Value for the dollar?

[challengertn]

I posted this story on another website but since everyone was good enough to answer my other post I thought I'd give you some food for thought. I took my father with me today to look at the new Kubotas because he has now decided at 86 years of age that he should buy a new tractor. On the way back we were discussing the fact that in 1951 he paid $1100 for a new tractor and equipment. Then in 1972 he traded it for another tractor and give $2500 to boot. He has since had it rebuilt at a cost of $700. I figure with tires, oil, etc. he should have no more than $5000 in the use of a tractor for 54 years. Although we farmed a small farm for the first 25 to 30 years, it has just been bushhogging, garden plowing, and mowing for the remainder of the time. I know there are lots of stories like this out there but I doubt if it could ever be equalled again.

 

[Henro]

Glad to hear that your father is interested in a new tractor at 86 years of age...that is in the ball park as far as one of my personal goal too! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Have to ask, what size and what type of transmission? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[JimR]

Those days are long gone. I bought my old 1952 8N in 1978 for $800.00. It had a loader and a backhoe on it. The hoe needed a few cylinders which the guy gave me plenty of parts to make them with. I used it for 20 years. I dug around my foundation for drainage. Put in 400 feet of drain pipe along the road front and dug out 600 feet of our brook. Put in darians around our barn next door and so many other things. I sold it broken for $1000.00 to get rid of it. Now I wish I had kept it just for the backhoe. I miss the hoe, but not the clutch or brakes of the 8N.

 

[Henro]

<font color="blue"> Those days are long gone. </font>

You know, I am not sure they are...

I only say that because "back then" when we paid what looks like a little sum of money now, we were really paying a great percentage of our actual income.

If one could compare the price of something as a percentage of annual income back then, with what something costs today as a percent of annual income, he might be surprised.

I would not be surprised if percentage wise, things are not cheaper now than they were back in the "good old days!"

Hard to believe, but $2 per gallon gas may just happen to be a bargain. I wonder if it is... /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[DmansPadge]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( If one could compare the price of something as a percentage of annual income back then, with what something costs today as a percent of annual income, he might be surprised.

I would not be surprised if percentage wise, things are not cheaper now than they were back in the "good old days!")</font>

You are so right Henro! I had tried to argue that point many times. Sure you might have been able to get a Coke for a nickle or go the the movies for a quarter, but, if you only made $5 a day it's not that good of a deal!!

 

[btolle]

According to the consumer price index calculator at Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis $1,100 in 1951 would be worth $7,716 in 2003 (the calculator only goes to 2003).

Given the difference in todays tractors and those built in 1951 I would say there really isn't much difference in price.

Bill Tolle

 

[JimMorrissey]

I think that is fantastic that he wants a new machine! The kind of hobbies that allow for a certain amount of physical activity will be great for you father's future health. I say hobbies only becuase I figure he's not farming full-time any longer /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif