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Politics : Mainstream Politics and Economics -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Broken_Clock who wrote (54528)	10/6/2013 2:42:17 AM
From: Robohogs	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 85487

Machine processing power.

To: Broken_Clock who wrote (54528)

10/6/2013 1:39:43 PM

From: TimF

Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 85487

You got an answer from someone else and then tried to change the question.

You asked commonly purchased, not "commonly purchased by retirees" or necessary for surivial.

If you want something necessary. Food, and to a lesser extent clothing (both of which are also bought by retirees

Other answers to your original question. Cars (esp. if you adjust for the fact that a car today is a different item than a car in the past, more complex, more full of features, typically with a better power to weight ration, better handling, more reliable, smoother ride, less maintenance needed, etc.), computing power, long distance phone calls, portable communications, many other forms of communication, cameras, TVs, radios, consumer electronics of all types. etc.

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And then you have to consider the things that where not even available in the past, both the things that have been invented since then, and the things that existed but would be impossibly expensive or otherwise too difficult to obtain, that now we can get easily. What would have have to pay 100 years ago for fresh fruit out of season?

If you look at the things they bought then, well a lot of them are more than 20 times as expensive, but a lot of them aren't the things we buy now. They aren't the items that we can produce so much more efficiently, they might even be specialty items today.

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This doesn't directly relate to inflation adjustments but look at the percentage of our income over time to buy some things for example food

<img src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_otfwl2zc6Qc/SCu3bliEs_I/AAAAAAAAEiM/y-IBJ5S7GdM/s400/food.bmp"

mjperry.blogspot.com

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Also see

Christmas Shopping for a Laptop: 2000 vs. 2009
mjperry.blogspot.com

Christmas Shopping for a VCR/DVD: 1981 vs. 2009
mjperry.blogspot.com

Christmas Shopping for a TV: 1958 vs. 2009
mjperry.blogspot.com

Message 26448245

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From: TimF	4/9/2010 12:55:08 PM
To: KLP who wrote (358510)	of 542797

In years past and in the present, the basic staples and necessities are things to compare. No you have to compare everything. If your nominal income doubles, and the nominal price of necessities also doubles, while the nominal price of luxuries stays the same, you would be wealthier, but adjusting just for necessities would say that your real income is unchanged. Except for housing (which is an investment good as much as a consumption good and which is subject to bubbles, and to government intervention to raise prices) necessities make a smaller and part of what we spend. And housing isn't the same as housing in the past either, even if you adjust for the larger average size of today's houses, you still don't cover the differences. Houses today have to meet codes for things like fire resistance that they didn't have to 100 years ago. You also have modern appliances that often come as part of the houses cost, you have efficient heating (as opposed to say a fireplace), central air (as opposed to opening a window). One thing that makes inflation stats higher than they otherwise would be is that common purchase items that are cheap now, used to be luxuries and didn't get counted in the CPI until after they had most of their price drop. The expensive new item comes out, very few buy it, and it doesn't get counted, then it drops a lot (say VCRs going from $1000 to $200) and now it gets added, but its already had most of its price drop that never figured in to the CPI. ---------- Looking through these pages will give you a sense what it was like in 1895, when the average worker had to put in 16 hours to earn enough money to buy a hair brush or 260 hours for a one-speed bicycle. Yes. That's one of the best measures of how much richer we are now. We can buy many things for a lot less labor. Here is some more on that theme mjperry.blogspot.com mjperry.blogspot.com mjperry.blogspot.com Message 26449603

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chicagoboyz.net

coyoteblog.com