The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Starkton wrote:Here is a sample calculation: The price of my Grammophon De Luxe was £49 in 1908. It follows a "real price" of £4000 in 2010 which seems expensive but not overpriced for a high-end sound system. But the "real value" of £49 in 1908 on the basis of the average income is much higher. A calculation made on this basis reveals the astonishing income value of £25,000 for the De Luxe, if bought in 2010.

In order to substantiate that data: a German teacher in 1900 earned about £60 a year. Today his average income (calculated on the basis of the above method) would be £30,700, which even sounds below average.

Today's exchange rate: £10 = $16

When my mother completed high school in 1940, she took a secretarial job in Mahnattan for $15 per week. Out of that, she spent 25 cents each day for expenses - 10 cents for transportation (2 subway rides at 5 cents each), and 15 cents for lunch at the Automat (sandwich, coffee, and pie, each 5 cents) She had a further 2 dollars or so each week for pocket money, but the rest had to be turned over to my grandmother for household expenses. After a year, she was given a raise to $16 per week. Her next job paid $75 per month. Again, this is the early 1940s in New York City, so just imagine how little most people made years earlier, particularly in rural areas. If a record costs about ½ a day's pay, how could you possibly afford a phonograph?

52089 wrote: If a record costs about ½ a day's pay, how could you possibly afford a phonograph?

The social system before 1914 in Europe and on the North American continent can best be compared with Russia and China of today. A small upper class is grotesquely rich and the average income for the broad majority of the population is disproportionally small. Consequently, in Germany, only phonographs priced between $1 (Puck) and $5 (Columbia Q offshots) sold in large numbers and are usually found today. Conversely, all models above $25 are very rare.

A woman worker in the phonograph needle industry had an average monthly income of $10, at a sixty-hour week!