New York Dollar

Categories: Econ

Heard of a New York minute? This term represents the financial equivalent.

Living in New York City is expensive. Maybe not compared to San Francisco or London, but show the average cost of living in Manhattan to a Dollar Store patron in Des Moines, and the shock might make them drop their bag of pork rinds.

A New York dollar is an intellectual conception meant to bring this fact home. It represents what a single buck will get you in NYC...compared to what it would get you anywhere else in that vast, meaningless nowheres-ville west of the Hudson River.

It tracks the relative purchasing power in New York City compared to the rest of the U.S., taking into account both the high cost of living there and the generally higher level of wages for New Yorkers.

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Finance: What is Purchasing Power?5 Views

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finance a la Shmoop what is purchasing power well it basically refers to how

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far a dollar goes in buying stuff that you you know care about you just got

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your paycheck for the week netting you three hundred forty two dollars after [paycheck document]

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blue state taxes today that can buy a few pairs of really nice shoes or a [supermarket checkout]

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romantic candlelit dinner with wine in Manhattan or a gluten-free bread maker [romantic dinner table with wine]

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from the fine people at williams-sonoma yeah you know you can advertise on us so

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don't be shy there now hop in our Wayback Machine

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let's visit what this $342 of modern america purchasing power could have

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bought you in 1792 well here's a house listed right off the Potomac for three [shack for sale]

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hundred forty two dollars that would work big pool there in the back well

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could have bought you these six thousand acres of land in Pennsylvania or it [beautiful landscape]

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could have bought you this jet if well you know if Jets had been invented yet

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okay modern era time let's check out Chad the poorest country on the planet

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it looks a lot like America in 1792 as far as purchasing power goes that same

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romantic candlelit dinner that was three hundred forty two dollars in Manhattan [romanic dinner for $342]

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well here it is for three dollars and forty two cents okay the basic idea here [roast pig for $3.42]

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is that a dollar is not a dollar everywhere throughout history and

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throughout the world inflation affects the purchasing power

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of a dollar over time local wealth of a given area is also a big influence well

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the demand for dollars versus a country's local currency is another

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factor like when the Soviet Union fell under Gorbachev and Reagan they prized

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hard currencies like the US dollar massively over their own country's ruble [one dollar bill in sky]

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which kind of evaporated in value yes re there reppu Tanja's keeping it real and [russian money and Putin]

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purchasing power metrics are a big thing mainly as they relate to old people who

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can't really earn money on their own or at least not enough to fully pay their [coins falling down]

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bills and when inflation roars while old people suffer more than other categories [lady walking down street and meets lion]

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of citizen because their portfolios are usually invested in pretty safe low

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interest bond that don't adjust to inflation and whose

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value is destroyed in times of high inflation as their purchasing power kind

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of erodes so yeah I don't be old if you can help it really makes it tough to

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afford that gluten-free bread maker but you could see an advertisement for right [frazzled lady]

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here rev William Sonoma would just get off their butts and write us a check

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