What crazy expensive items today used to be cheap?

[Nobody Special]

The inverse of this thread: Excluding investment-grade items (e.g: Microsoft stock) and item that obtain their value as a result of collectibility (e.g: an original copy of the Declaration of Independence), is there anything that used to be ridiculously cheap but is now prohibitively expensive?

[ASAKMOTSD]

gas?

[LateComer]

copper pipe/wire.

[Rayne Man]

Oysters. Back in the time of Charles Dickens they were consumed in vast quantities by even the poorest people. There are supposed to be large quantities of oyster shells buried in old rubbish dumps around London.

[Folly]

Lobster. Prior to the 20th century, only eaten by the poor in the US.

[gotpasswords]

Lobster used to be peasant food, to the extent that eating it was a mark of poverty.

Now, it's thirty bucks a pound.

[Folly]

One year of college. Well, cheaper anyway.

[Sunspace]

Middle-class housing in North America.

Okay, maybe 'cheap' is relative. But my father was able to support a mortgage, a car, and a family of five on a single income, that of a dispatcher at the gas company. I have a comparable job and income (allowing for inflation over the passage of time), but at roughly the same age, I'm not even close to being able to afford a similar house, let alone the house, the car, and the family.

Maybe the late fifties and early sixties were an unusually-favourable time for housing affordability that we nevertheless of think of as 'normal'. My great-grandfather lived in what was basically a walk-up apartment in London. My grandparents lived on farms, before moving to the city.

[aerodave]

I came in just to say lobster. Looks like I was beaten to it.

[CalMeacham]

Back when Frank Drake drilled his oil well in Titusville, PA, they wanted the "heavier portioons" of the oil for lam,ps and lubrication, taking the place of whale oil. The "Lighter Portions", I've been told, were simply thrown away. They were too volatile, and produced potentially dangerous vapors that could easily explode. These were things like heptane and hexane and octane -- modern gasoline.

[wolfman]

Skirt Steak and chicken wings . My mom and grandma used to cook them both cause they were cheap cast-off dog food parts. Now they cost more per pound than the good parts.

[Mongo Ponton]

Beach front property in a lot of the country. Farmers didn't want it because even if you could get something to grow, it was likely to get washed away in a storm.

Outside of a few spots beach front tended to be very rural. Often slave quarters were stuck down by the water.

[Mr. Moto]

Originally Posted by Sunspace

Okay, maybe 'cheap' is relative. But my father was able to support a mortgage, a car, and a family of five on a single income, that of a dispatcher at the gas company. I have a comparable job and income (allowing for inflation over the passage of time), but at roughly the same age, I'm not even close to being able to afford a similar house, let alone the house, the car, and the family.

Family of five, check.

House, check.

Car, check (two, actually.)

Income, one.

It can be done - it's just that most people don't want to actually do it. And living like our parents did goes a long way toward making this happen.

I made swiss steak last night in the pressure cooker out of some cube steaks I bought at Aldi. Might not have been T-bones, but they tasted great, and were dirt cheap.

[yabob]

Originally Posted by CalMeacham

Back when Frank Drake drilled his oil well in Titusville, PA, they wanted the "heavier portioons" of the oil for lam,ps and lubrication, taking the place of whale oil. The "Lighter Portions", I've been told, were simply thrown away. They were too volatile, and produced potentially dangerous vapors that could easily explode. These were things like heptane and hexane and octane -- modern gasoline.

Edwin Drake. Frank Drake is the astronomer who came up with the Drake equation.

[elmwood]

* Internet domain names that are simple English words.

* Hardwood lumber. Oak used to be cheap, even the old growth stuff - thus, it's abundance in older homes in the US.

* The services of skilled construction tradespeople. Many believe that the "character" of older homes isn't duplicated today because builders don't care. Actually, it's because the skilled specialty craftspeople are paid middle-income wages today, as opposed to few cents a day they earned at the turn of the last century.

* The services of general contractors. Even 30 years ago, one could call in a building contractor to tear out a wall for a couple hundred bucks. Today, the same work would be in the thousands; much more even considering inflation.

* Post-secondary education, at least in the United States..

[Lemur866]

Hand tailoring.

It used to be that cloth was expensive, but turning that cloth into custom fitted clothing was pretty cheap. If you could afford a suit, the extra cost of hand tailoring was trivial. In fact, there pretty much was no off the rack clothing. You bought the cloth and made it yourself, or you hired a person to custom make it for you.

[yabob]

Originally Posted by CalMeacham

Back when Frank Drake drilled his oil well in Titusville, PA, they wanted the "heavier portioons" of the oil for lam,ps and lubrication, taking the place of whale oil. The "Lighter Portions", I've been told, were simply thrown away. They were too volatile, and produced potentially dangerous vapors that could easily explode. These were things like heptane and hexane and octane -- modern gasoline.

Also, "heavier portions" may misstate it a bit, though the really short hydrocarbon end wasn't considered useful, as you indicated. The fraction they really wanted out of the oil for lighting purposes was kerosene - a lighter fraction than diesel fuel or lubricating oil.

[Spectre of Pithecanthropus]

Never mind.

[Sunspace]

Originally Posted by Mr. Moto

Family of five, check.

House, check.

Car, check (two, actually.)

Income, one.

It can be done - it's just that most people don't want to actually do it. And living like our parents did goes a long way toward making this happen.

But is your income average?

Okay, I did a potential mortgage calculation the other month. 25% of my net income translates to payments for a mortgage of around $150,000. The average house price in Toronto, where I live, is a hair under $400,000. Cite from the Toronto Real Estate Board. Heck, the average house price in the town where we lived is $190,000.

It's not as easy as it once was.

[Rico]

<mod>

Moved to IMHO.

GQ > IMHO

</mod>

[KneadToKnow]

Originally Posted by Mr. Moto

It can be done - it's just that most people don't want to actually do it. And living like our parents did goes a long way toward making this happen.

Yeah, my former boss made less than I did and supported his family of 5, mortgage in a not-cheap suburb, and two cars as well. But you have to be willing to make the sacrifices that allow it to work.

[Finagle]

Originally Posted by Lemur866

Hand tailoring.

Labor in general. Look at all the fancy gingerbread on old Victorian buildings. All the old architectural details on older buildings -- carved cornices and suchlike. You used to be able to affordably hire trained artisans and masons to do that kind of work and handymen to maintain it. I don't know the exact costs, but even middleclass households could afford maids and handymen.

Now labor is extraordinarily expensive. Get someone in to do some work on your house and look at the cost of material vs the cost of labor. Not a lot of people are going to be throwing up scroll sawn fretwork onto their new McMansions.

[control-z]

Water.

[Mr. Moto]

Originally Posted by KneadToKnow

Yeah, my former boss made less than I did and supported his family of 5, mortgage in a not-cheap suburb, and two cars as well. But you have to be willing to make the sacrifices that allow it to work.

This can be an interesting discussion. I'll open another thread in IMHO so as to avoid further hijacking.

[nivlac]

Breakfast cereal. Hey, it's just grain and sugar.

[ralph124c]

Hookers, usta pay less than $10/throw! Now they want all getout!

[Duckster]

Originally Posted by Nobody Special

... (I)s there anything that used to be ridiculously cheap but is now prohibitively expensive?

Manners. Being polite and courteous to others was dirt cheap growing up.

These days it's so expensive that someone saying "please" and "thank you" costs them an arm and a leg so they don't bother.

[Dewey Finn]

Originally Posted by Folly

Lobster. Prior to the 20th century, only eaten by the poor in the US.

Also, some other foodstuffs besides lobster. I think oysters used to be given away in the San Francisco of the ninteenth century. And I thought I read that truffles used to be a lot cheaper than they are now.

[Finagle]

College education? OK, maybe it was never cheap , but I'm pretty sure the institution never would have got off the ground if each year's tuition/board had been equal to a family's average income.

[Lumpy]

Originally Posted by Mongo Ponton

Beach front property in a lot of the country. Farmers didn't want it because even if you could get something to grow, it was likely to get washed away in a storm.

Outside of a few spots beach front tended to be very rural. Often slave quarters were stuck down by the water.

No kidding! As a young boy my family lived for a few years on Tybee Island near Savannah GA. My mom was a school teacher and my father was a gas station attendent. Today a home on Tybee would be worth at least ten times what it was worth forty years ago.

[Engineer Dude]

HD-DVD players. You'd think used ones would be dirt cheap, now that Blu-ray is the obvious winner. But no; it's actually quite the opposite

[zweisamkeit]

Originally Posted by Sunspace

Middle-class housing in North America.

Okay, maybe 'cheap' is relative. But my father was able to support a mortgage, a car, and a family of five on a single income, that of a dispatcher at the gas company. I have a comparable job and income (allowing for inflation over the passage of time), but at roughly the same age, I'm not even close to being able to afford a similar house, let alone the house, the car, and the family.

Maybe the late fifties and early sixties were an unusually-favourable time for housing affordability that we nevertheless of think of as 'normal'. My great-grandfather lived in what was basically a walk-up apartment in London. My grandparents lived on farms, before moving to the city.

But your mom probably did a lot more planning and scrimping with the food budget ("tuna casserole AGAIN?"), you didn't have computers, mp3 players, more than one TV (or any TV at all), multiple cars, get new furniture because you're tired of the style and not because it's actually broken, clothing was mended (and socks were darned) instead of thrown out, you didn't have cable, cell phones, netflix, internet, etc etc.

[Public Animal No. 9]

Originally Posted by Sunspace

Middle-class housing in North America....

You should also take into account house sizes these days. In general, houses are much bigger than they used to be. Lots tend to be smaller, but what we tend to consider "starter" homes are quite a bit larger than what I grew up in (2 parents, 3 kids).

[Alex_Dubinsky]

Originally Posted by ralph124c

Hookers, usta pay less than $10/throw! Now they want all getout!

That goes under the category of skilled labor, no?

[7218]

Comic Books.

[HeyHomie]

Originally Posted by Folly

Lobster. Prior to the 20th century, only eaten by the poor in the US.

What caused the change?

[bouv]

Originally Posted by HeyHomie

What caused the change?

Some genius realized he could dupe rich folks into eating giant red bugs by calling them a 'delicacy' and charging 10x the price.

Seriously, you people do realize you're basically eating a giant cockroach, right?

[Tapioca Dextrin]

How about movies?

King Kong (1933) cost $670,000 to make and you could watch it for a nickel.

King Kong (2005) cost $200,000,000 to make and $10 or so to watch.

[Folly]

Originally Posted by HeyHomie

What caused the change?

Availability. When giant lobsters swarm beaches it's only fit for the poor.

But once it becomes rarer and lobster fishing is hard work, suddenly it becomes a tasty delicacy. :)

[panache45]

First-Class postage. When I was a kid in the '50s, it was 3 cents.

A ride in a NYC subway. Used to be a nickel; how many bucks is it now?

White Castle hamburgers. I think they were something like 12 cents apiece.

[Hilarity N. Suze]

The hamsters ate the last post I made on this so this one will be shorter. (Actually it not only didn't post, it closed my window, shut down the Internet, and turned off my computer...so I'm a bit nervous)

My first house: $24,800. My income at the time: $8000/year. This was the guideline: 3X your income for your total purchase.

At the time, $8000/year was by no means a lavish income, but it was well above minimum wage.

The house today (and somebody else owns it, I sold it in 1991) is worth $350,000, and it's the same house--it's the lot that's worth the $$$. The same crappy house, in other words. Who will buy it today? Someone who makes 1/3 of $350,000? It's worth more than TEN TIMES what it was worth in the mid-70s.

There may be a 24-year-old with an $80,000/year income who can buy this house. It's sure not a family home. It may look like an old Victorian fixer-upper but it's only a one-bedroom; it's a starter home. A $350,000 starter home. (Or, a $100,000 starter home on a $250,000 lot.)

I don't really think this can be accounted for by economizing on tuna casseroles, and while someone might want a smaller home, and be willing to pay for it, what's happening to the smaller homes in many neighborhoods here are, they're being bought by RE speculators and torn down to build McMansions.

[Annie-Xmas]

Taxes. Income & sales use to be nonexistant.

[Annie-Xmas]

Game show innings. Winning a lot of money and a car use to be a big deal; now it's the norm.

[BMalion]

Originally Posted by Mr. Moto

Family of five, check.

House, check.

Car, check (two, actually.)

Income, one.

It can be done - it's just that most people don't want to actually do it. And living like our parents did goes a long way toward making this happen. ...

Amen. You think you can't do it on one income, but that's because most people think they have to have the DVD's the HDTV, the cable, the esspresso machine, 2 cars, regular vacations to Vegas or Mexico, monthly salon haircuts, new clothes, etc. You pare down or cut out a lot of that stuff you'd be surprised how cheap it is to live and still splurge occainsionally.

[Tastes of Chocolate]

Anything handcrafted. Can you imagine some of the old cathedrals being build today? It would never happen. The labor costs for the windows/stoneworks/plasterwork/statues etc would keep it from happening.

I guess that actually boils down to time. Used to be time was cheap, materials were expensive. That's mostly flip-flopped now.

[Gangster Octopus]

Sports teams.

[Alex_Dubinsky]

hospital stays. also, drugs.

In the companion thread, a lot of items have found competition in modern times and droped in price. Surprisingly, the exact opposite happened to medicine.

[Cicero]

Brains- as in the variety you crumb and cook. Now the labour in extracting them makes them very expensive.

[susan]

Human labor.

[Lynn Bodoni]

Originally Posted by Alex_Dubinsky

hospital stays. also, drugs.

In the companion thread, a lot of items have found competition in modern times and droped in price. Surprisingly, the exact opposite happened to medicine.

Here again, you're getting a lot more today than you were yesterday. For example, hospitals have a lot more equipment available today than in years past, and they have to pass the cost on to the patient/insurance company. There are a lot more tests that can be run, to better diagnose and treat the patient. As for drugs, again, there's LOTS more drugs available now. I had an MSRA infection a few years ago, and after trying me on several antibiotics, I was put on a very new and very expensive antibiotic. But it saved my arm.

On the other hand, when I need an antibiotic, I can sometimes take one that costs less than $3 for 30 pills. My thyroid supplement costs less than $5 for 30. The newest drugs generally cost more, but they're more effective, too.