Monday, May 19, 2008
Inflation
Somehow I surfed to an early episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show from the early 1970s. Apart from the clothing, the prices date the show. Mary's rent, for that beautiful apartment in Minneapolis: $125 per month. Rhoda's rent in the same building: $87.50. A visit from the plumber to fix a faucet: $28.50. Assuming that these prices were plausible, plumbers did pretty well back then, earning around a week's rent on a nice apartment in one housecall. Do they still earn that much?
5 Comments:
By 
, at
Mon May 19, 11:51:00 PM:
You know, she could take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile.
I think that nowadays, it would be a lot more expensive to make a nothing day seem more worthwhile.
-David
By 
Purple Avenger, at
Mon May 19, 11:55:00 PM:
$650 for a new water heater is typical here in south FL.
$150-200 for the unit at a plumbing distributor and ~two hours labor (maybe only an hour if someone fitted two ball valves to the incoming pipes and you don't need to screw around with dribbles while soldering)
By , at
Tue May 20, 11:30:00 AM:
My plumber just charged $96/hr, but he rounded down. Didn't charge for about 10 minutes of work and five minutes for writing the bill. I was pleased. Edmond, Oklahoma
Kent Gatewood
By GreenmanTim, at
Tue May 20, 11:47:00 PM:
$1.00 in 1972 had about the same buying power as $5.14 in 2008.
Annual inflation over this period was about 4.65%.
By that token, the plumber is cheaper today (MTM's plummer charged the equivalent of $146 and change in today's dollars).
Her apartment was still a steal.
By , at
Wed May 21, 03:18:00 PM:
Have you ever read REMEINICE a magazine the post some of the old prices for back in the past like gasoline at 25 cents or 15 cents or in one a six poll pack of toilet paper for 25 cents or three can of CAMPBELLS TOMATO SOUP for 20 cents
