Inflation Number Crunching (Current Newsweek)

Inflation, that magic word,  refers to a breadbasket of things, rather than to any specific purchase we might want to make.

I once read that, to keep things in perspective, one has to account for only the inflation from the year you graduated college to present.  For example, there has been 700% inflation since I finished college, therefore, to see if a pair of shoes is reasonable, or not, I only have to divide the price by 7 – if it then looks like a decent price, then, well, it is a decent price for me.  $100 tennis shoes, divided by 7, and that tells me it compares to a pair of $14.28 tennis shoes in 1965.  That still looks a bit pricey to me.  TV’s however, have come down, dividing a current TV set by 7 would give me $100 for a 42 inch screen.  They were surely much more than $100 the year I graduated, and big screens were not even available..  Graduation year 1965 (or thereabouts)

This week’s Newsweek Magazine is a special issue --- a blast from the past.  And in this issue is a 1965 set of prices compared to 2012.  Unfortunately they already claim to have multiplied the 1965 prices by “7” (or some number) to see if things have really gone up or down (in constant dollars).

                                                  1965*                     2012

                                            ------------               -------------      

Gallon of Milk                         $6.84                    $3.30           it has fallen by half !!

Issue of New York Times            .72                      2.50           4 times as expensive

Coffee                                         5.41                      5.50           no change, that’s curious

Share of GE Stock                     1.50                     20.20         

Newsweek cover price               2.52                      4.99          

Ounce of GOLD                      252.70               1,659.42          (was $35.12 in 1965)

Gas, one gallon                            2.25                      3.83          (if you didn’t adjust for)

 Chicken  $/lb                               2.81                      1.33          (inflation)

Tuition, room, board,

at four-year university            1,051.00           22,450.00     

*  prices adjusted for inflation

You knew there was a point to this Blog, didn’t you?  Now you see it.  College costs are appear to be out of control.  But are they?  By this chart, they are up 22 X  -- when comparing to inflation adjusted costs in 1965.  But, I remember tuition being more like $600 a semester in the 60’s.  Food was 22 cents a meal, and dorms were not that much (two to a room).   So I think their inflation adjusted costs for that item are out of whack.  After the inflation adjustment, I would think the 1965 college costs would be more like $2,500 X 7 = $16,800 (a year)  compared to $22,450 a year now. 

Please add your comments to this line of thinking.  Have you ever done the calculations to tie your value-system to your year of finishing college? 

 http://www.westegg.com/inflation/  an easy inflation calculator, this is a hot link.

My Son Explores Wireless Printing !!

My son, who runs a small business passes this along, so if you are in the market for a new printer for any of your computer-like devices read on.

He bought a new printer for his home-office 2 days ago. The old one died on him.  He got a HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus. It’s a wireless computer and the setup for connecting to his wireless network at his house and it was so easy he couldn’t believe it.

The printer found his network and connected in the touch of one button. It came with an Eprint feature where the computer was assigned an email address that he can forward documents to and it will automatically print them. It has other Apps installed on the printer for various things. Then he accessed Google Cloud print. From his portable computer it went out and found the printer and added it to his list of printers on the cloud.

He has an android phone and a Gmail account so he added the Cloud print app to his phone and now when he wants to print something form his phone he just selects the item and hits "print" on the phone,  and no matter where he is, it sends the request to the printer and when he returns home the documents will be sitting on the printer tray. The Google cloud also lets him store documents to it for retrieval anywhere as well. "Pretty amazing where the technology is going", he says. 

I agree !!  Please add your comments and favorite printer recommendations.

The Best Microsoft Office Alternative

Everyone, well, not everyone, is looking for a good (cheap and functional) alternative to the rather over-priced MS Office suite.  After reading several recent reviews, I found one that interests me.  Kingsoft Office Suite 2012. 

It is truly compatible, opens MS Office documents and presentations, and saves its own in a compatible way for those using MS Office at the other end.  This article says competitor Open Office faces an uncertain future.  And Libre-Office is bogged down by clumsy and outdated interface, and other problems. 

 http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/249519/the_best_microsoft_office_alternative_youve_never_heard_of.html

Here is a hotlink to the full story if you are interested. 

Apple App Store Hits 25 Billion Downloads

This is so remarkable since

1.      there are only 7 billion people on the planet

2.      Apps have only been around a few years

3.      there are 600,000 apps now in the App store

4.      already Apple has paid App developers $4 billion in commissions

According to Pew Internet report, of adults with a cell phone, more have a smart phone than a regular phone.  That number was only 35% just a year ago !!!  It is a landslide unparalleled in the consumer products business.

If you are counting, Apple has sold 410 million mobile devices.  And if you divide the downloads in the headline by the number of devices, you get 61 Apps per device.  I only have 30 or so, so I am behind the curve. 

One reason for this App explosion is one I quickly discovered.  Many Apps are faster and easier to use than the corresponding websites.  And are, well, better designed.

Source for this BLOG – May issue of PCWORLD magazine.  If you don’t subscribe, it is a bargain at about $10 a year (see Amazon magazine department, a great way to buy and manage paper subscriptions --- if you are careful).

Did That Robot Take My Job?

To quote Businessweek, Jan 9 2012 issue, the US produces more than one-quarter more goods and services today than it did in 1999.  But uses almost precisely the same number of workers.  Why?  We have become a lot more productive thanks to robotics and other automation techniques.  Magically, $2.5 trillion worth of stuff  (from 1999 to present) materialized out of thin air. No extra workers were needed.

Businesses have bought many new and modern machines, but not hired many new people.  Having run a business, I know people-costs keep climbing,  and adding or subtracting manpower is not as easy (or as flexible) as turning on and off a robotic operation.

But in 2011, American businesses added 540,000 workers.  That flies in the face of the above. Some say technology destroys jobs – but only some kinds of jobs – and it creates new kinds of jobs (robot repair and replacement?).  This is not much consolation to the 20 million people supposedly still looking for work.  How many of these were in construction?   Some cities have seen 70% or more of their small builders go out of business in the last four years. And big builders have been shrinking as well.  The counter point to that is, some medium sized builders have taken advantage of the drop in competition and are turning out more housing product than ever.  Maybe not at the normal profit per house, but they are moving dirt (lots) which is important. And dirt is much cheaper now than it was 4 years ago.

Automated kiosk’s, automated TV cameras, voice to text (Dragon and Siri) replacing old fashioned dictation, paralegals replaced by internet searches, each of these and many more contribute to job losses – or the lack of hiring.  But some economists think the flat-line demand is responsible.  American factories are working well below their design output.  They won’t hire until more orders come in.

Looming large, world wide, is youthful and productive populations elsewhere.  Today I read that half the population of India is under 25.  And India has 1.2 billion people.  India thus has 2 people under 25 for every person of any age in the USA.  Where will they find jobs for all these people as they enter the work force? How can these new people consume if they can't earn money?

iPad Note Taking App Worth A Look.

http://www.softwaregarden.com/products/notetaker/index.html

Click on link for full explanation.  Called Note Taker HD in the iTunes Store

By Software Garden.

A good and really tech-savvy friend recommended that I look at this app.  Dan Brickman, the designer, is famous for many things, but he designed the first spread sheet I ever used – in the 1980’s, called VisiCalc.  And, it was on an Apple product, the Apple IIe.  Younger readers will not recognize that number, but it was a breakthrough then like the iPhone was today.  First truly good looking and good working personal type computer.

You can write in large letters on the screen rather than trying to make tiny motions like a pencil. Note Taker automatically shrinks your writing so you can fit a lot of text on the screen. You just keep writing and Note Taker automatically adds new writing next to the old. To quickly correct mistakes, it has a multi-level undo button as well as an eraser -- just drag your finger over the page to erase the "ink" under it.   Price is $5.00 in the iTunes Store. 

iPad Owners Alert -- Are You Missing The Manual ?

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/iPad_User_Guide.pdf

the official 150 page manual for iPad

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/14529/the-complete-list-of-ipad-tips-tricks-and-tutorials/

this is a website for iPads you have probably already found, if not it has a wealth of information and tips for iPad owners

These are hot links, just click and go !!  I just learned this today. They are not blue, but they are definitely hot links.