Saddest O of the Week

[Tim Keenan & Rebecca Counts]

THEOFONE wrote:
        The Consumer Price Index was re-vamped in 1967 with that year
> having a value of 1. In the following 30 years, this figure has risen to
> between 6.75 to 7.2.
> What this means is that what you paid $1 for in 1967 will cost you $7 in
> 1997!!!!!!!

That's the problem with statistics--you can make them say anything.  I 
believe the CPI is based on a given group of consumer items, mostly 
foodstuffs and other things that get used up.  Compare the first 
electronic calculators from about 1970 (around $150) which did your basic 
4 functions to the same thing today--they give them away with magazine 
subscriptions, and they would cost about 4.95 if anyone sold them.  How 
about a watch that was accurate to 1 second/day?  In Canadian dollars, 
worth about $.68 US, today, such a watch might cost $30.  In 1967 it 
would have cost $1000 (and the Canadian dollar was worth $1.07)  My 
father made about 14,000/year in 67, and was pretty well paid as a major 
in the armed forces.  Our house was worth about 25,000, and it was a 3 
bedroom bungalow.  Our 66 Chevy Biscayne cost 2400.  An equivalent car 
today would cost about 10x as much in Canada, and an equivalent house in 
most places about 6 or 7 times.  An equivalent rate of pay for a major in 
the armed forces, on the other hand, is probably 4 times as much.

Tim Keenan
Noteworthy Piano Service
Terrace, BC