We did the same thing as Vincent Lyon from Boston says: We are working on an
exhibition about a great road built across the Alps in 1930 - 1935.
We show a table with different goods (in Austria):
Milk: 18 times more money 1932 and a fourth of work now: from 32 min. down
to 8 minutes working per litre
Beef: 33,6 times more money then, but only half the working time
Contrast: rent: 250 times more money TODAY and 3,6 more working time TODAY!
then bread, cigarette, railroad from Vienna to Salzburg etc.
and their value in Schillings, but also, how long a pavement-worker had to
work for it then and now.
These differences show also the different value and behaviour of these
times.
Of course, we also give the difference of the consumer-basket as calculated
by the official department of statistics.
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-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Vincent Lyon & Vivianne Holt <[log in to unmask]>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.museum-l
An: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Datum: Donnerstag, 8. Juli 1999 17:07
Betreff: Re: dollars then and now
>The problem of translating value then to value now is a big one. The Paul
>Revere house in Boston MA has a wonderful plack describing the difficulty.
>I cannot quote it here, but I can give an example from my own experience.
A
>solid pine table now would probably cost a couple hundred dollars. A
copper
>sauce pan would be between 20 and 30 (depending on location of course).
>After hours of pouring over inventories from probate court ca. 1790 Boston,
>I found a solid pine table then cost about $4, while a copper pot or sauce
>pan cost around $15. You could say a dollar is worth 1/2 what it was then,
>or 1/60 depending on what you were buying. Another way of doing it would
be
>to calculate labor costs for certain professionals. However, how much does
>a farrier earn these days? Many professions either no longer exist or are
>nearly unrecognizable as the same. Heck, my father's career no longer
>exists. Skills he spent many years developing are now done completely on
>computer. I think one of the best things to do would be as Paul Revere
>house does and explain that it is a practically impossible task, or else
>state how long a worker in that field would have had to work in order to
buy
>whatever it is you are describing (as done at the Winchester Mystery House
>in San Jose CA).
>Vincent Lyon
>
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