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I wouldn't say America was cheap back then. Prices were lower at that time. By today's standards, those things that cost much more now would be easy to get in that day.
Yes it was cheap. Gold standard baby, kept a lid on inflation and limited government how much it could print. In the 60's they cheated printing and countries were exporting the gold we had and our government shut the gold standard.
Now they are printing like hell and inflation is transferring our purchasing power out of the dollar to banks and government.
Yes it was cheap. Gold standard baby, kept a lid on inflation and limited government how much it could print. In the 60's they cheated printing and countries were exporting the gold we had and our government shut the gold standard.
Now they are printing like hell and inflation is transferring our purchasing power out of the dollar to banks and government.
simple as that.
I could be wrong, but I think I remember learning Vietnam, and the debt we racked up to pay for it as being the reason we had to abandon the gold standard.
My experiences were different. I grew up in Louisiana and then New Mexico. Many of us were poor and came from large families. My parents struggled to make a living and I later struggled financially to get through college and find good jobs. There were lots of other baby boomers to compete against. I also remember making only a $1 and later $1.25 at my high school job and saving the money to buy a car and for college. Perhaps employers were allowed to pay less than minimum wage to students. Thank goodness for the National Defense Student Loan program as my loans and part time jobs got me through college. Things may have been less expensive than today but in my family (and my friend's families), you were expected to leave home after high school and pay your own way as you were now an adult.
But I agree with you about the freedom and the consumerism. The 70's were much less materialistic. And kids were not so overprotected and constantly monitored and coddled. On the other hand, it seemed that more young people died or were hurt in car crashes and other accidents. In grade school especially, we were less tolerant of those who were "different": minorities, the handicapped, gays, those with learning disorders, nerds, etc. And girls were often treated unfairly compared to boys. I'm glad I grew up then, and not now, but there were some cons.
It wasn't so much that people were less materialistic but there was just less stuff to get.
People still bragged about getting a color TV (the price of which today is a fraction in both dollar amount and real terms compared to then), A/C was a high cost option on cars, as were power windows and cars even had a radio delete option. Levi's were the jeans fashion statement. Nike was still selling to organizations, although that changed in the mid-70's (I've been Nike shod ever since).
Wood floors were the mark of poor people and wall to wall carpeting was the new hot lick.
I could be wrong, but I think I remember learning Vietnam, and the debt we racked up to pay for it as being the reason we had to abandon the gold standard.
There were the twin debts of Vietnam and the Great Society, but that wasn't it. The debt was manageable.
The real problem was that America's post-WWII global industrial supremacy ended as Japan and Europe finally recovered from the war and became real industrial competition again.
But I wouldn't deny the possibility of high-level shenanigans from bankers in the the Fed.
As someone mentioned, the 70s was the height of suburban flight. I lived on the edge of "ghettos" in a number of cities. mugged twice a gunpoint - had several house mates who got raped. But it was cheap. In Seattle in the early 70s of the Boeing bust - you could get a Lake Washington waterfront home for $20,000. Part of the early allure of gentrification was that the house was cheap to start with. I had a friend who got a house in near the arch in St.Louis with a partner in 1978 for $100-the city just wanted someone living in these abandoned buildings.
I had friends in Chicago in 1971 making maybe $20,000-25000 between them who bought a house in an older neighborhood - nothing fancy, but brick and well built.
My partner and i bought a half of a brick duplex in Cincinnati with 3 stories and a basement (structrual 1880s brick - 900 sq ft per floor) with 3 car garage for $12,000 in 1972. My partner bought the other half as an investment for $6000 and also so we could bug bomb the whole building and get the cockroach problem under control. it was 3 blocks from the university but had been an all black neighborhood. we were reverse blockbusters - so to speak. The neighbors were all very nice - most owned their own homes. The 9% FHA mortgage - which we assumed - was $!00 a month. Usually 4-7 adults were living there during the 70s.
I looked it up. The OP had an example of 100k house making you rich in 1972.
In 1972 that would be equal to 700k. A new Cadillac for the driveway would be 8k. I would say it definitely would have made you rich. I remember what things cost when I was a kid in the 70s. I could get a bottle of coke for .25 cents, candy bar for about the same. My dad bought a new Chevy blazer and paid the outrageous sum of 5k for it.
Even by 1987 when I bought my first used car I only paid 600 dollars (78 cutlass) for it. My first brand new one I got in 1990 for 6000 (ford escort). I would have to agree that life was easier and much simpler in the 1970s and 1980s. We also did not pay for things like cell phones, tv or internet. We have utilities and expenses that did not exist then. By the 80s some paid for cable but it was not the norm. We demand more today, we are spoiled. A 1970s car did not typically have things like power windows or AC unless it was a Cadillac or Lincoln. Windows cranked up, fresh air was the only AC.
Overall, goods were more expensive, but the services were cheaper. For example, a nice big screen television was around $1500 (one of those early Muntz 50 inch projection TVs), but of course with no subscription services, it was all self-contained. Nowadays, a 50 inch TV usually costs less than $1500, and that's in nominal figures. And those early Apple II computers were around $2000. Even things like VCRs were $1000 when they first came out and a blank tape that recorded around 60 minutes was around $20 in the late '70s. Parking meters were very cheap, usually around a quarter to maybe 50 cents an hour by the late '80s. Now parking is around $3-$5 and hour at those electronic meters. Automobiles and gas prices are approximately a draw, but of course with so many more features, better fuel economy, and better reliability, it's a better value.
Hospitality and cultural attractions and theme parks were cheaper. The cheapest rate for a trip up the Empire State Building today is $44, whereas it cost around $2 to go up it in the '70s. Walt Disney World did have ticket book packages, but just to enter the Magic Kingdom was about $10 back then. And of course, it cost just $6/night to stay at a Motel 6 in the early '70s, now it's more like Motel 66.
But with fewer people, real estate was noticeably cheaper. For example, in 1978, a four bedroom/4 1/2 bath home in Beverly Hills with a pool, formal dining room, city view, and 20 foot atrium listed for $469,500, which was still very expensive for its time, but that would be worth well over $5 million today, perhaps even $10 million if it had a certain celebrity pedigree.
Mortgage rates crested over 12% in the late 70s, and were in the 7s-9s most of the decade. At 10%, your monthly payment would be about 1.9 times what it was recently at 3%. Housing costs more these days in part because it's under-supplied, development costs are higher, more tech is typically included, and kitchens/bathrooms are much larger. But the gap in sale prices would narrow if you adjust for interest rates, square footage (typically much higher now), and neighborhood-specific gentrification.
Healthcare costs have skyrocketed due to a variety of issues like liability costs (US only), the vast insurance bureaucracy (US only), expensive machinery, higher facility expectations (such as solo patient rooms), and the need for paying customers to subsidize tens of millions of non-paying ones (US only).
College costs have grown in part due to reduced public aid and much higher facility standards. Soaring lobbies, no more twin-occupancy 150-sf dorm rooms.
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cities in the late 60s and 70s
