Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 22, 1963)
FRIDAY. NOVEMBER 22, 1963 A 3 Your Money's By SYLVIA PORTER CMrit, Hill Syndicate, Inc. MEOFORD MAIL TRIBUNE, MEDFORD, OREGON mm t . , JM"JjAR REMARKABLY STABLE ' m m. V Ias' 92 J63", toe cost of living of American families has risen and the buying power of the U.S.' dollar they have earned and saved has dwindled. JHJDiy JIl in close t0 a century have living costs de clined and the dollar gained buying power - and these were primaruy periods of national crisis in the post-Civil War era, iofnP W War 1 era a1d 1116 8reat depression of the early ismus. the number of Americans suffering deep hardship dur ing those years dwarfed the number benefiting from the trends. In a scant 17 of the years going all the way back to 1871 have living costs and the dollar's purchasing power been suf ficiently stable to justify the claim that these basic barometers of the U.S. family's weUlbeing held their own. . Each generation born in these 92 years has had less than one chance out of 10 that the nestegg of dollars it worked so hard to accumulate would maintain its value. The odds have been 81 per cent that the dollar's value would shrink in all the 30 year periods since 1871. Throughout the thousands of years of recorded time, the fundamental trend of living costs has been up and the basic direction of paper money values has been down. In ' fact, the historian Arnold J. Toynbee reports he has never found an instance in which the value of the currency of any country in any era of history has risen over a prolonged pe- ' riod. It is against this background that you must weigh the com parative stability" in living costs and in the U.S. dollar's buying power in the past several years. This stability is remarkable in terms of our oWnTecord. It is spectacular in terms of the records of underdeveloped na tions and of other industrialized nation which like us have gone through two world wars in one generation. Inflation was rampant in the U.S. following World War II and the Korean conflict. This is why today's cost of living is up a shattering 221 per cent since 1939 and 131 per cent since 1947 49. This is why the dollar which was worth 100 cents in the marketplace in 1939 is worth only 45 cents now and the dollar which would buy 100 cents of goods and services in 1947-49 will buy only 76 cents' worth of the same goods and services in : 1963. But we emerged from those inflation eras long ago. Not for years have prices and the dollar been battered by the pres sures of severe scarcities of materials, machines and man power, of huge pent-up demands for goods and services, of vast pools of savings accumulated only because there was little on which the savings could be spent during the wartime '40s, of an upward spiral of wages. Let's get this point straight: there can be no absolute sta bility in prices or in a currency's purchasing power in a dynamic society and ours is a dynamic society. A movement up or down of a per cent or so over a 12-month period must be con sidered approximate stability. Now here's our recent record: , In the past 12 months, the government's consumer price index our measure of living cost changes has climbed ' less than 1 per cent. The index is at an all-time high, but ' it has moved only from 106.1 to 107.1 in whole year. To ' put this in perspective, today it costs a bit over $1.07 to buy .the marketbasket that $1 would have .bought in 1957-99, ' roughly five years ago. ' In the past 12 months, the dollar's buying power has slipped 1 per cent. Its value in the marketplace is at a new low, but the erosion is now at a creeping pace. Again to put this is perspective, the $1 which bought 100 cents' worth of goods and services in 1957-59 buys under 94 cents' worth in these closing weeks of 1963. " . Prices are firming. The danger of a renewed price upswing itauor ran he shrueperl off. But our recent record has heen good. and as a result the vast majority of Americans who are get ting anuual pay hikes and who have savings nesteggs earn ing 4 per cent or more a year are coming out way ahead of the economic game. Book From SWEM'S 217 E. Main MEDFORD, OREGON Phone 772-9331 10;0:t;0;;0;0;tt:0;0;0 HAPPINESS IS A WARM PUPPY by Charlei Sehulr A warm " amuting cartoon for young and old. $2.00 SECURITY IS A THUMB AND A BLANKET by Charlei Schulx A lequol 10 "HappineM." $1.00 . HOW TO GROW UP IN ONE PIECE by Robert Smith Mothers are Out, Fathers are In. Ground rulei for conduct calculated to keep parents as well as their kids in one piece and the roof ' on the house. $2.95 GILBERT by Eric Gumey A dog orphaned early in life, adopted by a moth er cat. $2.95 O FEELING BETTER Medical cartoon selected by the editors ol Post. $3.50 HAZEL TIME by Ted Keys A new selection of cartoons ol everyone's favo rite HAZEL. $3.50 O YE JIGS & JULEPSI by Virginia Cary Hudson Hu morous slice of Americana by a turn-ol-fh-eentury piiie, aged 10. $2.50 rj wsrR.tnv www. Words by Wm. Zinsser, draw- Ings by James Stevenson A must for weekend guests or host. Be prepared and amused. $1.95 n MEMOIRS OF A MANGY LOVER , by Groucho Man Wackiest and Wittiest saucy adventure stories and misadventures of a demon lover. $3.95 The NEWEST IN BOOK-ENDS "BOOK POLES" tension spring poles in Brass, Black and Copper 95 Tennessee Solon Says Goldwater Astraddle Fence WASHINGTON (UPI) - A Tennessee freshman congress man who has had a political field day with Sen. Barry Gold- water's controversial sugges tion that the government sell the Tennessee Valley Authority today said the Arizona Republi can is "astraddle of the fence" between public and private in terest. , Goldwater's stand on T V A, compared with his sponsorship of a proposed Arizona reclamation project, has placed the senator "in a controversy of his own making," Rep. Richard Fulton, D-Tenn., said in a letter to the Washington Post. Fulton's letter apparently was in answer to a letter Goldwa ter wrote the Post earlier this week. Tax Exempt Goldwater contended that there was a considerable differ ence between TVA and the Cen tral Arizona Project. He said the TVA is tax exempt but pro duces a product electricity which then is sold. The Arizona Project would be "truly a rec lamation project," Goldwater's letter said. Goldwater said the Arizona Project would repay any feder al loan in 50 years. But Fulton said TVA also is repaying the federal government. He said by the end of the cur rent year TVA would have re turned nearly $500 million and "over the next 54 years TVA will pay the U. S. Treasury an additional $2 billion from power revenues, $1 billion of which will be a return" of federal funds used to build the project and the other half "a dividend to the taxpayers." Your Complete Book Store PROMPT CONSIDERATION WASHINGTON (UPI) - The United States will give "prompt consideration" to any proposals for the sale of dairy products to Russia or other European Communist countries, but thus far there has been no inquiries. Raymond A. Iones, chief of the Foreign Agricultural Serv ice told Rep. Clement J. Za blocki, D-Wis., in a letter Thursday that "it would seem desirable to sell dairy products to these countries." GO! See What's New for '64 SAVE! -0Pr63 Model Closeoutsi LIFETIME CIRCUIT BOARD GUARANTEE TV 23"-M-762 : I I K ; 1 - H II. I il -hi : ' I 'V. ' ? r ! $1)1(0)95 i PRICED NOW AT ONLY... Convenience Features Quality Features Front controls for picture and found , ere easy to see and use. , Illuminated channel window. . Automatic Brightness control , adjusts; picture Contrast and brightness to room light tor bast ' picture. r , . ; . . . . i . .'.(., i ' ( , ; Automatic- Tuning keeps each channel exactly tuned at all times. New G-E "Sealed Beam" picture tube tor best picture quality. "Daylight Blue" picture for whiter ' whites, sharper contrasts, brighter picture. j i . . i Slim Silhouette Styling in fine furniture craftsmanship. , Set and forgot volume control no neod to reset volume each tlmt . . ; : the set is turned on, . , COLOR -TV SEE FOR YOURSELF! OPEN TONIGHT 'TILL 9 P.M. Imagine .' . . a sleek 12-pounder with an 11 -Inch screen and priced under a hundred dollars! General Electric' new "Personal Portable" ! a triumph of American engineering. Come in and tee it ... heft It 7. . and resist owning it, if you can. Seldom do you get a quality Improvement and a price reduction at the same time. In this cue, technical ingenuity did just that . . . Better performance, greater dependability, and the clearest, brightest picture of all! So good it hat a lifetime guarantee on the precision-etched circuit board, a one-year warranty on the picture tube, and a 90-day warranty on all other parti. Convenient Feature! Controls for picture an lop mounted near the carrying handle. Fold-a-way luggage type carrying handle. Quality Fetaures Daylight Blue picture. Duit Sealed lately window, Compact, Slim Silhouette Styling. Built-in Teleicoplng Monopole Antenna tor all-around reception. $ 139 95 With Stroller-Cart Easy To Move About iniL-JLr' HOME APPLIANCE COMPANY 115 EAST MAIN-MEDF0RD
