"Ed Huntress" wrote in message .net...


'Having trouble staying focused are you, Tom? Do you want to continue to try
to explain how a $330 per capita increase is greater than a $1,064 per
capita increase?

That part is easy. If the cost of living is going down the $330
increase means a better life. If the cost of living is going up,
the $1064 just means you don't go backwards quite so fast. Would
you like to look at the figures for house prices in Marin County
over the past ten years ? I know, I know ... the US has no meaning-
ful inflation. This is why the exact same loaf of bread that was
$.89 two years ago is $2.19 now. And the house that my mom sold
in 1970 for $24,000 would cost you a nice round $850,000 or more
today. In 1978 I was charging $60/hour for cnc turning time (I
didn't have a Sheldon, so it was okay :-) Sure, inserts are better
now, but you can *not* make the same part I was doing in 1980 in
ten minutes in two today ... and even if you *could*, there's no
way that would overcome the huge increases in housing, food, health,
and transportation. Oh yeah, I think Kaiser cost something like
$75/month in 1980, too. When I crashed and burned, it cost five
bucks to stay in the hospital for ten days. They didn't cancel me
the day after, either. Then, whether YOU and/or the rest of us dumbo
machinists even SEE that fricking $1064 is another question entirely ...