https://www.ocregister.com/2019/01/...-sixfold-since-1990-hows-that-inflation-rate/
>>Disneyland’s magical pricing power has raised its basic ticket price nearly six-fold over three decades.
The new $149-a-day price is up from $25.50 in 1990, equal to 6.5 percent annualized growth. Now the Anaheim theme park has done much work to earn that increase — tons of renovation and innovation, including adding the Disney California Adventure park next door in 2001 to
Galaxy’s Edge, the new Star Wars-themed attraction, coming to Disneyland later this year.
Argue, if you must, about whether the usually crowded parks’ prices make sense. But you’ll agree nobody would want to pay what I’ll call “Disneyland inflation” elsewhere in their lives.
Take the venerable cost-of-living benchmark, the national Consumer Price Index. This yardstick’s risen at an average 2.3 percent rate annually since ’90. But if American living expenses jumped like Disneyland prices, a shopper who paid $100 for in 1990 for goods and services that cost $191 in the past year — would have seen the same expenses soar to $584 instead.
Simply put, Disneyland outraced cost-of-living hikes by triple. To see how universal that pattern was, I filled my trusty spreadsheet with various economic measurements to see how these markers inflated during the past three decades and where these yardsticks would be if they had grown at the pace of a Disneyland admission.
California paychecks: How affordable is a theme park visit? Well, the statewide median household income in 2017 was $69,579 vs. $33,290 in 1990. That equals pay increases averaging 2.7 a year for nearly three decades. Now if your boss was as generous as Disneyland raised its prices, your family would be making $183,000 this year!
Baseball game: One visit to the typical Major League Baseball ballpark last season cost $231 for a family of four (tickets, parking, food and souvenirs) vs. $79 in 1991, according to Team Marketing’s fan Cost Index. That’s 3.9 percent annual inflation! At Disneyland’s inflation pace, teams owners would be getting $433 per game.
Big Mac: The Economist magazine tracks this fast-food classic as a global inflation benchmark. Last year, Americans were paying $5.51 per sandwich vs. $2.20 in ’90, by this math. That’s a 3.3 percent annual inflation! If McDonald’s had Disney’s pricing power, you’d be paying $12.85 today for two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions – on a sesame seed bun!
Gasoline: One of those inflation markers everyone understands, California drivers paid an average $3.52 a gallon for unleaded regular last year vs. $1.14 in ’90. That’s 4.1 percent annual inflation! Be happy that gas stations didn’t get Disneyland inflation. If they did, you’d be filling up at $6.66 a gallon!<<
More examples at the link.
And one random thought, CM just got a raise, as the value of free admission and sign-ins are now worth more. And many CM's trade/sell their sign-ins for things like babysitting, auto repairs, etc.
