A Century of Difference

[elfs]

Someone recently pointed me to a collection of statisics about what life was like in 1905, and one set struck me as interesting. The only valid comparison of prices between eras is the time-to-earn: how long does it take someone to earn the money to buy any given comparable product?

I started with this statistic, provided by the American Sociological Association: "a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year and worked an average of 57.7 hours/week." This translates to a figure of $1.67 per hour in 1905. You can go look up the current going rates yourself.

Here's what I discovered:

• It took him 86 seconds for a mechanical engineer to earn a pound of sugar. In 2005, it takes him 53 seconds.
• In 1905, it took him 5 minutes to earn a dozen eggs. In 2005, it takes him 70 seconds.
• It took 5 minutes, 25 seconds to earn a pound of coffee. In 2005, for a product of similar quality, it only takes 4 minutes, 33 seconds. For a gourmet coffee that simply was not available in 1905, 8 minutes and 15 seconds.
  
  And the most dramatic: In 1905, a three-minute phone call from New York to Denver: 6 hours, 35 minutes. Today, 34 seconds.

Comments

[tonyawinter.livejournal.com]

Wow, thats interesting stuff. I'd be interested to see it done for an unskilled worker too.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

It's also important to realize that the reduction in man-hour-costs is accompanied by an increase of 17.7 hours of lesiure time. When we talk about "poor" people, we have to remember that in 1905 only 18% of American households had a bathtub; today, less that 5% of American households lack for a television, and bathtubs even less.

[caprinus.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't be too sure of the 17.7 hour increase in leisure time. Many engineers work in jobs exempt from the 40 hr week; many engineers work overtime, often unpaid and otherwise un-comped; many engineers push themselves, or are pushed by management, to work quite insane hours which I am sure the federal bureau of labour statistics (or whatever it is that you have compiling this data) doesn't hear about. Of course my perception could well be warped by the sort of engineers I know -- a lot of software developers working 80 hour weeks :).

[tonyawinter.livejournal.com]

Please don't mistake me for someone who thinks the US has many truly poor people. I am simply curious to know what the same information would be for unskilled workers. I know they have better lives now then they did then, and certainly more opportunities for work and training if they are motivated enough.

[kavri.livejournal.com]

I would agree to this, in the sense if we say, compare the number of people (children included) actually dieing of starvation/malnutrition.

On the other hand, unfortunately, the idea that the poor are always in a postion to make the wise, spendthrift, logical purchases is still with us. One has to take into consideration things such as education, life skills, emotional/mental/physical health.

I say this, because sadly, many families may have a TV, and still have malnourished children.

Just something to think about.

[caprinus.livejournal.com]

Wonderful! If you plan on chipping at it a little longer, some comparisons I'd be fascinated by, if possible to make:

time-to-earn the cost of:
a) an engineer's education
b) an engineer's standard gear/office equipment
c) a horse with gear, "storage", and food for a year
d) a car (or whatever would pass for one back then) with "storage" and gas+oil for a year
e) a corset
f) a dozen eggs from free-range, grain-fed, organic hens
g) a tooth extraction

[duskwuff.livejournal.com]

Tooth extraction is probably more "expensive" now, because it's much more advanced. Much less painful, too.

Corset's probably gone up too, as well as a horse, because they're specialty items nowadays.

[caprinus.livejournal.com]

Of course, I expect this -- just as a phonecall or a car were specialty items then. I'm curious to see how far these specialties have advanced -- I expect the factor of increase for a hand-made corset or for a horse will STILL be less than for a phonecall or car "back then".

And you're right on the essential incomparability of what medical expenditure gets you, too. At least a tooth extraction remains relatively the same -- we can't even begin to cost something like "price of brain tumor removal", because in 1905 that price was infinite, give or take a bit. :)

[srmalloy.livejournal.com]

So for things that are largely dependent on the vagaries of nature -- growing sugar cane/sugar beets and coffee beans -- there are minor improvements in process, but things are mostly the same as they were. The more automation or mass production impacts production, the more the time cost falls (if you don't think eggs are a mass-production item, you've never seen (or smelled; that starts a couple miles downwind) a modern chicken farm.

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

Comparisons I'd like to see:
* how long it took to earn the money to pay his income taxes
* how long it took to earn the money to pay his property taxes
* how long it took to earn the money to buy a house

Income taxes

[(Anonymous)]

Well, in 1905, there was no such thing as federal income taxes -- that took an amendment to the Constitution (16th, passed in 1913). There were apparently wartime income taxes prior to that (actually, Wikipedia has a whole interesting article detailing the history of income taxes in the US and other countries).

-Malthus

Re: Income taxes

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

I'm actually quite aware of that. I was leading to a conclusion that today's worker (professional or otherwise) works many, many more hours to pay taxes and to provide himself with housing than the corresponding worker in 1905.