will become more local, our planet will be able to breathe, and we'll be able to live beyond the bare necessities again. I'm 30 and I don't know anyone my age that can even come close to affording a house. It's ridiculous. $400,000 for a house? Really? Damn credit and banks. Give me some land and let me build my own, including a huge garden that will feed my family.
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It is telling that the price of Gasoline/Diesel and the price of groceries IS NOT counted when "they" figure inflation. Why the hell not?!?!? I've known a few who got by without cars (I'm currently one of them), but I've NEVER known anybody who could get by without eating!
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===Check out the relative buying power of minimum wage in the u.s. through the years. Note 1967-69...when The Beatles were at their peak, and the long stretch of $5.15 an hour at the turn of the millenium... http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774473.html
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SurSteven:
===Check out the relative buying power of minimum wage in the u.s. through the years. Note 1967-69...when The Beatles were at their peak, and the long stretch of $5.15 an hour at the turn of the millenium... http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774473.html
Pretty damn telling! It would be a LOT worse if the price of Gas/Diesel and the price of Food was included in the Inflation calculations.
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Even though ive only lived 14 years i have done reearch and i have found it is crazy that it was much cheaper to do things in like the 60s 70s and even sometimes the 80s and also my grandparents and even my parents have told me about this
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Altanon:
Nobody can argue that pretty much everything except wages has increased in price since 1976. The other day I did some remembering and some checking and some calculating and came up with this: My first job as a Welder in 1976 paid 18 bucks an hour, and Gasoline was about 60¢ a gallon. Therefore, I could buy about 30 gallons of Gas for one hour's pay. If I was lucky enough to land a job paying 18 an hour now (I'm not even getting ten dollar an hour offers), I'd have to work almost a whole day for that same 30 gallons of Gas. At Minimum Wage, I'd have to work two days for the 30 gallons. And Housing Prices are even worse!
And yet another reason why we need a fairer and more constantly balanced economy for everyone.
