some prices from 1902

[Lee Barner]

these pics are from a 1969 reprint of a 1902 Sears & Roebuck catalog. we definitely need a time machine. enjoy. lee

 

[italiansport]

In many cases these prices were more than a weeks salary for most guys!
Jim

 

[DWalt]

No we don't. Things were in far worse back then for most people than they are today. People didn't live nearly as long, and infant mortality was very high in the days before modern medicine. Poverty was rampant, quality of life was miserable for most except for the very wealthy, and diseases which don't exist today were widespread back then, like smallpox, TB, and Polio, and a simple scratch could produce a deadly infection which could not be cured as there were no antibiotics. And if you adjust those 1902 prices for inflation, they will be equivalent to today's prices if not higher. Multiply those 1902 prices by about 30X to estimate the 2019 equivalent. And indeed if you were working for much more than a dollar per day for a 10 or 12 hour day with no benefits at some backbreaking job, you were very fortunate.

 

[tops]

these pics are from a 1969 reprint of a 1902 Sears & Roebuck catalog. we definitely need a time machine. enjoy. lee

I had a great uncle that was born in 1880 and died in 1978. He told me that when he was young he made 20 cents a day driving a 4 horse team hauling lumber. He would only spend 5 cents and saved 15 cents. That leads me to believe that guns may be cheaper now. Larry

 

[Pef]

No we don't. Things were in far worse back then for most people than they are today. People didn't live nearly as long, and infant mortality was very high in the days before modern medicine. Poverty was rampant, quality of life was miserable for most except for the very wealthy, and diseases which don't exist today were widespread back then, like smallpox, TB, and Polio, and a simple scratch could produce a deadly infection which could not be cured as there were no antibiotics. And if you adjust those 1902 prices for inflation, they will be equivalent to today's prices if not higher. Multiply those 1902 prices by about 30X to estimate the 2019 equivalent. And indeed if you were working for much more than a dollar per day for a 10 or 12 hour day with no benefits at some backbreaking job, you were very fortunate.

You do realize if you had a time machine, you could come back to today after buying those guns at 1902, right? I mean, the OP said "time machine," so there's probably a return button, or something.

 

[Ματθιας]

I think some people take things too literally.

 

[DWalt]

You do realize if you had a time machine, you could come back to today after buying those guns at 1902, right? I mean, the OP said "time machine," so there's probably a return button, or something.

That assumes sellers in 1902 would accept money printed or minted now that you time traveled backward with. Paper currency and coinage were also much different back then when both gold and silver coins were used.

Relativistically, you can't go backwards in time, but theoretically you could travel ahead in time if you could move at the speed of light. Unless you could find a convenient wormhole to crawl through.

 

[Absalom]

That assumes sellers in 1902 would accept money printed or minted now that you time traveled backward with. Paper currency and coinage were also much different back then when both gold and silver coins were used.

Relativistically, you can't go backwards in time, but theoretically you could travel ahead in time if you could move at the speed of light. Unless you could find a convenient wormhole to crawl through.

In Stephen King's "11/22/63", the story starts with a restaurant owner who is famous and somewhat suspect for having the best and cheapest hamburgers in town (ca. 2008).

Turns out he found a time warp in his pantry that allowed him to go back to 1958. He sets out to stop the JFK assassination (the main plot), but also keeps getting cheap good beef for his burgers.

He also brings back lung cancer, which kills him, because back in 1958 everybody everywhere smoked like a chimney