Thread: Those Were the Days Indeed.

According to Inflation Calculator | Find US Dollar's Value from 1913-2014, $3 in 1915 would be $70.19 today.

The problem with all these calculators is that they can only take so much into account, so they differ wildly from each others results and also in the real world.

One of the key things regarding salary back then and now is how much was deducted from it. Back in 1913 it was a small amount, today it is a huge amount, leaving you with less money in your pocket. This does not affect the real spending power, though - just because state pension, national insurance, income tax, health schemes, etc, etc are deducted does not depress the true value of monetary unit.

The economic climate is another factor - one that can change too quickly to allow any meaningful input into this type of online calculator. For instance, in the USA two years of depression prior to 1915 suddenly changed as foreign powers borrowed from america and sought america's goods for the war effort.

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by Gomerpile

Lets see here, two dozen, $36 in 1915, adjust for inflation, and that will be a smooth $1650 in todays money. That sounds about right. Now where did my granddaddy store all those cases of razors that im sure he had when he was younger?

Originally Posted by Wirm

$36.00 in 1915 had the buying power of $830.17 . A 2014 dollar would have had the buying power of about 4 cents. According to the Dollar times.com inflation calculator.

Originally Posted by Haroldg48

According to Inflation Calculator | Find US Dollar's Value from 1913-2014, $3 in 1915 would be $70.19 today.

These are all surprisngly close - 1st post was two dozen at $1650 - second post is $830 a dozen times 2 is $1660 - third post is $70 each so 2 dozen is $1684

They are close because they use the same sort of framework, or in other words, omit the same important things.

For instance the 1913 Underwood Tariff Act was in force in 1915 and had a major impact: duty on wool-goods went from 56% to 18.5%, steel, iron ore, and agricultural implements were zero rated. That in itself makes for a major impact in the true cost of goods at the time - significantly cheaper in some respects than now. What on-line calculator takes that into account? About all they cater for is the rate of inflation, which is why they are so skewed.

In addition to that, a move to tax personal income in the 1890s was declared unconstitutional and it was not until 1913 that a tax was imposed, and this was tremendously low - just 2% combined rate for an income of $20,000 up to 7% for an income of $500,000. Salaries lower than 20k were subject to 1%. I don't know of any online calculators that take that into account, either.

That all the online calculators have a similar degree of error is not the same thing as assuming that any of them are correct!

Regards,
Neil

Indeed, Neil!