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Open thread July 6, 2012

Dan Crawford | July 6, 2012 5:01 pm

Tags: open thread Comments (1) | Digg Facebook Twitter |
1 Comment
  • ddrew2u says:
    July 7, 2012 at 11:02 am

    MORE CHICAGO LOCAL COLOR:


    The 90 cents a mile on the Chicago taxi meter in 1981– when I was beginning to drive a cab there (now retired) — would make two dollars and twenty-eight cents a mile today if the mileage rate had kept up with inflation — according the federal bureau of labor standards online inflation calculator (which uses the most commonly accepted inflation measure: CPI-U).  2012’s Chicago taxi meter: $1.80/mile — fully half a dollar less.

    http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=.90&year1=1981&year2=2012

    Since 1981 average income in the US has grown at least 50% — as new technologies and better management techniques came into play. 
     
    I heard about Chicago cab drivers’ every-Monday-morning strike last week and was told by the people I was with that drivers claimed $5/hr wages. I told them of my generation’s story: “Only one 30 cent increase in the milage between 1981 and 1997; at which midpoint the city started putting on 40% more cabs while adding trains to both airports, unlimited limo licenses and free trolleys between all the hot spots downtown.”  $5 is what an Evanston “Norshore (company)” driver recently told me he was earning.  Easy to believe.

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