Thinking again.

mb58

Member
In response to Equipment Then and Now posted earlier (which I enjoyed reading):In the 60's and early 70's here in Louisiana, farm labor was around $5 a day. My dad worked 72 hours a week in a department store in our local small town for $40 a week starting in 1960. By 1966 he was up to $60 a week and by the time he left that year they began to let him off Wednesday at noon. There just wasn't much to do in the rural areas back then. Local businessmen wouldn't let industry come in for fear that wages would rise.
 
I was told that when the interstate came thru in the early 60?s, the local merchants didn?t want access - not exits, so their customers couldn?t easily leave town.
 
You also have to remember back In the 60s and 70 things where a whole lot cheaper. Back in the 60s when my parents built a new house with AC in Kansas the electric bill was around $5-10 per month. When I was 14 I got my first driver license and the first time I got gas I paid $00.159 per gal and had a 2.5 of so gal tank so got change back form 2 quarters. Shoot In 1971 my dad brought a new car. It was a Chevy Vega and he paid $2195 for it.
 
A neighbor said that back in the late 60s,early 70s,he made $50 a week as a mechanic. They had a new mobile home and two cars,three kids and lived as well as anybody. In late 73,74 and early 75,I made $20 a day driving milk truck and I bought half the gas. Just watch old TV shows like All In The Family and pay attention when they mention what they make. It's unbelievable to think of it now.
 
Sounds about right. These business owners forget that people have cars and internet. And that they are not the monopply they once were. If and when they fail it is because of their own refusal to adapt.
 
That sound awfully low, I left home after graduation in 69, started in a gas station at $2 an hour, sometimes 70 hours a week, no time-and a half. Didn't realize I got screwed until later. As soon as I was 18 I went on construction at $4.40 an hour, it 2 years I became a carpenter at $6 an hour. This is in MN where it seems wages are better than other areas.
 
When I started hauling milk in 73,the price of the milk that I was shipping from my own cows was $4.95 cwt. I know wages and prices sound ridiculously low now as recent as that,but it doesn't take long to forget and loose perspective. After the milk plant closed in 75,I went to work at the local elevator bagging beans evenings and rainy days for $2.35 an hour.
 
A lot of towns still refuse to allow their main highway to be rerouted around their downtown business districts. Then they complain when the new four lane roads are routed near other towns.
 
A dollar in the 1950's or early 1970's was worth a lot more in today's dollars.

www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
 
Sodbuster ..... but really, in some situations, adaptation is next to impossible. How does an older guy who has a small hardware store out in the boonies adapt to online retail selling? That's difficult if not impossible. A big outfit (like Sears, etc) you can see but not the little mom and pop stores.
 
(quoted from post at 21:39:41 08/15/18) It doesn't seem like Sears handled that very well either!

No they didn't and it's a shame. After all they made their name as a mail order company, which is no different than internet shopping.
 
(quoted from post at 19:39:41 08/15/18) It doesn't seem like Sears handled that very well either!

Man you beat me to it! :lol: :lol:

You guys can look it up. In 1960 minimum wage was a buck an hour, 1968 it was 1.60, 1973, the year i entered the work force it was still 1.60. I also got married that year and I well remember being anything but rich and I was making 1.95. I was taking home about 290 a month after taxes. My rent was 150 a month and utilities ran on average of 45 for water and electric. Add another 30 a month in the winter for gas to heat with. Heck of a raise when I joined the Army in 74! Basic pay, plus quarters and rations allowance and I was bringing home over 400 a month. made E2 out of basic and PFC out of AIT! In 3 months that was just over 500 a month take home by Dec 74.

Friend of mine was going on about how little his mom (single mom) made in 1968 and how well they lived. She was making about 8500 a year. Had she been making minimum wage she would have gotten about 3300 before taxes.

Back then groceries actually ate up a larger percentage of income that they do today. And really that's the only way to measure how good or bad it is. Buy what percentage you spend on each item or group.

Rick
 
Heard about that yesterday. Seems Dallas OTR traffic needs to be rerouted so they are looking North to other E-W routes. Just south of me they just spent millions upgrading one to 4 lanes, not Interstate grade, but very nice. The word is that they are going to build a bypass around a couple of 25,000 towns located on it. The current road does not go through the towns proper and it's not part of the main drag so there is no congestion nor worry of it for years....... Towns are in an uproar.
 

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