1975 Dollars (was RE: State of the Hobby)

From: Christian Fandt <cfandt_at_netsync.net>
Date: Mon Jul 5 19:17:22 1999

Upon the date 03:19 PM 7/5/99 +0000, Lawrence Walker said something like:
>On 2 Jul 99 at 21:01, Christian Fandt wrote:
>
>> Upon the date 11:10 AM 7/1/99 -0700, Kai Kaltenbach said something like:
>> >I grabbed the Consumer Price Index history off the web, pasted into Excel,

   -- snip --
>> >At 11:02 AM 7/1/99 -0600, you (somebody else, that is... -crf) wrote:
>> >>
>> >>In a recent auction on eBay, a MITS Floppy Disk Drive was auctioned off at
>> >>$565. "WOW!" you may say, but that unit cost $1300 when new, and that was
>> >>in dollars that were a DOLLAR, and not just the price of a candy bar.
>> >
>> >I suppose there must be a web site, somewhere, that would let you enter
>> >a date and a US dollar amount, and would show you the equivalent value
>> >in today's dollars, accounting for actual inflation, etc. in the
>> >intervening years.
>>

>> Actually there is something that should give some sort of results you are
>> looking for. Here's a useful site I found quite awhile ago that is on the
>> Johnson Space Center server:
>>
>> http://krakatoa.jsc.nasa.gov/bu2/inflate.html and look at the "GDP
>> Deflator Inflation Calculator" link.
>>
>> I suppose it's a valuable tool to forecast project expenses into the future
>> as project development can last for many years in NASA.
>>
>> Regards, Chris
>> -- --
>
> Unfortunately, as you are likely aware of Chris, these price comparisons and
>dollar values don't really capture the market realities of the time. Not like
>when you were there. The going wage levels, at times inflated prices for some
>commodities, and rent,food prices, expectations, and cultural demands also
>played a role. Each era has it's "norm" demands and when I reflect back to
the
>40's and 50's our expectations and demands from that time make the present
>ones those that only the wealthy of that era could afford. Hollywood
>generally makes as bad a representation when they do their period pieces.

All this is understood well by most of us. The NASA calculator merely gives
a ballpark idea of the value of something in a particular year compared to
dollar value of another year.

Regards, Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA cfandt_at_netsync.net
Member of Antique Wireless Association
             Check our redesigned website!
        URL: http://www.antiquewireless.org/
Received on Mon Jul 05 1999 - 19:17:22 BST

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Oct 10 2014 - 23:32:11 BST