Re: [ARSCLIST] 78s relatively inexpensive? I disagree (was Victor film)

[Mike Richter <mrichter@xxxxxxx>]

At 01:17 PM 3/18/2004 -0500, Art Shifrin wrote:
> Based on housing prices here in NYC, a late 30's early 40's record buyer of
> top line merchandise paid disproportionately much more than we do now.  Our
> house was built in 1940.  Absurdly,  resale value of houses here in Fresh
> Meadows are now 70 times that of when they were sold new.

Housing involves supply/demand factors which make it a poor guide for
effects of inflation.

> A much less  extreme comparitive (and less localized) basis is first class
> domestic mail: 3 cents in 1940, 37 cents now.

That's a more reasonable yardstick and is consistent with the price of a
loaf of bread, for example.

> So I assume that the REAL inflation factor is somewhere between 12 and 70,
> and that means that even budget 78s at the time the film was made were
> expensive.

According to
>
http://www.newsengin.com/neFreeTools.nsf/083c35bcd0562e26862565af0057ad64/15c3b459caca08b285256d4c0001e6f2?OpenDocument

  http://tinyurl.com/239ze

One dollar in 1940 (New York and environs) was equivalent to $13.44 there
in 2003.

One way to look at this is that the kids complain about the CDs published
with only one or two tracks worth hearing. Since two sides would have cost
about $1 in 1940 - hmmm, not much has changed. <G>


Mike
--
mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/