Another way to look at it---the average wage in 1964 was $2.50 per hour (production and non-supervisory workers--Source HERE). At that wage, it would take someone ($749.00, the price of the first TV in 1964, divided by $2.50) 299.9 hours, or 7 1/2 weeks, to earn enough to buy this TV.
I was at Best Buy yesterday (example below) and saw a rather large 50' screen HD/Plasma TV for $500. At this price a worker in 2011 earning an average wage of $19.54 would have to work 25.5 hours to purchase a very nice TV that has features the richest person in the world in 1964 could not fathom or even imagine.
Interesting situation: One TV made in the USA and few people could buy one. One TV not made in the US and a large majority of the US population can afford one or HAS one (I don't, though). How does THAT happen? Rhetorical question...I know the answer and so do you...
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Source: Carpe Diem |
Oh, I wanted a color TV so bad as a kid...
ReplyDeleteWe had an old Muntz black-and-white with a screen maybe the size of a dinner plate, cropped flat top and bottom like your Silvertone Entertainment screens. The thing looked out from a 3'x3'x3' wooden box.
"You have to have lived in the 1950s and 1960s to have experienced a good economy." -- Jude Wanniski