Cars are cheaper now than they were in 1961
Cars are cheaper now than they were in 1961
Let's stop bitching about automation
The Dockworkers are on strike, and their main goal is to make it impossible for their jobs to be automated. According to them, automation has done nothing but increase prices and kill jobs.
However, this just isn’t true. Take his example of cars. The car factories began automating in 1961, so by his logic, the average price of a car now should be a lot higher than a car back then. And it is. The average price of a used car1 in 1961 was $3,773. Today, it’s $25,571. So yes, it is a lot higher now. Argument over, right?
Wrong. Comparing prices now to prices then is comparing apples to oranges. Instead, we have to look at the time cost of the car. In other words, how long it would take the average family to afford the car. In 1961, the average family income was $5,700. That’s about $15.6 a day. So, it would take the average family 241.85 days to buy a used car. For just men, their average income in 1961 was $4,200. That means it took them 328 days to buy a used car. And for women, their average income in 1961 was just $1,300, meaning it would take 1059.83 days to buy a used car.
Today, the average household income is $114,500. That’s $313.69 a day. So, it takes the average family 81.5 days to buy a used car. If you want to use the median household income instead because of iNcOmE iNeQuAlITY, that number is $80,610. That means it takes the median household 115.78 days to afford a used car, still much less than the average family in 1961. Men, meanwhile, earned a median of $66,790, meaning it takes them 139.75 days to afford a used car. Women earned a median of $55,420, meaning it takes them 168.04 days to afford a used car.
In other words, a single women today can afford a used car quicker than the average FAMILY could in 1961. A car has all the amenities that we expect a modern car to have, instead of whatever this is.
And, she can work at an office instead of the factory, aka a job that nobody wants anymore.
I understand why losing your job is scary. But, automation is how we grow the pie for everyone. Let’s stop pretending otherwise.
I’m using used because I think it’s more accurate to what the “working class man” would drive.