By far, the most popular book I’ve ever written has been “How to Live on $10,000 a Year, Or Less…” Issued first back in 2005.
Thing is, I haven’t updated the book since 2013. That was the 4th edition. I reckon it’s time to update it again. Thinking – and facts on the ground have changed. But as we’ll see as this latest edition unrolls, good ideas have a kind of permanence about them.
As a thank you for Peoplenomics subscribers, you’ll get to read the new edition as it flies off the fingers. When complete, the entire document will be in the subscriber library at the top of each master index page. Along with other books I’ve written.
When completed, even if you don’t subscribe, it will be available on the UrbanSurvival and Peoplenomics websites for the outrageous sum of $5-bucks.
The 5th edition will be adding more “time-based perspectives.” Since many of the concepts laid out in the book have been “lived-out” here in the pine forest of East Texas.
Something to Think About:
When I was in high school, I’d bike ride down to the local burger joint with my buddy The Major for a 19-cent cheeseburger. “Dag’s” has long-since disappeared into the culinary sunset.
Today, the inflation-adjusted price of a 19-cent burger from 1966 is? $1.57.
If you hit the right big national burger joint on just the right day, you can still find the equivalent of the 19-cent burger today.
But something else peeks out of our thinking here.
It’s not that the basic meat patty has gone through the roof. It’s that our expectations of a hamburger have. Foolishly most Americans are wedded to the idea that progress is the same as size and other enhancements.
Network television first seen by Ure’s truly on a 13″ black and white Magnavox TV still sucks when viewed on a UHD 65″ in the media room here. Seeing the problems of progress, yet?
Magnavox was acquired by Philips out of Holland in 1974 after launching the first game console in 1972. (Magnavox Odyssey). Nintendo? X-Box? Johnny-come-lately types. Still simply adding complexity to another 40-year old cheeseburger.
At the Arches? What was once a bun, patty, slice of cheese, squirt of mustard and pickle (and still can be at the lower end) is now a “customizable treat.” Which has piled on not only condiments but expectations.
Second patty is not uncommon. Here in Texas WhatABurger will do 3 patties and even four if you’re up for it!. You can also add damn near anything. And to prove it, I ordered a burger with four pieces of bacon on it!
Considered in isolation, this evolving “burger complexity issue” explains a lot about living and expenses. Yes, we can get three slices of ‘maters, two helpings of onion, jalapeno peppers and BBQ sauce, too, sliding uncontrollably between three patties! More pickles!
But – like so many areas of Life – is there a real pay-off in terms of quality of Life between the 19-center and today’s ultra-super-Mondo-gonzo-mega burgers?
We have been hypnotized by repetitive marketing campaigns all based on “reach and frequency” to drive the message “needing this kind of super-burger.” Yet, who questions the simplicity and joy of simple “burgerness?”
This drives a massive revenue-compensated marketing machine. The cost is between the patties, lol.) But, does it make us any happier?
Out here isn’t exactly Walden Pond, but we have stepped back far enough from regimented consumption to ask the questions that led to our recent (subscriber) book The 100-year Toaster. I’ll get that out on the public side, one of these days, too.
Updates, observations and lots of additional details in answer to the question “Can I live under $10,000 per year, per person in today’s world?”
The answer is yes…but there’s a book’s worth of caveats and inflation adjustments since 2005 which we will dig into after a few headlines and the ChartPack. Which continues it’s haunting a haunting question, as well:
“Is the Top In?”
(An Inflation-adjusted book. Who’d have believed it?)
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