US everyday life · 1950–1999
Yesterday's Ledger
Opening the receipts of the America that disappeared.
The Sears catalog, layaway, the pay phone, the five-and-dime. Each episode follows the money: what it cost, how many hours of work that meant, and what made it disappear.
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Newest episode
A 1965 Factory Job Bought a House in 3.6 Years. Today It's 6.3.
In 1965 the median new house in America cost $20,000, and a factory worker earned $2.61 an hour. That's about 3.6 years of work. Today the same math gives you 6.3. But eggs, milk and bread take less than half the work they did. And one bill grew faster than the house did.
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How the Ledger works
- The price then. What it really cost at the time, from catalogs, newspapers and government records.
- The price today. Converted to today's dollars with the government's consumer price index.
- The hours of work. How long a typical worker had to work to pay for it, then and now.
Every number is checked against at least two sources, and every episode page lists them.
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