The cost of living goes up every year. I get it. What I question is when did the cost of living start spiraling out of control? Or better yet, when is going to stop? When the average person tries to define the “cost of living” they instinctively think of the cost of items we need to live off during the normal course of a day in the week, in the middle of a month, of a year I don’t recall (that italic part is a line from a song by my new favorite band, the Gym Class Heroes). In addition to the staples which we require to survive, which would include; food, water, shelter, transportation, entertainment and Starbucks, there’s the necessities of life which we can’t seem to live without, including but not limited to; toilet paper, house hold appliances, cars, computers, cable television, Starbucks again, iPhone/Pad/Pod/Touch and everything Bieber. It’s not what we need that I have trouble with but how much it costs that keeps me up at night.
At the risk of sounding like my dad, back when I was a kid…., but back when I was an elementary school kid in the late 1970s, we could watch a double feature at the downtown one screen movie theater for $1.50. I recently took my family to the 24 screen mega-plex in Dublin and I was floored the cost of an adult ticket to see the new Spiderman movie was $12.50. That’s twelve American dollars and two quarters. Now I love me my superhero movies, but I almost needed the superhero power of credit card manufacturing in order to pay for my family evening out bill once I budget in dinner, an $8.00 bucket of popcorn and gas.
Speaking of gas, regular unleaded seems to fluctuate somewhere between $3.75 and $4.25 per gallon depending on whether the price for crude oil is above or below $100 per barrel. When I got my license in 1978, I paid $.64 per gallon. Additionally, a friendly attendant checked my oil level and washed my windshield while my gas was pumping. An attendant, not a homeless person, was someone employed by the service station to provide friendly full service attention to the customers. Most of the guys working there were paying their way through college.
Speaking of college, it now costs approximately $100,000 to graduate from a notable university, more in some cases. In the early 1980s, my parents paid somewhere right around $30.00 per unit each semester at California State University Northridge (or Cal State Nowhere as we called it). For my friends who chose to attend the local community college, their fees were even lower. Using rough math, I believe my education cost right around $3,600. That kind of saving left a lot of money for beer.
Speaking of beer, my fraternity brothers and I often resorted to purchasing Meister Brau beer from Walgreens for $1.99 a six pack. Their advertising catch phrase was, Just like BUD only cheaper. In reality, it wasn’t just like BUD. It was a watered down version of Olympia. At the start of this major league baseball season, I paid $9.50 for a sixteen ounce cup of beer at a major league ballpark located on the west side of the Bay Bridge. At $9.00 a pop that’s $95.00 for ten beers. Not that I typically have ten beers at a major league ball game, nine at most, but for $95.00 I could purchase 47.738 six-packs of Meister Brau to share with my friends.
Speaking of friends, one of the joyful activities my friends and I loved to do was to attend concerts. Bill Graham was the master of concert promotion and his Day on the Green series was the best value in town. In 1979, we paid $12.00 (plus a $2.00 Bass Tickets fee) to see Aerosmith, Foreigner, Pat Travers, Van Halen and a new band called AC/DC play at the Oakland Coliseum. Seeing such a strong assemblage of classic rock bands for under $15.00 was a positive and uplifting experience despite the heavy scent of an herb I was unfamiliar with being smoked by the masses in attendance. During Coldplay’s recent sold out show at San Jose’s HP Pavilion, tickets were $125.00 even in the upper deck of HP Pavilion. I’m not even sure there was an opening act. Who in their right mind would pay $125.00, plus $30.00 for parking, to listen to a band playing slow melodic depressing songs for two hours? Tickets should come with the above referenced herb and a magazine.
Speaking of magazines, in 1978 a Playboy magazine, with Farrah Fawcett on the cover, cost $2.50. Don’t ask me how I got it, but believe me when I say I still have it. This week while checking out at the grocery store, I saw a People Magazine – When They Were Young special edition listed for $11.99. Who are they kidding, that’s $12.00! My 24 year-old Playboy is still a better value (those articles are timeless). Who wants to read about celebrities when they were snot-nosed, obnoxious kids? I have those at my house.
Speaking of kids, the cost of babysitting has become outrageous. I can recall my parents having a conniption fit when the cost of babysitting rose to $1.00 per hour right around 1970. My teenage daughter’s charge between $10.00 and $12.00 per hour to watch children for a few hours while I-680 suburban mommies and daddies take time out for a date night. That adds considerable expense to nice dinner or movie excursion (see movie ticket prices above). I bet I shelled out over $12,500 to babysitters until my kids could watch themselves. However, the money my girls make does allow them to contribute toward the uber expensive designer jeans they choose to wear.
Speaking of jeans, has anyone priced jeans lately? It’s crazy how expensive denim apparel has become. I’m undoubtedly dating myself when I say we paid an astronomical $30.00 for a pair of Jordache, Calvin Klein or Z Cavaricci jeans during the designer jean craze of 1980-84. Granted, our jeans looked so totally cool with an IZOD or Polo shirt and Speery topsiders that is was worth every penny. Today, girls pay upwards of $150 for brands such as True Religion or Miss Me jeans. You need to rack up a lot of babysitting hours to afford to dress “hot.”
At the risk of overstating the obvious, I wish things weren’t so expensive. It seems that a lot of what we use every day that is reasonably priced is not made to last. It’s replaceable instead of repairable. I can remember staring at the walls of our house for hours on end whenever our one and only 19” TV was removed for periodic maintenance. The torture could last up to a week until the “idiot box”, as my dad called it, was ultimately returned. Today, if any of our six flat screens displays so much as a horizontal hold blip, we take it to the e recycle center and scan the internet for a sale. I don’t even think they make a horizontal hold knob anymore.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, documented in his 1954 book Motivation and Personality, is a slightly different definition of needs. While money certainly does play into Maslow’s rungs which include; self-actualization, self esteem, love/belonging, safety and the physiological element, the last I checked all that touchy feely stuff isn’t adjusted annually by the Consumer Price Index. Work hard, save and spend wisely is what a former teacher of mine once said. Sound advice from a guy whose chosen profession is grossly underpaid. If only everything wasn’t so expensive.
Old post, but still well worth to speak upon. You might want to add the cost of a brand new car. Who the hell can afford a new car with a factory warranty? I guess the only ones who builds them and of course the rich people in America or better put who has a job that pays well. With that being said, that the reason why all the auto makers were getting bailed out during HW Bush’s Administration. I mean, they are paying their employees very well, but the employees are actually putting the money paid to them back into the auto maker’s pockets which in my opinion, dosn’t count as a profit. If it isn’t that, they are importing American brand name vehicles from countries like Mexico, Canada, Taiwan and I won’t mention a certain part of Asia because we all know that our livelihoods have been slowly stripped because of that country. To day we have a tariff war and I can clearly see how it is taking affect almost immediately based on shopping at Wal-Mart. We don’t solely make anything any more. If you see a product claiming to be made in the USA, it is not entirely true for you will find that i even 1 screw was produced in another country, that product is not 100% American Made. The adult demographics of America is about 250 million. Only 20% can afford the finer things in life. As for the rest, they can not so of a company can not make money off of at least 80% of that population, they have to find ways to do so. The year before hand a Chevy may have cost $18000, now cost $19000 with the same quality. More Ford jobs are sent away. Now that 20% is reduced to 18% Now who can afford the $18000 car now? Why dose everything cost so much? America a fucking itself! Don’t even ask Washington! 0ver 10 years ago, they argued and advised The People, you and I to by American to support the economy, but how do we do that when they keep allowing companies to importing out like necessities. Your movie ordeal is in the loop as well, but at the same time is suffering a major blow thanks to pirating. The cost of everything is a complex subject of the matter. We really can’t say we are an independent country when we are depending on other countries to do what we can do for ourselves. But its not entirely our fault thanks to resources. A radiator hose can be made fast and cheap in Taiwan because they have resources from within and from neighboring countries. If we want to make those hoses, we have to wait for the resources come by ship. Checked in, shipped by train or truck. Then processed. Then shipped to where they are needed which will cost more than what it is worth. As I stated, complex. Time is money. This is just a theory trough ecomics. There is so much to pick apart. But I’ll add one few things before I close. Federal regulations forced companies to convert their products every year, which cost a boat load of money every year. This is thanks to our tax dollars paid to individuals to tell advise the government to do this and do that or else. Every freaking year and we have to pay for the final outcome of the product only to get recalled months into the next year. They do all this studying for what? They will say this is revolutionary and approve a product for our consumption, then turn it around with short after we bought it and “in recent studies” shows that this product is or will fill in the blank. You’d think they would of have a better track record for examining things to help us save money. True, they recall for our health and safety, but it has become ridiculously redundant an the past 25 years and it seems to benefit the companies, not us, the very ones who have to follow the recall, or else!