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 Replies: 10 / Views: 2,548 |
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Valued Member
South Africa
331 Posts |
Hi guys I know this is off topic
But I was wondering if anyone can help me.
I am researching the cost of living in America
From 1800 to 1950
Like the prices on food, ex bread
Housing, wages per month.
Basically the cost of everything in those days.
Can someone help please?
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
955 Posts |
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Valued Member
 South Africa
331 Posts |
Thanks I will have a look!
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
4591 Posts |
The typical way is to define a basket of goods and services and track that over time. Staples like bacon, flour, having a horse shoed, the horse, etc.
-----Burton 50+ year / Life / Emeritus ANA member (joined 12/1/1973) Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, EveryCountry (online) coin club Owned by three cats and a wife of 40+ years (joined 1983) Author: 3rd Edition of the Sample Slabs book, https://www.sampleslabs.info/ |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
So called cost of living calculators are as useful as gun without bullets. Usually governments make up such things and are usually just a bunch of guesses. For example almost every year the US Government sends out a statement on Social Security saying no increase due to no cost of living increase. Yet as anyone can tell you, everything, and I mean everything has gone up. Yes car gasoline prices have come down lately but from what? They sky rocketed over the years so now slowly getting back to normal. Usually the people that make cost of living calculators do not really know.
Not sure about the 1800's but in the 1930's and 40's, a loaf of bread was about $0.10. By the 50's, a loaf of bread was still less than a dollar. Not really sure but I think the cost of living went up real slow from the 1800's to the 1900's. Then as the government grew, the cost of living went up, up, up.
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Valued Member
South Africa
331 Posts |
Thanks Carl The thing is I am very interested in American prices I have a few old US coins and just thinking how much a Morgan dollar actually was in that time, how much you could buy with it |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1314 Posts |
Just_carl is correct. If the government is compiling the statistics, it is often to their benefit to omit the items that have increased in value, so as to reduce the appearance of inflation and avoid paying higher wages and benefits. Another approach would be to look at the wages paid for common labor over the years.
Interesting question.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6130 Posts |
The world was so changed by the industrial revolution, then by the advent of rapid transportation and the global marketplace that such comparisons would be meaningless. You can't really express the cost of a dozen eggs in terms of a day's wages for a factory worker in 1916, because chickens were not yet subsidized by the government, and factory workers lived much like the Chinese sweatshop workers live today. This is also when fresh fruit would have been a major luxury, and a custom-tailored suit a necessity.
And what about the early to mid 1800s, where almost everyone west of the Mississippi lived off the land? What is the cost of living on a plot of land you stole from a native American tribe, in a cabin you built yourself, eating the food you hunt, using a rifle that you bought for $5?
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Valued Member
South Africa
331 Posts |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
About the only reasonable estimate I have ever been able to come up with is the average annual wages of the semi-skilled or unskilled worker compared to todays average wage for semi-skilled or unskilled labor. The reason is because the average wage can be seen as what was needed to get by. Not to have a lot of luxuries, but to keep a roof over your head, and keep yourself fed.
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Valued Member
South Africa
331 Posts |
Yeah I saw
Like the trans continental workers got $1
a day, imagine how hard those guys worked for that!
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Replies: 10 / Views: 2,548 |
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Posted 04/12/2016 03:09 am
