The Cost-of-Living Calculator.
August 14, 2002 9:57 PM   Subscribe

The Cost-of-Living Calculator.
posted by swift (18 comments total)
 
This link seems a little underwhelming, especially on a day where there's 30+ new threads. But I like the "no negative bucks allowed" touch.
posted by gluechunk at 10:14 PM on August 14, 2002


Yeah no doubt. I'd like a calculator to figure out exactly how much it costs me to live. But I guess it doesn't matter, because (and don't ask me how I did it) according to my bank account statement, I earn more than enough to live.
posted by sillygwailo at 10:49 PM on August 14, 2002


According to mine, I make the perfect amount. I'm right on the money.
posted by Witty at 10:53 PM on August 14, 2002


That's just depressing.
posted by mogwai at 10:56 PM on August 14, 2002


I have always used these at homefair.com. It really helps when you need to see if you can live on $20k less in a new city.

Boxofficemojo also shows you how much movies made in today's dollars and compares them to the "hits" of today. There are a lot of really old movies in the top 10 all time list.
posted by sciatica at 12:20 AM on August 15, 2002


Is this a troll?
posted by Postroad at 4:05 AM on August 15, 2002


Pretty Sweet!
posted by juicyraoul at 4:34 AM on August 15, 2002


When I was young we had to walk to school in the snow and money still had some value. Heck, a measly $13.61 gave you the same buying power as a hunderd bucks today.

I mean, think of it, you could have bought an iPod for less than $14 in 1950.

(Watch out: sarcasm! Buying power is a flawed term in this case, unless it refers to the power to buy starch and cast iron furniture).
posted by thijsk at 5:02 AM on August 15, 2002


(I messed up - iPods are actually $299. Well, you get the gist of it)
posted by thijsk at 5:07 AM on August 15, 2002


Sorry everyone's crapping all over this. I think it's pretty cool to look at what things cost back then, and see if they're cheaper or not now. For instance, Babe Ruth made $80,000 in 1931. In today's dollars, that's = $932,105.26.

Compare your parents' inflation-adjusted housing costs/salaries to yours today. And music is a lot cheaper, too. If you paid USD$5.98 for an LP in 1974, that's $21.48 in today's dollars. Today a CD is about half that, and a hard drive full of MP3s is...nothing.

Also, if you've soured on the stock market, maybe you should be in a canoe. They've outperformed equities over the past 90 years or so.
posted by luser at 6:16 AM on August 15, 2002


If you paid USD$5.98 for an LP in 1974, that's $21.48 in today's dollars. Today a CD is about half that

I wonder what CDs you're buying! When I go music shopping, a $15 CD is normal, and it's not too unusual to find stickers reading $18 or $19. I guess $10 would get you a single, if you could find one...
posted by Mars Saxman at 7:08 AM on August 15, 2002


That's scary...I clicked on the link, and my salary appeared in the first blank. (cue Twilight Zone music...)
posted by byort at 7:29 AM on August 15, 2002


You can also find an inflation calculator at the home page of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And there are other ones here, here and here.
posted by pmurray63 at 7:50 AM on August 15, 2002


Oh hell, the last one in my post was the same as the original FPP. DOH!
posted by pmurray63 at 7:51 AM on August 15, 2002


Compare 1920 to 1933 to see why Grandpappy used to complain so much.

Then compare 1973 to 1981 to see why Mom and Dad used to complain so much (and by contrast: 1994 to 2002).
posted by rory at 8:36 AM on August 15, 2002


Don't forget to flip the years to easily compute that if your current (2002) salary is $250K, you would be making a little under $14K in 1913...
posted by Ms.JaneDoe at 8:41 AM on August 15, 2002


Boxofficemojo also shows you how much movies made in today's dollars and compares them to the "hits" of today. There are a lot of really old movies in the top 10 all time list.

Unfortunately, they only adjust for the average price of a movie ticket, which doesn't track well with the overall value of currency. For instance, right now, ticket prices are unusually high, because exhibitors have spent bundles over the last five years or so building 20+ screen megaplexes with stadium seating, and they want a return on that investment. The overall value of a dollar hasn't dropped like a rock since 1995, but you would think it had based on the change in the average cost of a movie ticket since then. So the "adjusted" numbers there actually translate to a film's total number of admissions, rather than its earning power.
posted by hilker at 9:42 AM on August 15, 2002


I guess $10 would get you a single, if you could find one...

In some places -- Fry's Electronics comes to mind -- many new albums are indeed priced in the $11.88 to $13.88 range. Not quite half of $21.48, but in the same general ballpark. (Though my local CD shop seems to charge $18 across the board on everything, so I can definitely sympathize.)
posted by youhas at 3:17 PM on August 15, 2002


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