Costs of Living

In 1925, JBT and her children arrived in Seattle via a California steamship. My infant grandmother had contracted mumps, and once she was out of quarantine they timed the trip to beat the second onslaught. Making their way to Everett, they were met by family members who had rented out an apartment near the family home, because WFT's father had never had mumps and my grandmother--and by association the rest of her travelling party--was contagious.

In 1925, not only were they able to rent out the apartment, but they were able to partially furnish it with the necessities of living until JBT could supply more furniture. This brings to light the stark differences in costs of living that has occurred over the last century.

Having just seen The Great Gatsby, the idea of the "Roaring Twenties" as a grandeur vision of wealth and everyday luxury is salient. So it's possible that there was simply enough extra money* to put someone else up for a summer in their own apartment. Let's take a look at some numbers:

The estimated annual wage was around $1,400.** A house cost the rough equivalent of 1 year's pay, but it could be less; a car took a quarter-year's salary. Tuition at UPenn was $300--less than the cost of the average car. In today's money, that would be about $4,000.

Contrast that to today, where the average salary is around $43,000. A house, at $275,000, is more than six years' pay. The price of cars hasn't inflated too much, at just 3/4 of a year's pay on average. Tuition at UPenn is $46,000, or more than an average year's pay. No wonder we're all in debt.

Today, the idea of renting out an apartment for your daughter-in-law and her contagious offspring for a few months would mean a grand gesture--the family would either have to be well-off, or really like that daughter-in-law. It would mean a cost of at least $2,000 in rent, plus at least $100-200 to furnish it with the necessities. Granted, the family who put JBT and her children up for the summer were retired, and perhaps a retired couple today would be better able to give that grand of a gesture.

Our society now finds itself in extraordinary amounts of debt. We are reminded of that every day, and when not being reminded of personal debt, we're being reminded that 1% of the country holds a really-really-high percentage of the nation's wealth, and even the middle class only holds a tiny portion of wealth. Today's inequalities in wealth distribution resemble that of the pre-crash era, but none of us are having nearly as much fun as they did.

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* "extra money" is a term used by my mother throughout my childhood to gently tell me she couldn't buy something; e.g. When I have extra money, you can have that Britney Spears CD.

** according to Paul F. Brissenden's
Earnings of Factory Workers, 1899 to 1927, Volume 10 (p.350)