I’m always looking for other ways to understand the change in financial stress on the middle class. Dave Collum, a Professor of Chemisty and Chemical Biology at Cornell University, sent a vivid example:
When I was fifteen (circa 1970), I would carry two golf bags for four hours and earn $10. I also just happen to remember buying an extra large pizza at that same age for $2. (It was a memorable pizza, but that’s another story.) The beauty of the pizza measure of wealth is that pizzas haven’t changed. They cannot be hedonically adjusted for changes in quality. Thus, I was paid 1.25 extra large pizzas per hour as a fifteen year old to carry golf bags. If the average pizza costs $12 today, I was paid the functional equivalent of $15/per hour. The only fifteen year olds earning that kind of money are in drugs or prostitution.
Recently, very late one night waiting for a commuter connection I was speaking with a young woman who was a commuter pilot. Her standard schedule kept her away from home and young child for 12 out of every 14 days. Of course, day care ate up every cent of her salary plus some; the big score is to last long enough to become well paid. What was astonishing was that she was paid $21,000 per year. (I am not exaggerating.) Measured in units of pizzas, she was being paid less than I was paid as a fifteen year old to carry golf bags (and that is assuming her 12 weeks away from home are merely 40 hr work weeks!)
Adam Smith measured wealth, not in silver or gold, but in terms of man-days of labor. (“The Wealth of Nations” had a profound effect on my thinking.) I bet Mr. Smith would find the pizza standard appealing. i’m certainly getting hungry now…
I’ve been working on some hours-to-purchase calculations as another way to understand what has happened to middle class families. I’ll bring the numbers here when the work is done, but so far, the numbers are grim.
