1955 prices. Just what the heck was an Oscar Meyer "morsel?"
I was having coffee with friends last week and a couple of us were whining about prices and how everything seems to be going up and up and up these days. One of my friends reminded us however that prices have always been going up.
She was right. Prices have been going up . . . forever. I remember my mother getting excited about whole chickens going on sale for 29¢ per pound back in the early 1970s because that’s what she had paid in the 1950s (she went out and bought 10 chickens to cut up and freeze). The average price per pound for chicken then was 79¢/pound. Not cut up chicken pieces or boneless, skinless breasts (which you couldn’t find anywhere) or boneless, skinless anything – whole chickens were 79¢ per pound, and you brought them home and cut them up yourself.
Just because things were cheaper didn’t mean they were better, either. Gasoline back in 1970 was 36¢/gallon, up from 28¢/gallon in 1952. That was for unleaded gas, burned in cars without pollution devices. I grew up in the Los Angeles area and remember going months without ever seeing the mountains that were less than 20 miles away, and days when I could barely breathe for all the smog in the air. Cigarettes cost 25¢ per pack, and anyone could get them right out of a vending machine. Many of the convenience or speciality foods we take for granted were unavailable, let alone the variety of foods we routinely find today. Brie cheese or a baguette? Good luck finding those.
Anyway, just for fun I looked up some prices for 1952:
- Bacon: 39¢/pound
- Apples: 39¢/2 pounds
- Coffee: 37¢/pound
- Medium eggs: 79¢/dozen
- White bread: 12¢/loaf
- Ground beef: 89¢/3 pounds (no wonder we ate so much of this!)
- Iceberg lettuce: 25¢/2 heads
- Turkey: 49¢/pound
A hamburger at McDonalds cost 15¢ compared to 30¢ at most other diners or restaurants. A slice of pie in a restaurant was 15¢ and a prime rib dinner could be had for $2.75.
By 1970, prices had gone up some (or gone down in some cases):
- Apples: 59¢/4 pounds
- Coffee: $1.90/pound
- Medium eggs: 25¢/dozen
- Bread: 25¢/loaf (that was for white bread.Other choices were pretty much limited to wheat or “brown,” rye, and sliced “French” or “Italian”)
- Jif peanut butter: 59¢
- Pot roast: 79¢/pound
- Lettuce: 10¢/head
- Bacon: 86¢/pound
Two lobster dinners could be enjoyed for $7.25, and a speciality salad (without meat) at a good restaurant could cost $3.95.
This is all not to say that I’m not ticked off about prices these days, and that people aren’t struggling to put food on the table. Food isn’t always better or healthier now, and sometimes we have too many choices and it’s confusing. I’m especially angry about rising gasoline prices since they have such an effect on the price of everything else. The current cost of a college education gives me palpitations. The difference though is that today prices seem to be rising faster than we can catch our breaths.
But, I remember similar complaints from my parents, and how my mother struggled to keep our family’s food costs in line even though both my parents had good, white-collar jobs. Inflation in the early 1970s was high, and gas prices soared during the oil embargo. Just because steak or gas was cheaper then didn’t mean it was affordable. But overall, it was easier, maybe because it was easier to stay employed or find work.
Still, the more things change, the more they stay the same . . . .
INteresting price comparisons. I certainly remember my parents grumbling about gas prices in the 70s, just like I was grumbling when the price of gas went up 40 cents a gallon this week. There isn’t much I can do about it except drive less and vote for people who support renewable energy sources. It does frustrate me that today’s cars get less mpg than the VW Rabbit my dad drove in the 70s (unless you can afford a Prius which I cannot and it isn’t a practical car for a climate where there is deep snow 5 months of the year anyway.)
Actually the price of college is way up compared to gas. Maybe cause its only a 5-6 year expense people are fine with it? Then there is interest on student loans in the years after further increasing the expense.
I think I’m going to time travel to the 70′s so I can enjoy a lobster dinner! Very interesting breakdown.
I think there’s a reason they call inflation the “opiate of the masses” because people get so focused on how much money they make, that they forget how much the prices go up simultaneously! I read somewhere that if the minimum wage during the 1950′s was adjusted so it had the same buying power today, it would be well over $20/hour! I fear a rant coming on about corporate power and distribution of wealth, so I’ll change the subject now…
I know that Wall St. speculators and fears about Iran are largely responsible for the current spike in gas prices, but I don’t think we’re ever gonna see prices below $3/gallon again. And if you believe the Peak Oil Armageddon folks, which I’m not sure if I do or not, we should all be expecting the prices of everything in our oil dependent world to start soaring within the next 10 years or so. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see how it all pans out, but somehow I have the hunch that things are gonna look very different 30 years from now.
I think it was easier then because more people lived within their means and these days people feel they “deserve” certain things even if they can’t really afford them.
I agree – I don’t think there was the huge explosion (yet) of easy credit, but I do think many of the kids of that era grew up with way more than their parents, and were used to having and getting a lot of stuff which fueled the overspending when they were adults.
You can use this site to see how the price changes compare to inflation over the same period: http://www.westegg.com/inflation/. I have a lot of fun with this site.
Oh, I am going to have a whole lot of fun with this site as well! Thanks for the link.
The most interesting figure I’ve plugged in so far was what my parents paid for my freshman year of college, including room and board. The total was something like $4100, which in 2010 dollars was $22,600. I know for a fact that the cost of attending that college with room and board in 2010 was closer to $40K instead of $22K. It’s no wonder I get palpitations when I think of what it’s going to cost to get our three girls a college education.