Hi folks,

I was just looking at some old Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalogues from the early 1900s. Here's an example of a page:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/138493...posted-public/

That 20" bandsaw costs $31.65. If you figure out a current equivalent price (multiplier of 27), it comes to around $855. Seems cheap for a 300 lb cast iron machine to me, as do the other machine tools. A Jet 20" bandsaw now costs $3556.00:
http://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/93252591

Equivalents to the other manufactured products in the catalogue are mostly cheaper today (this guy has some interesting examples from the 1970s: http://cafehayek.com/2006/01/working_for_sea.html)

But what about machine tools? If they are more expensive, what's the cause? A rise in the cost of skilled labour, or less local competition among small foundries and machine shops? What do you think?

Chris