referencebooks (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} referencebooks) wrote,@ 2006-01-11 15:42:00 |
|
| Entry tags: | economics, history |
The Value of a Dollar: 1860-2004
The Value of a Dollar: Prices and Incomes in the United States
By Scott Derks
Grey House Publishing, 2004
This is a chunky 8.5" by 11" hardcover book running to 664 pages including the two-page bibliography and fourteen-page index, plus a brief introduction, contents pages, and a one-page Composite Consumer Price Index that summarizes the value of an 1860 dollar for each year up to 2003.
What this book does is fascinating. It paints a rich picture of personal economics through U.S. history by providing the following types of information, in a usefully-organized way:
- Historical snapshots of the country by year, focusing on economic news;
- Income for selected jobs by half-decade, with a brief description of what the job was like at that time;
- Typical totals for per-capita consumer expenses by category of expenditure (including things like Auto Parts, Dentists, Religion/Welfare Activities, Furniture, and Tobacco) and by year;
- Typical investments by year and their returns;
- Income by job type and year;
- Prices for different foods in different cities, by half-decade;
- Prices for different goods and services, by half-decade, with descriptions taken directly from the advertisements of the time;
- Miscellaneous brief articles, advertisements, and letters to the editor, illustrating economic conditions, by half-decade;
- Graphs showing trends in price over time for seventy goods and services, and income for twenty occupations, in both original dollars and 2002 dollars.
The author compiled this information from a large number of sources - so this is much more than processed census data (though there's nothing wrong with that). Among the sources he used are publications from a variety of governmenet agencies, surveys conducted by private research firms, historical works, Sears Roebuck Catalogues, books for collectors, and newspapers and popular magazines.
Thinking about pricing trends immediately raises interesting questions. One factor in changing prices is inflation, which can be tracked by watching the consumer price index. Another is changes in technology and manufacturing processes. The car a person might buy today is not the same car that was manufactured in 1930, though in a way it is comparable because one would buy it for the same reason. None of these factors are lost in the way the data is presented in this book; consumer price index numbers are there, 2002 dollars are there, original dollars are there, advertising descriptions of products are there. Also interesting is the ability to compare pricing trends to changes in income in 2002 dollars, and see how people choose different kinds of goods and services according to how much they have to spend.
There is relatively little offered in the way of interpretations of these numbers, or essays relating to the data. The author leaves that to the users of the book.
A fascinating and useful resource.
