Maintenance & Repair circa 1928

[Chris Conklin]

Just some fun... an old mailer to a Model T owner right after the A was introduced.

[Otto Skorzeny]

That's really cool.

You have to remember, though that a wage earner of the day might have been lucky to earn $10 a day. To have all that stuff done would cost a couple weeks pay or more.

[Chris Conklin]

I was thinking $10 a week. The $20-$25 labor for the rebuild was pretty high, I thought. Translating it to today's dollars, the ratio probably really hasn't changed much.

[Porter]

What exactly does "Translating it to today's dollars," mean anyway ?

HF was onto this con game long ago.

Bueller ?

Porter 

[Walter Youshock]

Generally, 5% compounded annually.

A $5,500.00 1959 Cadillac would be like $45-50,000 today.

An Eldorado Brougham would be in the range of a current Rolls-Royce, high-end Bentley or Maybach--about $350-400,000.

[Otto Skorzeny]

I was thinking $10 a week. The $20-$25 labor for the rebuild was pretty high, I thought. Translating it to today's dollars, the ratio probably really hasn't changed much.

There's probably some place to look up the average wage in 1928. I think $10 per week is a little low.

Henry Ford made history in 1908 when he paid his workers $5 per day - an unheard of sum at the time. That generally lifted wages across America in many industries.

[Otto Skorzeny]

Here's a page full of gobble-dee-gook that boils down to this:

Average net income in 1928 was $6078. That's $116 per week. A little more than I expected, although many Model T owners may have been at the lower end of the income scale.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,738618,00.html

[Walter Youshock]

WHERE?!?!  Not in Coal Country, it wasn't!!!  And that's NET?!?!

Plus, you lived in a Company House and shopped in the Company Store!

No wonder there was only one car on my Dad's street when he was a kid (he was born in '28.)

[Porter]

Generally, 5% compounded annually.

A $5,500.00 1959 Cadillac would be like $45-50,000 today.

An Eldorado Brougham would be in the range of a current Rolls-Royce, high-end Bentley or Maybach--about $350-400,000.

Wow, so gold and silver coins increase in value about 5% annually.

Porter

[Guidematic]

 I find $116 per week is a little high for 1928, and also, Ford paid the $5/day to only a few employees, not all of them. And that would translate to $30 per week since they worked 6 day weeks.

They had to be with the company for some time, me morally stringent (no drinking etc) and have a family.

HF would send out his spies to the local bars on payday and look for those that were drinking away the weeks wages.

Mike

[Walter Youshock]

No--gold and silver coins do not increase like that.  Check the prices for precious metals--they change by the minute.

I was referring to inflation and the cost of items generally increase in that manner.

Old story:  2 older people in the grocery store.  One says:  "Gee, I remember when pork chops were 5 cents a pound!"  The other one says:  "Yeah.  And I remember when I didn't have the 5 cents."

[Chris Conklin]

Average net income in 1928 was $6078. That's $116 per week.

That does seem quite high. But consider '28 a snapshot of that era and you'd have to think it was another "boom year"... the bust was in the not too distant future. Interesting it is "net", were there even federal income taxes yet?

[Otto Skorzeny]

Yes, 1928 was a boom year. The figures above are from the IRS and represent individual net income.

Henry Ford's $5 a day was 20 years prior to 1928 so inflation and general expansion of the economy would naturally increase wages.

I was surprised by the figure as well but depending on whether you figure on a 5 day or 6 day work week, the number comes out to $19 -$23 per day. One must also realize that during the 1920s, virtually everybody was investing in the stock market which was soaring to new heights almost daily. Many people earned money in addition to their wages through dividends and stock trading.

It wasn't until the end of 1929 that all that came crashing down. 1930's average income is probably a lot less.

[Porter]

No--gold and silver coins do not increase like that.  Check the prices for precious metals--they change by the minute.

I was referring to inflation and the cost of items generally increase in that manner.

Old story:  2 older people in the grocery store.  One says:  "Gee, I remember when pork chops were 5 cents a pound!"  The other one says:  "Yeah.  And I remember when I didn't have the 5 cents."

1950 silver was $ 1.29 an oz. you could buy four loaves of bread. 2009 $ 13 an oz. you can still buy four loaves of bread.

End of today's history lesson about fiat paper $$$'s and you can apply the above to the Cadillac analogy.

"A $5,500.00 1959 Cadillac would be like $45-50,000 today."

Moral to the story ? Don't sit on your fiat paper $$$'s for too long.

Porter