I don’t think cost has changed much. Reportedly, in the 1950′s a burger cost 15 cents (about $1.3 in today’s money) and a slice of pizza cost 25 cents (about $2.2 in today’s money). Convenience might have changed but not by a lot, and that may just be because people now just go out for food more often than making it at home.
Just based on my general observations, I would have to disagree. Just walking down the street in New York, there are lots of places where you can get a large slice of pizza for $1.00. That’s about 8 minutes of work at the minimum wage. Back in 1985, I remember the minimum wage was $3.35 per hour, so 8 minutes of work would have been about 45 cents. I don’t recall ever seeing a large slice of pizza for 45 cents back in the 80s.
Also, during the 80s, I remember spending about $5.00 for a typical deli lunch consisting of a turkey sandwich and a can of soda. Twenty-five years later, it costs about $6.00 and there are still places where you can get it for $5.00. Or less.
It also occurs to me that portion sizes have perhaps increased. If you a Google image search for “portion” “sizes” “over” “time,” you get all kinds of charts making this claim. I wasn’t around in the 1950s, but it does seem that, at a minimum, soda sizes have increased. I vaguely remember that it was common to get a 10 ounce bottle of soda 30 or 40 years ago. I haven’t seen a 10 ounce bottle in years; it seems that 16 ounces is the standard single serving bottle size and 20 ounces is pretty common too.
Hamburgers have expanded by 23 percent; A plate of Mexican food is 27 percent bigger; Soft drinks have increased in size by 52 percent; Snacks, whether they be potato chips, pretzels or crackers, are 60 percent larger.
So if you look at things in terms of dollars per calorie, the decline in the price of prepared foods may very well be even more dramatic than it seems on the surface.
What do you mean by that exactly? How many burgers could the median worker in 1950 buy with their hourly wage, and how many can the median worker today buy with theirs?
That’s a very very complex (and controversial!) topic because ‘median worker’ or ‘median household’ is not well-defined. Many households during that era were single-income (not nearly as many as popular opinion would suggest, but still far more than today). There’s also the fact that there were more married couples and more children than today. You also have to consider that food hasn’t made up the bulk of household expenditures during modern times. Today food accounts for 10-15% of the average family’s living expenses, and from the limited information I was able to find, it was about 30% in 1950.
I don’t think cost has changed much. Reportedly, in the 1950′s a burger cost 15 cents (about $1.3 in today’s money) and a slice of pizza cost 25 cents (about $2.2 in today’s money). Convenience might have changed but not by a lot, and that may just be because people now just go out for food more often than making it at home.
However, marketing could be the big factor here.
Just based on my general observations, I would have to disagree. Just walking down the street in New York, there are lots of places where you can get a large slice of pizza for $1.00. That’s about 8 minutes of work at the minimum wage. Back in 1985, I remember the minimum wage was $3.35 per hour, so 8 minutes of work would have been about 45 cents. I don’t recall ever seeing a large slice of pizza for 45 cents back in the 80s.
Also, during the 80s, I remember spending about $5.00 for a typical deli lunch consisting of a turkey sandwich and a can of soda. Twenty-five years later, it costs about $6.00 and there are still places where you can get it for $5.00. Or less.
Besides that, EITC has increased the effective wage.
It also occurs to me that portion sizes have perhaps increased. If you a Google image search for “portion” “sizes” “over” “time,” you get all kinds of charts making this claim. I wasn’t around in the 1950s, but it does seem that, at a minimum, soda sizes have increased. I vaguely remember that it was common to get a 10 ounce bottle of soda 30 or 40 years ago. I haven’t seen a 10 ounce bottle in years; it seems that 16 ounces is the standard single serving bottle size and 20 ounces is pretty common too.
Here’s an article which seems to agree:
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=129685
So if you look at things in terms of dollars per calorie, the decline in the price of prepared foods may very well be even more dramatic than it seems on the surface.
What do you mean by that exactly? How many burgers could the median worker in 1950 buy with their hourly wage, and how many can the median worker today buy with theirs?
That’s a very very complex (and controversial!) topic because ‘median worker’ or ‘median household’ is not well-defined. Many households during that era were single-income (not nearly as many as popular opinion would suggest, but still far more than today). There’s also the fact that there were more married couples and more children than today. You also have to consider that food hasn’t made up the bulk of household expenditures during modern times. Today food accounts for 10-15% of the average family’s living expenses, and from the limited information I was able to find, it was about 30% in 1950.
To answer your question, I honestly don’t know.