Replies

1. 
   RickL | Jan 30, 2009 04:50pm | #1

   Tools are actually cheaper than they were 30 years ago and more options are out there. Mostly due to the imports but back then the table saw choices were Craftsman, PM or Delta.  Yet folks are still complaining about prices.  They don't have a clue.

1. 
   WillGeorge | Jan 30, 2009 05:08pm | #2

   Tools are actually cheaper than they were 30 years ago..

   I think that is what I posted? The prices in the link... as in man powered.. were EXPENSIVE! For the time...

   Edited 1/30/2009 9:08 am by WillGeorge

2. 
   oldusty | Jan 30, 2009 06:10pm | #3

       This price tag came with a batch of misc stuff .

              I'd have to look but I think it was from the forties .

                           dusty

   
3. 
   chuckh | Jan 30, 2009 08:22pm | #4

   That lathe would sell for about $780.00 today.  We do have it good.

   -Chuck

1. 
   WillGeorge | Jan 31, 2009 09:36pm | #5

   Thanks.. Not that bad these days with a electric motor!

4. 
   Tinkerer3 | Feb 01, 2009 02:56am | #6

   My grandmother came from Sweden about about 1888.  She got a job as a maid in a home for (i think) about $4.50 plus board and room per six day week.  It would take a while to save up enough to buy that lathe.  I notice that the description says it is comfortable to operate.  My legs would say "no more" in about sixty seconds.

1. 
   Thorvald | Feb 03, 2009 09:07am | #7

   Ok, Tink, who's playing the Scandanavian card now? 

   I'm going to fess-up and admit to my Economics degree -- which means I have a propensity for looking at things every whichway.  A lathe like mine, which is about eighteen years old now, would run about $2,800 today; it would cost you about $123 in 1885.  ChuckH has it right -- the 1885 $35 machine would run you about $780 today.  Now the gotcha -- Tinkerer's Grandmother was making $4.50 for a six day week, or a bit less than ten cents an hour if those were eight hour days.  Throw in room and board (and keep in mind that she wasn't paying for insurance, etc., etc.) and you could call it a bit more than that -- let's be generous and call it fifteen cents an hour with all the extras.  In today's market, that would be about $3.42 an hour, or nearly 23 times her adjusted wage.  Today's minimum wage is $6.55 an hour, or nearly 44 times what Tink's Grandma was making.  If my machine cost $123 in 1885, escalated in relation to her wage (let's call it minimum wage circa 1885) to today's minimum wage, it would cost about $5400.  I'd say we're doing pretty good with regard to machine prices.  Verne

   If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to cut it up and make something with it . . . what a waste!<!----><!----><!---->

1. 
   Tinkerer3 | Feb 03, 2009 07:16pm | #8

   Uh, let's see.  Could you put that in plain English?  No, that is interesting.  We live in a different world.  I would like to build a grandfather clock this year.  I understand that in colonial days that you could buy a farm for the price of a GFC.

     My degree was in agronomy.  Could we strew a little hay on the subject.

1. 
   WillGeorge | Feb 04, 2009 12:10pm | #9

   Could you put that in plain English? 

   I would say there is no such thing as "Could you put that in plain English?"

   My opinion only.. My major was English (not spelling) and never lernt me to type or talk in 'plain' English.. I would say there is no such thing! A very flexible language in my opinion. Many times gets us in trouble. We say or type things that others see as something else.

   EDIT:

   Like in a recent post I made that said something like .. I'd get her tools and let her 'fix' me.. Somebody thought it was a statement about Sex.. It was not. I just saw tools and thought of 'fix'.. I have many problem that a woman may want to fix!

   English takes to many words to describe what you really were thinking of!

   Edited 2/4/2009 7:38 am by WillGeorge

1. 
   Tinkerer3 | Feb 05, 2009 03:34am | #10

   Well of course you are right.  The point was that he was pretty involved in economics -  Not my specialty. and I would probably need a course in economics to really understand him.  If I had understood the subject, I'd have had no problem following him.

   Anyway, He lernt me all he node and I still don no nuthin.

   Edited 2/4/2009 7:36 pm ET by Tinkerer3

2. 
   Thorvald | Feb 06, 2009 08:16am | #11

   Sorry if I made that too confusing -- seemed pretty straightforward to me, but that's often the way it goes when I get carried away.  The long and the short of it is that the minimum wage has grown substantially faster than the price of some tools since 1885.  That means, if the trend continues, by the time I'm 127 years old, I'll be able to afford some really neat stuff -- assuming that I'm still working. 

   The part that confuses me is what WillGeorge means by "fix."  I'll have to admit that I never did truly understand any English major I've run across.  My failure I'm sure, but they always seem to be talking about one thing, and all the sudden, it turns into something else.  I Guess that's why there are so many choices in the college catalogs -- almost as many as the tool catalogs!!

   (BTW Will, if you're poking fun at my spelling or typing, knock yourself out -- I'm not proud of either of them ;) Verne

   If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to cut it up and make something with it . . . what a waste!<!----><!----><!---->

3. 
   WillGeorge | Feb 06, 2009 01:40pm | #12

   Will, if you're poking fun at my spelling or typing....

   Never. I was poking fun at myself for doing it all the time.

   Have a great day!