My earlier post on the changes in the labor time cost of various items from 1999-2009 got linked by Brian Doherty at Reason's blog. A commenter there wondered whether I wasn't double counting by using inflation-adjusted prices but not inflation-adjusted wages. He's correct, I was double counting (thank you Mike P.). Cox and Alm and others who have done this have used current dollar prices and nominal wages.
I've re-calculated the last column accordingly and below is the old table with a new column. About half the items are still cheaper in real terms. I'll let readers decide whether the items that cost more or those that cost less are the more relevant to most Americans.
| Product | Nominal | Real | Work Hrs. | Corrected |
| Observation deck, Empire State Building, adult | 400.00% | 288.98% | 183.54% | 264.46% |
| Gold, one ounce | 296.26% | 208.28% | 124.71% | 188.84% |
| New York Times daily edition | 166.66% | 107.46% | 51.22% | 94.38% |
| Slurpee, largest, 7-11 | 114.14% | 66.60% | 21.43% | 56.09% |
| Superman comic book | 100.50% | 55.98% | 13.70% | 46.15% |
| Toll (auto), Golden Gate Bridge | 100.00% | 55.59% | 13.42% | 45.78% |
| Gallon of gasoline | 96.92% | 53.20% | 11.67% | 43.54% |
| Apple (AAPL) stock, one share | 92.69% | 49.90% | 9.27% | 40.45% |
| Average ticket price, Boston Red Sox | 77.34% | 37.96% | 0.56% | 29.27% |
| Cost to raise newborn to age 18 | 76.04% | 36.95% | -0.17% | 28.32% |
| Disneyland, one day adult ticket | 75.61% | 36.62% | -0.42% | 28.01% |
| NYC YMCA summer membership | 60.00% | 24.47% | -9.27% | 16.63% |
| Average expanded basic cable (per month) | 59.03% | 23.72% | -9.82% | 15.92% |
| Average ticket, NFL Denver Broncos | 56.63% | 21.70% | -11.29% | 14.02% |
| ATM transaction cost | 55.26% | 20.79% | -11.95% | 13.17% |
| Babysitting per hour | 50.00% | 14.41% | -16.61% | 7.19% |
| Budweiser, six pack of cans | 49.38% | 16.21% | -15.29% | 8.88% |
| Home value, average | 44.73% | 12.60% | -17.93% | 5.50% |
| Electricity per 500 kwh | 43.70% | 11.79% | -18.51% | 4.74% |
| Movie ticket | 41.90% | 10.39% | -19.53% | 3.43% |
| Time magazine, newsstand | 41.43% | 10.03% | -19.80% | 3.09% |
| Aspirin, Bayer, 100-count | 38.62% | 7.84% | -21.39% | 1.04% |
| Sugar, 5 lb. | 36.15% | 5.92% | -22.79% | -0.76% |
| Cheerios, one box | 32.39% | 3.00% | -24.92% | -3.50% |
| Stamp, USPS, 1st class | 33.33% | 3.73% | -24.39% | -2.81% |
| Cigarettes, Marlboro, per pack, Calif. | 27.96% | -0.45% | -27.44% | -6.73% |
| Harley-Davidson 883 Sportster | 25.09% | -2.68% | -29.06% | -8.82% |
| Average cell phone bill | 23.19% | -4.17% | -30.14% | -10.21% |
| McDonald's Big Mac | 19.60% | -6.96% | -32.18% | -12.82% |
| Levi's, men's, 505 | 18.95% | -7.46% | -32.55% | -13.29% |
| Coca-Cola, one liter | 17.54% | -8.55% | -33.34% | -14.32% |
| Ty Warner penthouse, Four Seasons, NYC, per night | 13.33% | -11.83% | -35.73% | -17.39% |
| Car, Toyota Camry,base model | 10.71% | -13.87% | -37.22% | -19.30% |
| Wedding, average cost | 7.93% | -16.04% | -38.80% | -21.33% |
| Nike shoes Jordon vs. LeBron James | 6.67% | -17.02% | -39.51% | -22.25% |
| Gallon of milk | 5.90% | -17.61% | -39.94% | -22.81% |
| Top 100 Music CD | 2.42% | -20.32% | -41.92% | -25.35% |
| Bestseller novel, Grisham vs.Patterson | 0.14% | -22.09% | -43.21% | -27.00% |
| Windows 1998 vs Windows 7 | -4.31% | -25.56% | -45.74% | -30.25% |
| Coffee, Maxwell House, 34.5 oz. | -5.01% | -26.10% | -46.13% | -30.76% |
| Average domestic airfare | -8.51% | -28.82% | -48.12% | -33.31% |
| Batteries, AA, 4, Energizer | -12.53% | -31.95% | -50.40% | -36.24% |
| Wal-Mart stock | -23.61% | -40.57% | -56.68% | -44.32% |
| $100,000 mortgage, 30 year fixed, total cost | -30.40% | -45.85% | -60.53% | -49.27% |
| iMac desktop computer, Apple | -33.36% | -48.15% | -62.21% | -51.42% |
| Hummel "To Market" #49 figurine | -33.38% | -48.17% | -62.22% | -51.44% |
| Martini and Rossi Spumante, 375 ml | -36.18% | -50.35% | -63.81% | -53.48% |
Notes: Wage figures can be found here. Price index figures are here.
Thanks for the quick correction. Of course, part of me was hoping I was wrong. But the numbers are still impressive.
In particular, I'll repeat a comment I made back at Reason...
Tables with this wide a range show the difficulty of displaying numbers in percentage increase or decrease.
If in 1999 one orange was worth one apple while in 2009 one orange is worth two apples, then oranges have increased in apple-price 100%. But apples have decreased in orange-price only 50%.
Similarly, the reciprocal of +300% in such a table is only -75%!
So it may not be obvious to the reader that only Empire State Building tickets and gold have greater factor increases in hours worked per ticket or ounce than the factor increase in bottles of spumante per hour worked.
Posted by: MikeP | January 05, 2010 at 08:52 PM
What do you anticipate for the next decade Steve? I have a strong sense that it is going to be significantly tougher for the West than the last ten years have been.
Posted by: Laeeth Isharc | January 06, 2010 at 05:50 AM
I think the forces of innovation and the gains from exchange will still continue to outrace government stupidity, but not by as much as before. So we'll be better off in 2020, just not as better off as we would have, could have, or should have been.
Posted by: Steve Horwitz | January 06, 2010 at 08:29 AM