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Gold/Mining/Energy : Big Dog's Boom Boom Room -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bearcatbob who wrote (145027)	2/11/2011 9:39:10 PM
From: russet	1 Recommendation Respond to of 206359

The discussion has now progressed to what the U.S. salary in 1970 would buy compared to what the equivalent inflated salary now would buy, not on the U.S. dollar purchasing power over time. Unfortunately the U.S. is a bad example as they have benefitted greatly from technology and manufacturing efficiency gains that most people in the world haven't yet. As raw material prices catch up to where they should have been had all the world made the gains the U.S. has made over the last 100 years, we may soon catch a glimpse of an average world citizen gain. Welcome to the next 30 years. Some will give up, some will gain. Wonder what the average salary for a Chinese or Indian Chem E is right now? Probably less than the U.S. average minimum wage.

To: Bearcatbob who wrote (145027)	2/11/2011 11:13:06 PM
From: Sweet Ol	2 Recommendations Respond to of 206359

BC, eyeballing Russet's graph of the declining dollar with my trusty ruler it appears that it has gone down about 83% in the same time ChE starting salaries have gone up 80% or so. Therefore I conclude that salaries for ChEs have probably kept pace with inflation of the buck. But, we have to look at the hedonics. In 1970 a small computer cost $100,000 and one comparable to the $500 one I recently bought could not be had at any price. Color TV's were starting to get popular and today a much larger flat screen is about the same price. Cars have gone up at least 500% but they last 3 times as long, are far safer and more comfortable and get at least twice the gas mileage. Regular gas was $0.25 and the good old tetraethyl lead gave it 88 octane. Today you are lucky to get 80 octane and the ethanol in it eats up your seals and soaks up water like a sponge. So, I would guess it is about a push on the living standards. However, the quality of civilization has gone way down. In 1970 we laughed til our sides hurt at Bob Hope, Jack Benny and Johnny Carson. Tonight we will cringe when we listen to Leno and Letterman. We were just learning what "drugs" were here in fly-over country. They sold bomb shelters for your back yard because Russia might drop and A-bomb on us, but illegal aliens were little green men from Mars. It is a good thing it almost the weekend or Big Dog would be growling at me for all this OT stuff. Best to all, JRH P.S. Oh yes, POO was about $5 and I can't remember if we still had import quotas but the Texas Railroad Commission was still setting "allowables" and was far more important than OPEC. See, BD, I got back on topic!

To: Bearcatbob who wrote (145027)	2/12/2011 9:49:43 AM
From: Big Dog	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 206359

Yes, but back then he could buy a 25-inch color television for about $600. Take that same money and compare the TV he can buy today with the one he bought "back then". Maybe there is a name for it...maybe technology inflation. A "standard" TV costs about the same as it ever has, but you get lots more bang for the buck. The same yard stick could be applied to many things...most things. How do you measure that, in general? And since it's Saturday...Why does it cost, say $100, to rent a tuxedo for a day+ that cost the store maybe $500-ish, yet it only runs about $40/day to rent an automobile that costs the store maybe $30,000? Is the tux business that good, or is the car rental business that bad? big