OK, I know that this video clip isn't exactly 'on point' for what this post is about but I like it. OK?
Today when parking in the council car park I put my money in the machine for two and a half hours. It cost me $2.
A guy behind me was worriedly looking at the machine and noticed that it didn't take notes and asked if I had change for $5. I said no and asked him how long he needed to stay. He said an hour so I gave him two 50 cent pieces I had. He was very effusive in his thanks and asked how he could repay me. I just said no problem.
I was happy to help and had a couple of 50 cent pieces in my pocket. They were of virtually no use for me other than parking (in Whangarei. Auckland charges are between $6 and $12 an hour). Also, the new currency we have doesn't look and feel like real money.
When I was a kid my pocket money of 4 shillings (two florins):
seemed like a lot. It could certainly get me a lot - pictures on Saturday, treats during the week, Friday night shopping and still some left over for saving. The coins were solid and substantial. They felt like money. Sometimes my brother and sisters and I got a raise. Dad would give us two half crowns instead of two florins:
these were great. they were a little bit bigger than the florins and had a sort of gravitas about them. I used to try and get by with the remainder of previous weeks' pocket money and save the half crowns. They would come in use at the yearly 'Winter Show' for the more expensive rides like the dodgems.
I liked the weight of them and the clunking sound they made as they jostled in my pocket. Ask Scrooge McDuck - he knows:
I checked out the value difference of my florins and half crowns in say 1962 vs 2017:
A
basket of goods and services
that cost $5.00
in quarter 1 of 2017
would have cost
£0.12
in quarter 1 of 1962
that cost $5.00
in quarter 1 of 2017
would have cost
£0.12
in quarter 1 of 1962
|
Total percentage change
|
-95.3%
|
|
Number of years difference
|
55.00
|
|
Compound average annual rate
|
-5.4%
|
|
Increase in purchasing power
|
2,031.4%
|
|
Index value for 2017 quarter 1 is
|
1226.0
|
|
Index value for 1962 quarter 1 is
|
57.5
|
|
|
|
The 0.12 STG above is about the value of a half crown which in today's money is about $5.
It's quite a big difference being about 20:1 but I don't think this even comes close.
Sure, on an academic financial comparison the 20:1 ratio is correct but there at least a couple of differences.
- Today a kid of between 8 and 10 would no doubt scoff at an 'allowance' of $5 or even $10. It wouldn't come close to what he/she/other needs on a weekly basis yet, when I was a kid in about 1960 four bob or less got me - 'pictures on Saturday, treats during the week, Friday night shopping and still some left over for saving.'
- Regardless of inflationary comparison, a tatty $5 or $10 note and even more, a handful of the tiny, lightweight and insubstantial coins that are in use today don't even come close to the visceral, tangible and totally satisfying feel of heavy silver (or a reasonable substitute) in the pocket of a 1960 New Zealand kid looking forward to the week ahead.
 |
| "Drink up guys. It's warm and tastes like shit but it's free so we can save our pocket money for the flicks and, if that kid from Northland rolls his Jaffas down again we can eat those for free as well." |
5 comments:
I was waiting for you to say "What a debt I owe to my parents".
Those poor buggers worked long hours to provide for you and all you can think of is pocket money!
I do not blame a 12 year old with his or hers restricted mental capacity for taking for granted that it will be cared for.
But that's what we do.
It's gratuitous.
It's not that someone raises me so I must raise someone else. How often do children think I was let in first so next time I will let the next guy in? Never.
It's a moral code.
The reason we are nice to the disabled is because will we follow a code.
Evolutionary theory demands the disabled must die.
Right.
Thanks for confirming that incomprehensibilty makes up your comments as well as your posts.
Top marks for consistency I guess.
Look, I know that I shouldn't rise to this but bloody hell, Robert riles me sometimes.
We have, for the last 9 years contributed substantially to Mental Health New Zealand via automatic yearly donation.
Robert's sanctimonious diatribes need to be pulled back. We all make mistakes - I did when commenting on Robert's blog about a social welfare housing person being not allowed to keep a dog in the allocated apartment - a $2000 dog - without knowing all the facts behind the story - mea culpa.
I object however to being labelled an unconscionable person. I was educated by Nuns, Brothers and Priests and while I rejected all the religious mumbo-jumbo they threw at me I have kept a sense of conscience.
Morals (conscience) do not come from religion - that is an important thing to understand. I am back and will clear things up over the coming weeks.
"The reason we are nice to the disabled is because will we follow a code.
Evolutionary theory demands the disabled must die."
Whatever gives Robert the right to say this? How dare he? This is nonsense and Robert should be ashamed of himself.
Okay, Robert has experience of mental illness in his family. Maybe, before he gets on his high horse, he should be sensitive to the fact that others (even atheists!) have had to deal with things too. Personally I've dealt with (among other things) self harm by one of my children but, and this may surprise you Rob, Peter has dealt with far worse. Trust me on this. Far worse. Just be careful when you throw around half baked ideas that seem to judge others.
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