Maybe things aren't so bad after all?

I don't think ANY equations can keep up with actual inflation.
1985 was really Rough for us...a terrible year in Agriculture.
International Harvester went broke. Allis Chalmers made it to 1987. Lots of farmers lost everything. Farmers had terrible prices on top of drought back to back years. In 1985 Dad tried going for hire ..trying to put food on the table by cutting hay in development areas around Urban Omaha. Only for the man he was doing it for to go bankrupt and not pay him. Dad was gone all spring. My twin brother and I fed the cows with the tractor before we went to grade school. We planted everything and cultivated everything. Yes it was 1985 and we only had 320 acres..but we didn't turn 13 until that fall. The best part...Dad let us drive the tractor to school every Day!

The largest combine back in 85 was about 80,000. Like most..we couldn't swing that..the one we were running was a John Deere 4400 that was bought 1 year old in 1971 for $12,000. It was completely shot by 1985.

I bought a new combine in 2007 its list price was $278,000. Out the door was 207k

In 2024...the model that I would buy to replaces it costs $623,000 list price. Out the door..maybe $500+k
There is only one solution for us..keep our junk running till someone else's junk is a upgrade.. and keep pulling our own wrenches.

Given how close we came to nuclear war with the Soviets in the 80s things aren’t so bad today given the grand scheme of things.

The Near Nuclear War of 1983 | Air & Space Forces Magazine

The Soviet False Alarm Incident and Able Archer 83 - Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

The word average has been used here many times. Some had a good time, while others had a bad time. The same has always been true. It's called life and I know many people that no matter what, will have a bad time of it. I know people that, in the best of times, have found a way to dry up on the vine. I don't have the answers, and sometimes people are their own enemy. My development is full of young, successful people.

guy gadbois said:

And there is no way Mr Cranky to keep the thread from becoming political is anything more than a cursory statement or two is made about the differences as it IS a political [and spiritual] question/answer. So I'll just leave my comment without going any further by saying that all ya hafta do is turn on the radio; how much better was 'pop', rock and Country music on the airwaves 40 years ago than the garbage non-music polluting the ionosphere now...?

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Yup, this is usually a issue where politics is involved but so far no names or parties or other direct mention towards a political figure or party has been mentioned....except for one....and in my eyes, that wasn't enough to move it to the political forum.

Hmmm...car forum...ok ..

I made the last payment on my 1979 Chrysler 300 in 1985. Trade-in value was less than $2k in 1985. Not going to do that and I still have the car. They don't sell for diddly squat in 2024. Did I mention I still have the car...the Rodney Dangerfield of Mopars? It is a good car.

I bought my 1970 Charger 383 Magnum, 4 speed car including a box of NOS engine parts for $1,200 in 1985. It has appreciated in value for sure. Some kind of "Omen".

My wife's Valentine's Day present for 1985 was a brand new S10 Blazer. I paid around $10.5k if I recall correctly.

A friend of mine bought a new 1984 Porsche Carrera and the MSRP was around $35k; and he didn't pay one penny less Those '84 to '89 3.2 liter Carreras have maintained a nice, steady "value".

We bought our first house for $59,100 in 1983. A 1,300 square foot ranch floorplan. Mortgage interest rate was slightly under 11%. It was an FHA loan.

My annual salary for 2024 is 7.4 times higher than my salary in 1985. Also, now I receive two annual bonuses and I am paid for all overtime. No bonuses or paid overtime in 1985. However, medical insurance is the other way around...my medical insurance was mostly paid by my employer in 1985 and the coverage was very good. Nowadays (2024), my employer covers some of the medical premium, but I have to cover the rest and it isn't an insignificant amount of money. Also, the medical deductible is now high and the coverage by the medical plan is not as good as it was in 1985. Prescription plan is worse than in 1985. Dental insurance has always been Delta Dental and has always been lackluster.

Back to cars, I recall the sporty cars rapidly increasing in MSRP from 1985 onwards into the early 1990's. Prohibitively expensive (for me) by 1992.

This was supposed to be a fun look back at the 80s.

The high interest was good for one thing in the 80s, property was cheap,
I remember the neighbor came over wanting to sell his commercial building for 80k, my father laughed and jokingly offered him 40k, he came back the next day and said ok. Nobody would lend him the $$$ because he was self employed, the guy that owned the local Dodge dealer was starting a bank and loaned him the money at 12% with a 5 year term. The thing about the 80s was we were all barely making it but we never felt poor, always got by. Expectations seem really high today, for what little most people work.

Bee1971 said:

I am not buying it

All I know is Van Halen broke up in 1985

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And, that was also the year that Doc Brown invented the…..oops, I mean the year of the big lightning storm in Hill Valley. Save the clock tower!!

I am much better off now than I was in 86 just after a divorce.

Hey-O said:

Different times require a different tactics to move forward. My father always said, if life deals you a lemon, make lemonade.

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Ulli, my post about declines in the trucking industry supports your father's assertion. Macroeconomic changes, in combination with economic deregulation in 1980, changed the playing field. My corporate employer benefited, and made a financial killing, for nearly three decades by expanding into new markets that were untouchable in earlier years, when rates for what they could haul were at their peak. As overall wages dropped, I was able to prosper, as guys who could perform at my level became a thing of the past. When I reached retirement, I was the last owner operator leased to my carrier. I survived, because I was the only driver able to unload a bulk tanker quickly enough to pick up a return load and make it home before the DOT mandated hours limit ran out.

I'm somewhat surprised no one has mentioned inflated costs for higher education. When I graduated from Penn State in 1975, annual tuition for PA residents was about $1200 per year. A student could pay for that with money earned from a summer job. Penn State recently had the dubious honor of making the front page of the Wall Street Journal, after a survey showed the current resident tuition has topped $26,000 per year, the highest of any flagship state university in the nation.

When I attended law school in the early 80s, I borrowed $15,000 for living expenses, only because the interest rates on student loans were lower than what my savings accounts were paying. Each summer I earned $5000 driving a tractor trailer from Chicago to California, which paid a year's tuition in full. Last time I checked, tuition at my alma mater had reached $60,000 per year. Three months of truck driving won't come close to that today.

I find it bizarre, that with these economic forces in place, there is still a glut of people trying to get into college and law school.

Thinking about education, I mentioned going to community college for a couple years taking pre engineering classes. Full time, 15 hours a semester, my books cost more than tuition.
I don’t recall now exactly what my costs were, but probably around $500 a semester for tuition and books.
I transferred to a state school to finish up my degree and it still wasn’t that much even adding on dorm, I lived at home when at community college. I don’t recall how much but I probably could have paid most or all of my last 2 years with my savings from working at the grocers for the first 2 years of college.
I had coworkers working their way through school including a guy in dental school.
My parents and grandparents had put money away for my college and I graduated with money left over. I used it to pay for my flying lessons a few years after graduation. Private, instrument, probably my commercial license too. I likely didn’t use up all that leftover college savings until I was training toward instructor ratings.

themechanic said:

This was supposed to be a fun look back at the 80s.

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Oh, I missed that part

68BabyBlue said:

Ulli, my post about declines in the trucking industry supports your father's assertion. Macroeconomic changes, in combination with economic deregulation in 1980, changed the playing field. My corporate employer benefited, and made a financial killing, for nearly three decades by expanding into new markets that were untouchable in earlier years, when rates for what they could haul were at their peak. As overall wages dropped, I was able to prosper, as guys who could perform at my level became a thing of the past. When I reached retirement, I was the last owner operator leased to my carrier. I survived, because I was the only driver able to unload a bulk tanker quickly enough to pick up a return load and make it home before the DOT mandated hours limit ran out.

I'm somewhat surprised no one has mentioned inflated costs for higher education. When I graduated from Penn State in 1975, annual tuition for PA residents was about $1200 per year. A student could pay for that with money earned from a summer job. Penn State recently had the dubious honor of making the front page of the Wall Street Journal, after a survey showed the current resident tuition has topped $26,000 per year, the highest of any flagship state university in the nation.

When I attended law school in the early 80s, I borrowed $15,000 for living expenses, only because the interest rates on student loans were lower than what my savings accounts were paying. Each summer I earned $5000 driving a tractor trailer from Chicago to California, which paid a year's tuition in full. Last time I checked, tuition at my alma mater had reached $60,000 per year. Three months of truck driving won't come close to that today.

I find it bizarre, that with these economic forces in place, there is still a glut of people trying to get into college and law school.

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You have that right, everyone in my family made it thru college debt free. The reason most will never pay it off is they will not stoop down to the level we did to work and pay it off. What about the cost of health care for the self employed? 8000 a year for 6 people with $1500 deductible in 1989, $34,000 for 3 with $6500 deductible now. That wins by far.

Going back to the 80s ... 2nd gen chargers have kept up with inflation.

Both of my 69s were purchased in the 80s.
I shoulda bought more!

Curiousyellow71 said:

Going back to the 80s ... 2nd gen chargers have kept up with inflation.

Both of my 69s were purchased in the 80s.
I shoulda bought more!

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One of the few advantages of running a family farm - room to store cars. But capital costs are a huge negative, per your earlier post. My farm buddy threw in the towel, and now rents his property, works for a wrecker company for health insurance, still getting beat up badly paying for his wife's coverage. But he does have a nice collection of vintage Ford trucks.

I remember that MTV music video of Joe Machados Petty Blue Daytona tooling around the desert with the Spice Girls hanging out the windows singing

68BabyBlue said:

One of the few advantages of running a family farm - room to store cars. But capital costs are a huge negative, per your earlier post. My farm buddy threw in the towel, and now rents his property, works for a wrecker company for health insurance, still getting beat up badly paying for his wife's coverage. But he does have a nice collection of vintage Ford trucks.

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Yes farms are great place to find the classics stashed away...oldest we have on the farm goes back to 1928, it's a Ford pickup and the tree that grows through it was big already when I was kid.Lol
Our farm has gotten somewhat deep in vintage vehicles..most are probably ready to recycle. We have hauled off a bunch too. Family habit of parking them when they quit. A few friends from town would ask us store cars away from them..next thing you know 20 or more years have past and the cars are still there!

Today..in Agriculture its important to have a good relationship...
With the banker!

dart4forte said:

I remember that MTV music video of Joe Machados Petty Blue Daytona tooling around the desert with the Spice Girls hanging out the windows singing

Click to expand...

How’s that, less doom and gloom, more related to the 80s and Mopar related

4406bbl said:

You have that right, everyone in my family made it thru college debt free. The reason most will never pay it off is they will not stoop down to the level we did to work and pay it off. What about the cost of health care for the self employed? 8000 a year for 6 people with $1500 deductible in 1989, $34,000 for 3 with $6500 deductible now. That wins by far.

Click to expand...

My youngest put me in debt when she and her mom decided she needed to go to an ivy league school on a blue collar pay check. Should have wrote up a contract with her but I'm sure her mom would have vetoed that thought. Anyways, she quit in her junior year and expected me to pay for that year. No dice and stuck to it and shouldn't have paid for any of it since she didn't finish. Now she doesn't talk to me since I didn't pick up the payment for the year she quit in. Oh well. Thing is her first two years were not exactly cheap! It shocked me for sure and it took me a bit to pay it off....and well, she doesn't use much of what she learned in the job she got shortly after coming home and still works there as far as I know.

68BabyBlue said:

Ulli, my post about declines in the trucking industry supports your father's assertion. Macroeconomic changes, in combination with economic deregulation in 1980, changed the playing field. My corporate employer benefited, and made a financial killing, for nearly three decades by expanding into new markets that were untouchable in earlier years, when rates for what they could haul were at their peak. As overall wages dropped, I was able to prosper, as guys who could perform at my level became a thing of the past. When I reached retirement, I was the last owner operator leased to my carrier. I survived, because I was the only driver able to unload a bulk tanker quickly enough to pick up a return load and make it home before the DOT mandated hours limit ran out.

I'm somewhat surprised no one has mentioned inflated costs for higher education. When I graduated from Penn State in 1975, annual tuition for PA residents was about $1200 per year. A student could pay for that with money earned from a summer job. Penn State recently had the dubious honor of making the front page of the Wall Street Journal, after a survey showed the current resident tuition has topped $26,000 per year, the highest of any flagship state university in the nation.

When I attended law school in the early 80s, I borrowed $15,000 for living expenses, only because the interest rates on student loans were lower than what my savings accounts were paying. Each summer I earned $5000 driving a tractor trailer from Chicago to California, which paid a year's tuition in full. Last time I checked, tuition at my alma mater had reached $60,000 per year. Three months of truck driving won't come close to that today.

I find it bizarre, that with these economic forces in place, there is still a glut of people trying to get into college and law school.

Click to expand...

There Are people that will always find a better way or just plain plow through whatever you put in front of them. Fluid motion at it's best!! You never struck me as a fool and I've learned a lot from you. At Chrysler they called it process, what it took to do a job. Obviously not you, but they would put the laziest guy, on the hardest job and he would always find the easiest way to do the job. LOL.

School is a killer and I've mentioned it several times. I never went, but I've paid my fair share. It's not the same as it was years ago. Loaning money is what going to school is about now, not an education. Your education is priceless and all that you have is impressive. I'm officially jealous.

XS22J8R said:

Thinking about education, I mentioned going to community college for a couple years taking pre engineering classes. Full time, 15 hours a semester, my books cost more than tuition.
I don’t recall now exactly what my costs were, but probably around $500 a semester for tuition and books.
I transferred to a state school to finish up my degree and it still wasn’t that much even adding on dorm, I lived at home when at community college. I don’t recall how much but I probably could have paid most or all of my last 2 years with my savings from working at the grocers for the first 2 years of college.
I had coworkers working their way through school including a guy in dental school.
My parents and grandparents had put money away for my college and I graduated with money left over. I used it to pay for my flying lessons a few years after graduation. Private, instrument, probably my commercial license too. I likely didn’t use up all that leftover college savings until I was training toward instructor ratings.

Click to expand...

I hired a guy to fill out all the paperwork for many different colleges, advice on every aspect of preparing for college, practice testing and making sure my daughter was headed in the right direction. He said NOT to go to a community college and then transfer to a state school, didn't look good on paper later. She got the A plus program and could have gone to community college for free. I think he was getting boot for sending people to certain state schools. It's a great system, some schools don't accept certain credits from community colleges, that's screwed up, it's about the money they think they're not getting for all four years. I personally think colleges should be for education only, leave your jock at the door. Four and out, reasonably priced and forget everything else. The guy I hired ended up being a state representative, go figure!!!

Many years ago, I was at the high school enrollment assembly for my daughter. This one guy only wanted to talk about new sports equipment for the football team because his son was looking to get a football scholarships and we needed to put more financial support in that direction. They actually told him they would have to do fundraisers, the system didn't have the resources. I'm not trying to be a Debbie downer here, but we spend more on education than most everyone in the world and we can't even make it a priority to get one after spending all that money. We import workers instead.