Monies Worth & Stylish

My blogging friend, Julia, of Henhouse Pottery, has given me the Stylish Blogger Award. If you haven't visited Julia's blog, you're in for a real treat. Humor and sensibility meet hometown values and living off the land in what can only be described as Julia's own special way. So go have a good read.

For the award, I must tell seven things about myself which you may not know and give the award to fifteen people. I'll have to break up the post into several if I may. Today I've tucked in a few things you may not know. Later I'll get around to more about me and fifteen bloggers to spread some style.

My gut told me I was richer in 1974 than now. According to the Federal Minimum Wage statistics my money was worth more then than now. That was the year I graduated from college. But the year I graduated from high school, 1968, was even better. Here are the facts from infoplease.com.

Column one and four are years, column two and five are the minimum wage at the time, column three and six is what the wage was worth at the time. I found these statistics, along with others I perused, very enlightening.

1955 0.75 4.39 1983 3.35 5.28
1956 1.00 5.77 1984 3.35 5.06
1957 1.00 5.58 1985 3.35 4.88
1958 1.00 5.43 1986 3.35 4.80
1959 1.00 5.39 1987 3.35 4.63
1960 1.00 5.30 1988 3.35 4.44
1961 1.15 6.03 1989 3.35 4.24
1962 1.15 5.97 1990 3.80 4.56
1963 1.25 6.41 1991 4.25 4.90
1964 1.25 6.33 1992 4.25 4.75
1965 1.25 6.23 1993 4.25 4.61
1966 1.25 6.05 1994 4.25 4.50
1967 1.40 6.58 1995 4.25 4.38
1968 1.60 7.21 1996 4.75 4.75
1969 1.60 6.84 1997 5.15 5.03
1970 1.60 6.47 1998 5.15 4.96
1971 1.60 6.20 1999 5.15 4.85
1972 1.60 6.01 2000 5.15 4.69
1973 1.60 5.65 2001 5.15 4.56
1974 2.00 6.37 2002 5.15 4.49
1975 2.10 6.12 2003 5.15 4.39
1976 2.30 6.34 2004 5.15 4.28
1977 2.30 5.95 2005 5.15 4.14
1978 2.65 6.38 2006 5.15 4.04
1979 2.90 6.27 2007 5.85 4.41
1980 3.10 5.90 2008 6.55
1981 3.35 5.78 2009 7.25
1982 3.35 5.78

Most jobs available now pay minimum wage. Wonder what 2008 forward will be? There are many more statistics available on the Internet, not sure what good they do me, or if validating my feelings about present day monetary circumstances is beneficial, but in life today for so many people, these are, unfortunately, the facts. I'm just saying.

For the record, so far I'm not a pessimist, used to be an optimist, but am now a realist who wavers between optimism and pessimism. Stay tuned for more tidbits about me, some stylish blogs, and some real positives. Comments welcome.