Figuring 1998 dollars in terms of 1988/89 dollars

Tom Lehman TLEHMAN at lor.net
Sun Nov 29 19:32:20 PST 1998


Dear Doug,

Since we are talking percent of increase add a dollar and change to your numbers.

Btw, the late legendary John Kelly of Castle Shannon PA was one of my political mentors. I was one of John's deputy constables.

John once ran against Terry Bradshaw's ex-father-in-law for a county row office. During the entire campaign John wore a raincoat and tennis shoes with no socks. Although he did wear a pair of Bermuda shorts underneath the raincoat. John lost the Democratic primary by only a few hundred votes. Hey, everybodies got to have a gimmick.

Once year ago John and I attended a big Democratic swankenda at the William Penn hotel in downtown Pittsburgh; John walked off with the Democratic gubernatorial cnadidates raincoat by mistake. Even though the coat was about ten sizes too big for John. He did return the coat a few days later after showing it to a few hundred of his closer friends.

Since this is a "family" list I won't go into some of the more colorful John Kelly stories; most of which are good clean fun.

On a serious note, John Kelly of Massachusetts raises some tough questions. Unions traditionally have been defenders of the disabled. This whole growing category of home health care workers needs rationalized and an equilibrium brought to a chaotic situation. Unions can do this.

Sincerely, Tom L.

Doug Henwood wrote:


> John B Kelly wrote:
>
> >I received $7.85/hour in 1988/89 [not sure which] to pay my Medicaid
> >funded helpers. Could someone tell me what that wage would be today,
> >adjusted for inflation and all? Is there some easy conversion formula I
> >could be pointed to?
>
> The CPI-U was 118.4 in 1988, 124.0 in 1989, and 164.0 in October 1998.
> Matching $7.85 in 1988 would require $10.38 in 1998; matching it in 1989
> would be $9.85.
>
> You can get the whole CPI series at the BLS website.
>
> Doug



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