Posted by Adam Quinan on February 24, 2015 at 05:17:24 user Adam.
In Reply to: Currency conversions posted by Magnus Smith on February 23, 2015 at 13:42:29:
There are two major problems with trying to estimate the purchasing power of money in the past compared to the present, or another historic time period.
The first is obviously inflation and this can be overcome by using price indices, though even these can be fraught with assumptions and are not directly related to how much it actually costs to live a particular lifestyle.
The second is the differences in product and services availability and also the relative cost of items in the past. For example a tiny screened black and white TV back in the 1930s cost relatively more than a much bigger coloured flat screen one does today. Other items that we assume as part of most people's lifestyles such as a car or mobile phone were either very expensive or did not exist.
Other examples, any middle class households had a cook or a maid in 1930, I doubt anyone does nowadays unless they are part of the 1%. You could buy a new three bedroom semi in a suburb for the equivalent of about £35000.
As for bicycles, they cost between £5 -£10 (depending on model) in the 1930s, equivalent to about £300-£600 today and about £7-10-0 to £15-0-0 in 1949.
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