If you use the calculator that I referenced you will come out with the figures that I quoted. There are several ways of measuring the worth and those are shown on the calculator. Using the consumer price index as the basis the figures are correct. Using other things as the basis you will definitely come up with different figures.
Glen, K9STH
Website: http://k9sth.com
--- On Sun, 1/17/10, Anthony Monteiro aa2tx@comcast.net wrote:
From: Anthony Monteiro aa2tx@comcast.net Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Re: Life Members To: "Glen Zook" gzook@yahoo.com, "Amsat BB" amsat-bb@amsat.org Cc: aa2tx@comcast.net Date: Sunday, January 17, 2010, 11:27 AM At 12:03 PM 1/17/2010, Glen Zook wrote:
... Based on the consumer price index, the $50 that I
spent for my life membership back around 1970 is today the equivalent of right at $3300! That is 66 times in "absolute dollars". Compare that to the present life membership fee of $880. That means that we who obtained our life memberships back in the early 1970s paid 3.75 times what new life members are paying.
If you don't believe these figures then do the
calculations on the following website:
...
Hi Glen,
I appreciate your sentiment about the fact that AMSAT needed the money back then but I don't think your math is correct. $1 in 1970 is equivalent to around $5.50 - $6.00 in todays dollars depending on how you compare it.
Using the "Measuring Worth" web site, the CPI equivalent value of $50 in 1970 is $277.17 in 2009 dollars.
73, Tony AA2TX AMSAT VP Engineering
Probably a method more personal to one's finances is compare your paycheck at the time getting the life membership with what one is paid, today. If I do that for 1985 vs 2009 I get 92K/15K = 6.13 Of course It will not do for me to use 2010 pay as that is only Unemployment ;-) I still pay my full annual Amsat dues as I was not smart enough to get a life membership in early years. In July I will apply for my soc. sec. and try to live on 1/3 of working years pay.
I do appreciate organizations that have a retired dues level. Of course for ham radio memberships that would be the majority - oops!
73, Ed - KL7UW
At 09:54 AM 1/17/2010, Glen Zook wrote:
If you use the calculator that I referenced you will come out with the figures that I quoted. There are several ways of measuring the worth and those are shown on the calculator. Using the consumer price index as the basis the figures are correct. Using other things as the basis you will definitely come up with different figures.
Glen, K9STH
Website: http://k9sth.com
--- On Sun, 1/17/10, Anthony Monteiro aa2tx@comcast.net wrote:
From: Anthony Monteiro aa2tx@comcast.net Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Re: Life Members To: "Glen Zook" gzook@yahoo.com, "Amsat BB" amsat-bb@amsat.org Cc: aa2tx@comcast.net Date: Sunday, January 17, 2010, 11:27 AM At 12:03 PM 1/17/2010, Glen Zook wrote:
... Based on the consumer price index, the $50 that I
spent for my life membership back around 1970 is today the equivalent of right at $3300! That is 66 times in "absolute dollars". Compare that to the present life membership fee of $880. That means that we who obtained our life memberships back in the early 1970s paid 3.75 times what new life members are paying.
If you don't believe these figures then do the
calculations on the following website:
...
Hi Glen,
I appreciate your sentiment about the fact that AMSAT needed the money back then but I don't think your math is correct. $1 in 1970 is equivalent to around $5.50 - $6.00 in todays dollars depending on how you compare it.
Using the "Measuring Worth" web site, the CPI equivalent value of $50 in 1970 is $277.17 in 2009 dollars.
73, Tony AA2TX AMSAT VP Engineering
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Glen,
When I use your calculator, I get Tony's results ($277.17). The following is copied directly from the web page results using initial year "1970", initial amount "50.00", and desired year "2009":
"Current data is only available till 2008. In 2008, $50.00 from 1970 is worth: $277.17 using the Consumer Price Index"
What numbers are you using with the calculator?
I followed up with a "sanity check" on the numbers to make sure the results are reasonable. The $277 figure corresponds to an average compounded annual inflation rate of 6.3% over 28 years. Your $3300 figure corresponds to an average compounded annual inflation rate of 16.1% over 28 years.
$50 * (1+0.063)**28 = $276.63 $50 * (1+0.161)**28 = $3,267.93
Since I don't believe we've averaged 16% annual inflation for the past 28 years, I believe the $277 is closer to the right answer.
Steve, N9IP
participants (3)
-
Edward Cole -
Glen Zook -
Stephen E. Belter