Do you ever find yourself longing for those good old day, when everything seemed so cheap? Or at least, everything seemed cheaper than today’s prices. Using old newspapers as often as I do, I am astonished to find grocery prices, clothing prices, and yes, gasoline prices so cheap.
But wait a minute. Were they really cheaper, or was our pocketbook thinner in the good old days? Wages and prices usually rise hand in hand. So I went to a couple of websites I sometimes use. The first one is Inflation Calculator of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It can be found at www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm. You simply enter a price from say 1915, the earlier year for comparison, and the current year or the year you wish to compare, click on calculate and Bingo! There are the price differences. I use this site frequently when I want to see the cost/value of something in today’s prices.
But let’s say you want to investigate inflation over the years. Go to Consumer Price Index at www.cpi.findthedata.com. Again the data is based on Bureau of Labor Statistics sources. But at this site you can get a better picture of prices in a specific year, say 1915. That year the inflation rate was 0.92% or 2.02 percentage points lower than the average of 2.9%. Between 1914 and 1915, the magnitude of price change was smaller than average. One big reason was that the United States was providing supplies to European countries involved in World War I and farming conditions were some of the best in years.
The Consumer Price Index in 1915 was about nine cents higher than in 1914. Goods and services costing $10.02 in 1914 would have cost $10.11 in 1915, thus a slightly higher profit for the seller. A better example is comparing a $50,000 salary today with a $2,148 salary in 1915. Today’s gift certificate of $100 would have been like $4.30 in 1915. So, the theory of a thinner pocketbook holds true.
Both sites are fun to look at. The Consumer Price Index gives more detailed numbers on a wide variety of foods, beverages, transportation, and other. Included in other are such items as college tuition and fees, televisions, and prescription drugs.
Now let’s look at some specific price equivalent between goods in 1915 and an average price today in the United States. In other words, we will adjust 1915 prices for inflation and see what happens. (All prices given per pound or dozen)
1915 Ad Price Adjusted Price Today’s Price
Pork Chops $0.125 $2.95 $3.99
Bacon $0.40 $9.45 $5.59
Peanut Butter $0.125 $2.95 $2.91
Eggs $0.27 $6.38 $2.11
Potatoes $0.10 $0.24 $0.67
Rice $0.42 $0.99 $0.69
Maybe things aren’t so bad today, after all.