Randomguy Posted September 2, 2019 Share #1 Posted September 2, 2019 Young couples all seem to be able to have steak several times a week in the movies, big ones, too. Could steak have been cheaper back then, cheap enough that just married couples could afford to have it whenever? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airehead Posted September 2, 2019 Share #2 Posted September 2, 2019 Tough cuts were cheap, at least that was my theory. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilbur ★ Posted September 2, 2019 Share #3 Posted September 2, 2019 Chuck steak, maybe. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
late Posted September 2, 2019 Share #4 Posted September 2, 2019 3 minutes ago, Randomguy said: Young couples all seem to be able to have steak several times a week in the movies, big ones, too. Could steak have been cheaper back then, cheap enough that just married couples could afford to have it whenever? That's the movies. Getting history from movies is like asking a hooker for love. 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheep_herder ★ Posted September 2, 2019 Share #5 Posted September 2, 2019 All relative to wages being earned and setting priorities for purchases. As students, we use to purchase chuck roasts on sale and bar-b-que them on the grill. However, in the 60s we normally did better buying a split half of beef and eating on it for a while. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randomguy Posted September 2, 2019 Author Share #6 Posted September 2, 2019 I think housing was cheaper then. Cars, too. It must have been cheaper, back when people ate far more red meat and there was far less heart disease and diabetes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randomguy Posted September 2, 2019 Author Share #7 Posted September 2, 2019 .35 for beer in this movie, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheep_herder ★ Posted September 2, 2019 Share #8 Posted September 2, 2019 28 minutes ago, Randomguy said: I think housing was cheaper then. Cars, too. It must have been cheaper, back when people ate far more red meat and there was far less heart disease and diabetes. Are you sure you are not comparing apples to oranges? Yes, meat was cheaper, but people also did not make as much money. However, detection of diseases has also improved, and with more research relationships between diets and diseases have improved. That doesn't mean some mistakes have not been made, but that is what research is all about, continually testing new theories. When did type II diabetes become such a big thing, and why, diets, better and more frequent testing, etc.? Hell, I am type II, and I'd not heard about it until diagnosed in 1999. I also personally, think that cancer was around long before it became a 'buzz' word, but detection was not adequate to determine that as a cause of death. Discuss? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Road Runner Posted September 2, 2019 Share #9 Posted September 2, 2019 Average wage was probably $2 an hour or less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zephyr Posted September 2, 2019 Share #10 Posted September 2, 2019 My Dad and I sat down a while ago and talked about housing and prices in relation to expenses. He worked 49 years for the same company and started at $0.18/hr. He remembers when he finally got the raise up to $0.60/hr because he was making a cent a minute. He bought the land and built the house I grew up in for $11,000. Based on what he was making at the time and then extrapolating that to what I am making today, works out to me buying a house of comparable value I am in now. Things were cheaper, but it is in big things at least comparable to 55 years ago 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Longjohn ★ Posted September 2, 2019 Share #11 Posted September 2, 2019 56 minutes ago, Randomguy said: .35 for beer in this movie, too. .35 was what I paid for a 36 oz. fishbowl of draft beer when I would get off work in the morning. Zeka’s is Sharpsville had 15 cent drafts all the time. A $100 a week paycheck meant you were making big money back then. It’s really hard to compare the times were different. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airehead Posted September 2, 2019 Share #12 Posted September 2, 2019 @sheep_herder, you are right about disease and illness. Few people ever “get the consumption “ and die now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Longjohn ★ Posted September 2, 2019 Share #13 Posted September 2, 2019 1 hour ago, sheep_herder said: Are you sure you are not comparing apples to oranges? Yes, meat was cheaper, but people also did not make as much money. However, detection of diseases has also improved, and with more research relationships between diets and diseases have improved. That doesn't mean some mistakes have not been made, but that is what research is all about, continually testing new theories. When did type II diabetes become such a big thing, and why, diets, better and more frequent testing, etc.? Hell, I am type II, and I'd not heard about it until diagnosed in 1999. I also personally, think that cancer was around long before it became a 'buzz' word, but detection was not adequate to determine that as a cause of death. Discuss? My grandma died in the early fifties of cancer, grandpa died in the late fifties of heart disease. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MickinMD ★ Posted September 2, 2019 Share #14 Posted September 2, 2019 1 hour ago, Randomguy said: Young couples all seem to be able to have steak several times a week in the movies, big ones, too. Could steak have been cheaper back then, cheap enough that just married couples could afford to have it whenever? Steak wasn't cheap in the 50's - 60's. I was rare when my family could afford it, except in the cheap cuts for soup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
late Posted September 2, 2019 Share #15 Posted September 2, 2019 1 hour ago, MickinMD said: Steak wasn't cheap in the 50's - 60's. I was rare when my family could afford it, except in the cheap cuts for soup. But you could find meatloaf anywhere. As far as income goes, it's complicated. They lived simpler lives, much simpler lives. But, at the same time, they were typically a single paycheck family. And he worked fewer hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharpy Posted September 2, 2019 Share #16 Posted September 2, 2019 We are all vegans now 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheep_herder ★ Posted September 2, 2019 Share #17 Posted September 2, 2019 2 hours ago, Longjohn said: My grandma died in the early fifties of cancer, grandpa died in the late fifties of heart disease. Same here, but very few if any relationships to lifestyle had been established, when compared to this day and time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razors Edge ★ Posted September 2, 2019 Share #18 Posted September 2, 2019 3 hours ago, Randomguy said: I think housing was cheaper then. Cars, too. It must have been cheaper, back when people ate far more red meat and there was far less heart disease and diabetes. It's why people lived so much longer back then! Ah, the good old days! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris... Posted September 3, 2019 Share #19 Posted September 3, 2019 5 hours ago, Randomguy said: Young couples all seem to be able to have steak several times a week in the movies, big ones, too. Could steak have been cheaper back then, cheap enough that just married couples could afford to have it whenever? Hookers were cheaper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris... Posted September 3, 2019 Share #20 Posted September 3, 2019 http://www.mybudget360.com/cost-of-living-2014-inflation-1950-vs-2014-data-housing-cars-college/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilbur ★ Posted September 3, 2019 Share #21 Posted September 3, 2019 I remember when a porterhouse steak fed a family of four. Meat was a much smaller part of the meal back then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsharr ★ Posted September 3, 2019 Share #22 Posted September 3, 2019 Everything was cheaper in black-and-white. When they had to start colorizing everything prices went way way up 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
late Posted September 3, 2019 Share #23 Posted September 3, 2019 19 minutes ago, wilbur said: I remember when a porterhouse steak fed a family of four. Meat was a much smaller part of the meal back then. I have a set of dishes from about a hundred years ago. I think they were a wedding present for my grandparents. The coffee cups hold 4 ounces, the dinner plates are almost as small as plates for sides are now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris... Posted September 3, 2019 Share #24 Posted September 3, 2019 Tom and jerry had steak all the time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rattlecan ★ Posted September 3, 2019 Share #25 Posted September 3, 2019 I was fully into adulthood before I knew not all steak was a huge family size slab broiled in the bottom drawer of the stove to the consistency of a mud flap 1 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dinneR ★ Posted September 3, 2019 Share #26 Posted September 3, 2019 Ribs were cheap back in the day when people wore ties all the time. Coincidence? 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsharr ★ Posted September 3, 2019 Share #27 Posted September 3, 2019 Steak grows on trees in Texas. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Square Wheels Posted September 3, 2019 Share #28 Posted September 3, 2019 3 hours ago, wilbur said: Meat was a much smaller part of the meal back then. Plus, meals were much smaller. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsharr ★ Posted September 3, 2019 Share #29 Posted September 3, 2019 Here is an add from the steak house and movie theatre at the end of my street in the 1970s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Road Runner Posted September 3, 2019 Share #30 Posted September 3, 2019 In my first real job in 1965, I made $1.25 an hour. That was the minimum wage at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
12string Posted September 3, 2019 Share #31 Posted September 3, 2019 We could only afford "steak" once every couple months. I think because my mother didn't get to cook it very often, she got the most for her money by cooking it as many minutes as possible before combustion started. So it's not like we were all hoping for large portions. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Further Posted September 4, 2019 Share #32 Posted September 4, 2019 My mom didn't have a lot of money but she believed good food was cheaper than medicine, and that steak was good food. I ate well growing up. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
late Posted September 4, 2019 Share #33 Posted September 4, 2019 On 9/2/2019 at 4:35 PM, Zephyr said: My Dad and I sat down a while ago and talked about housing and prices in relation to expenses. He worked 49 years for the same company and started at $0.18/hr. He remembers when he finally got the raise up to $0.60/hr because he was making a cent a minute. He bought the land and built the house I grew up in for $11,000. Based on what he was making at the time and then extrapolating that to what I am making today, works out to me buying a house of comparable value I am in now. Things were cheaper, but it is in big things at least comparable to 55 years ago You're right, just not about that. Gramps had diabetes, and part of my childhood in the 50s was living with artificial sweeteners. This is complicated, I may talk more manana, but for now, there is one statistic that I find illustrative. The number of hours worked, per family, increased from the 1960s to the big crash a decade ago... almost 300%. A lot of what financed the improved standard of living was working more hours. You see wives moving into the workplace, and then kids, in a big way. You also see a lot more overtime. Medicine has improved enormously. When I was young, you had a heart attack, they told you to enjoy a rocking chair. Now they tell you to exercise. Infant mortality has been cut in half. Which is weird, as kids have gotten safer, parents have gone nuts with fear. In 1972, I spent 6 months in Europe. When I exchanged money to get ready to go home, I noticed the dollar didn't buy quite as many schilling as it has 6 months earlier. It was a small amount, but the idea that the value of money could change, seemed odd at the time. The PP, Purchasing Power of the dollar has been in decline. Partly that reflects inflation, if you add more dollars, each individual one is worth a little less. That assumes the economy is a constant, just for the sake of argument. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dinneR ★ Posted September 4, 2019 Share #34 Posted September 4, 2019 9 hours ago, jsharr said: Here is an add from the steak house and movie theatre at the end of my street in the 1970s What is it about the toast in Texas that it gets its own name? Is it that much better than toast in other states? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsharr ★ Posted September 4, 2019 Share #35 Posted September 4, 2019 1 hour ago, dennis said: What is it about the toast in Texas that it gets its own name? Is it that much better than toast in other states? It is thick sliced, slathered in an obscene amount of butter and then grilled. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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