one more illustration of income - real disposable income.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DSPIC96
(this is already adjusted for inflation). The idea of having a bunch of excess income to play with in the first place is relatively recent. I may expose myself here - but I like guitars - I have 25 of them. I made 7 of them. How is that possible? They're mostly used and disposable income combined with automation in manufacture makes them often the price of a few expensive dinners.
What about guitaring in the late 1950s? Gibson sold something like 150 1959 les paul standards. I could be off by a factor of two. You'd have needed to be well to do to afford one in a first place, and what was available at low cost was junk (like guitars with bent wood tops to not pay for solid wood, or guitars that had tops made of thick rotary sawn veneer instead of dried spruce).
The average person now can get a les paul standard if they want one. In the 1950s, it would've cost more than the average household income for the year. For one guitar.
What's not changed over time? I was born in the 1970s - i vaguely recall the very tail end as a kid because its when I was 3 or 4 years old and started hearing how bad things were becoming. How high prices for everything were, all the while, more cars per household each year, nicer cars, more eating out at restaurants, more TVs, more cable....all the way along.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DSPIC96
(this is already adjusted for inflation). The idea of having a bunch of excess income to play with in the first place is relatively recent. I may expose myself here - but I like guitars - I have 25 of them. I made 7 of them. How is that possible? They're mostly used and disposable income combined with automation in manufacture makes them often the price of a few expensive dinners.
What about guitaring in the late 1950s? Gibson sold something like 150 1959 les paul standards. I could be off by a factor of two. You'd have needed to be well to do to afford one in a first place, and what was available at low cost was junk (like guitars with bent wood tops to not pay for solid wood, or guitars that had tops made of thick rotary sawn veneer instead of dried spruce).
The average person now can get a les paul standard if they want one. In the 1950s, it would've cost more than the average household income for the year. For one guitar.
What's not changed over time? I was born in the 1970s - i vaguely recall the very tail end as a kid because its when I was 3 or 4 years old and started hearing how bad things were becoming. How high prices for everything were, all the while, more cars per household each year, nicer cars, more eating out at restaurants, more TVs, more cable....all the way along.
