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Originally Posted by Carmine
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That isn't a good metric. Try this one, instead. It uses a basket of indicators (labor, housing, commodities, etc.) to form an accurate valuation:
http://www.measuringworth.com/uscomp...ativevalue.php
For example, using your example of a $600 TV price from 1950:
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In 2014, the relative value of $600.00 from 1950 ranges from $4,730.00 to $34,800.00.
A simple Purchasing Power Calculator would say the relative value is $5,900.00. This answer is obtained by multiplying $600 by the percentage increase in the CPI from 1950 to 2014.
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The further back in time one goes, the more obvious the inflation is:
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Originally Posted by Carmine
If you extrapolate Henry Ford's famous $5 per day wage (1914!) into 5 days a week x 52 (they actually worked 6 days back then) it equates to $1300 annually. That's 46-years removed from 1960.
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Errr, that isn't correct. Can't be. Again, using the above calculator:
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In 2014, the relative value of $5.00 from 1914 ranges from $88.00 to $2,360.00.
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My point about wages wasn't this:
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Originally Posted by Carmine
Granted, these were probably the best industrial wages in the US, but hardly paying more than an EE PhD circa 1960. An average new car in 1960 was probably $2500, less than a year's wage. If today's average car is $30k, it's still well under a year's wages for the average autoworker.
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But to compare the relative power of highly trained and educated people who bought the fancy TVs and HiFis of the 1950s and 1960s.
That was my point. We can easily extrapolate just back-of-the-envelope, and the better calculators show the severe devaluation of the currency, even if it does not yet rise to Weimar Republic levels.