CPI changes

[Edward H. Lybarger]

The $ figure cited was only 800K.  That led to my interpretation that it was
just the surplus real estate.  But I shall bookmark the BLS site.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
[mailto:owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org]On Behalf Of Fred W.
Schneider III
Sent: Friday, July 07, 2000 1:04 PM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: CPI changes


I know I deleted the original message ... there was a discussion about
the change in values since 1950 when Pittsburgh Railways sold off the
Duquesne Gardens site in Oakland.  Looking at the BLS website, I find
that the consumer price index for all urban consumers (its there from
1913 on) has gone up 7.43 times since 1950.  That would make $8 million
then about $60 million today.

The CPI is not a perfect method ... changes in real estate indices might
be even better.
The CPI has been criticized because certain inputs stay constant for too
long, i.e. if the cost of steaks go out of site, BLS has been criticized
for not substituting chicken sooner.  Same idea if gas prices skyrocket,
we cannot assume that people will continue to drive as many miles and
therefore the cost of the average persons purchases really didn't go up
as much.  Regardless, the CPI changes make a pretty good ballpark way of
studying changes.  You can find the actual numbers at
<http://www.bls.gov>.

Comparing real estate to transit fares is probably as much of a base
balls versus prunes comparison as we can make.  For many years, transit
fares were driven up out of proportion to other cost increases because
of the need to cover fixed costs with declining passenger counts.  Then
we started paying the cost of transit with government subsidies. If you
were to compare transit fares in 1950 with fares plus subsidies today,
you probably have a 30 fold increase compared to a 7 fold increase in
overall costs.  Its horrible to realize how inefficient public transport
has become.

Does this help?