to those about in '87

[tris-]

im doing a bit of economic work atm and i need input from those who were around in '87.

to cut a long story short, the following items now take up a larger amount of our money than they did back then -

take aways
buying houses
house services (telephones etc)
motoring expenses
leisure services (going to stadiums etc)

why is it people were not so keen to spend more of their money on that stuff back then? we are now apparently spending less of our money on AV stuff for the house, was all the stuff back then really uber and you just had to have it?

anything else you remember about spending habbits back then, feel free to share

 

[haarewin]

is it just that those things you listed were cheaper "back then" than they are now?

 

[Bodhi]

From what I can remember (i was only 7 at the time) the only reason we spent more back then on AV was the late 80's was when AV really took off. Before then we had a TV and a record player and that was about it. Oh yeah and a VCR. In the late 80's everything went mad - CD became readily availible, TV's got Nicam and all sorts of other wonders, VCR's didn't need a room all to theirselves and people started getting themselves decent home setups. Since then people have just been upgrading/repairing breakages, hence the lower spend.

 

[Wij]

Goods = Cheaper
Services = More expensive

Roughly

Intense competition on techie items forces the price down. It doesn't work the same for 'services'. Many are price inelastic because it's not perfect competition. You aren't likely to think "My God, Chelsea tickets are expensive, I'm going to go see Grays Athletic instead."

So as we have more and more disposable income we end up spending most of it just on higher prices for many types of things like footy, bands, houses etc...

 

[Chilly]

it was acceptable in the 80s!

 

[dysfunction]

We eat out more because we have become busier/lazier and love things to be "convenient" rather than cooks for ourselves and eat with the family.

Houses are more expensive but then they always have been...supply and demand at work there I'm afraid. And more people are getting richer and can afford more so that oushes up the price as well.

House services - people tend to have more than one phone line in homes now, we have more gadgets like computers, dishwashers and tumble dryers so we use up more electricity. We also have more than one TV in the home as they have become a lot cheaper to own.

All electrical goods have become a lot cheaper over the years....there is a lot more competition and there are more markets open from asia. You could never buy a VCR in the 80's as cheaply as you can buy a DVD player for now.

Motoring expenses have gone up due to taxes...the government doesnt want you using the car! or it does but it want more of your money!

People have more money these days for leisure pursuits so they therefore cost more...the more cash you have the more the vendors can push up their prices...