cost of living increase question

[HFWR]

Found in my hs yearbook from 1971:

What's it cost? (entries are mine)

Movies - $1.00-$1.50
Gas - Regular $0.349, "Ethyl" $0.379 (and they pumped the gas, checked the oil, and cleaned your windshield)
Shirt - $8.00
Shoes - $20.00
Tie - $5.00
Suit - $80.00
Burger - $0.45
Shake - $0.40
45rpm - $0.88
LP - $6.00

I pumped gas in summer of '71 for $1.25 hr; minimum wage was ~$1.65.

Too lazy to calculcate prices in today's dollars, although I note that song downloads from Walmart are $0.88...

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Yes you were Laurence.

You just don't like me.

None of us like you. We dont like laurence either. In fact, since the baby woke up wailing at 3am and didnt go back to sleep until 7, I defy you to find ANYONE that I like right now

 

[charlie]

Thanks, TH. I understand your computer example now. It just seems
a little odd to me to rag on PC's when they are not contributing to
absolute inflation at all. On the contrary, the price of all electronics
has been getting cheaper since the invention of the transistor.
Can't say the same for most everything else.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Just an example in an area i'm familiar with Charlie. As I mentioned in the first instance (somewhere), I used to attempt to explain why faster pc's were worth spending more money on for a living. It was dicey. I'm not sure I can make a case now why 3GHz is better than 2 for the average joe. I sure as sh*t wouldnt try to include such a figure into a calculation that results in people getting a lower social security or ibond payment because their computer is better. Even if its just a little.

Given that I can say with some personal authority that such an adjustment to the computer is unlikely to be valid, that calls into question the other 'adjustments'.

 

[Martha]

P.E. -
One thing you might monitor is the feds' effort to create a national market for health insurance, doing away with the state by state B.S. I also live in NY and I think it's pretty awful that we still don't have high deductible plans here.

My big worry is that if there is more of a national market for health insurance plans, then maybe Minnesota will drop or modify its risk pool. Right now it has the cheapest risk pool of any state and has the greatest participation. I don't want the rest of the states dragging us down.

And as the WSJ article mentioned, there is an effort by insurers to obtain business more business from the healthy. Lot of people left out, especially if as stated in the article, people are uninsurable just because they used to have sinus infections or they take an antidepressant.

 

[MJ]

My big worry is that if there is more of a national market for health insurance plans, then maybe Minnesota will drop or modify its risk pool. Right now it has the cheapest risk pool of any state and has the greatest participation. I don't want the rest of the states dragging us down.

Martha,

I guess we could all move to Minnesota. Wink Wink