Des Moines finally got some substantial snow on Monday and I was glad to have gotten a new pushing shovel, so I actually enjoyed clearing off my drive way, since the snow was so light and fluffy this time.
My friend Ann ended up staying overnight at my house after work, since it would make it easier for her to get to work on Tuesday downtown. We walked over to Chef’s restaurant and got take out pizza. Before bedtime we went out one last time to shovel and decided to play around a bit in the snow.
Ann was reading my blog from Monday and we got into a discussion of why insurance rates seemed so low for me in 1988. It’s true, at that time the University only offered Blue Cross to everyone, and we probably got a good group rate. Now we have several choices, and thus the “buying power” we use to get at Blue Cross has changed. I also got on the Internet and found an inflation calculator. In 1988 I had noted the price of my insurance was $90. In 2010, that calculated out to $166.
I was interested to see what the calculator would say if I used my salary from 1988 to compare it to now. Turns out what I made back then, now equals to what I make now.
That is kind of sad; I have only been able to keep up with inflation. Gee, and I actually did get two promotions during that time… but I don’t really have any more buying power it seems to me than I did in 1988. Thus is the tragedy of the American working class!
I knew I was never going to make a lot of money working in research for the University, and they use to say the advantage was that we received a good benefits package. Now we’ll see how long that lasts.
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