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Johnny Rico

(1,438 posts)
Mon Mar 5, 2012, 11:52 PM Mar 2012

How Much Gold Do You Need to Pay Yale's Tuition? The Same as in 1900.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/03/how-much-gold-do-you-need-to-pay-yales-tuition-the-same-as-in-1900/253873/

As everybody knows, elite college tuition is getting ferociously expensive. And, as everybody knows, gold is getting ferociously expensive, as well (for entirely different reasons). With these maxims in mind, an enterprising writer at Priced in Gold has answered the question I know you've been wondering: If it cost 1,000 gold grams in 1900 to pay Yale tuition, how many more gold grams would you need to afford Yale college tuition today?

The answer is, practically, zero.



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How Much Gold Do You Need to Pay Yale's Tuition? The Same as in 1900. (Original Post) Johnny Rico Mar 2012 OP
one of my favorite ancestors was in the class of 1748. grasswire Mar 2012 #1
"I can't decide if this fact is meaningless or engrossing" ellisonz Mar 2012 #2
OK, 1000 grams in gold in 1900 Art_from_Ark Mar 2012 #3

Art_from_Ark

(27,247 posts)
3. OK, 1000 grams in gold in 1900
Tue Mar 6, 2012, 03:38 AM
Mar 2012

Last edited Wed Mar 7, 2012, 01:50 AM - Edit history (1)

would be approximately $667 in 1900 dollars. For comparison, an O'Henry story (The Trimmed Lamp) from around that time talks about the wages of two young women who were employed in different jobs. One (Nancy) was making $8/week as a "shop-girl", the other (Lou) was making $18.50/week as a piece-work ironer at a hand laundry (where the lowest wage was $10/week). So the tuition (1 year? 4 years?) would be more than 1 year's wages for Nancy, and somewhat less than 1 year's wages for Lou.

At any rate, today, that same 1000 grams of gold used to pay Yale tuition in 1900 would be worth around $55,000.

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