The problem with Average Household Income is that it's an average. A median would be more informative. Still Wages have risen approximately in line with inflation, but that is bad when you see that prices have increased at well above the level of inflation. So the real cost of the hobby has gone up. Because you cannot buy a model for the same inflation adjusted price anymore, but typical salaries haven't adjusted up at that rate. So the sense we all have that the hobby is now more expensive is objectively true. Take the Census.gov numbers for mean and median incomes, take the ads from a 1990 MR and use the inflation calculator and it's all right there.
Typically, metrics like this take out volatile thinks like food and gas prices which vary widely across geography and time and so don't really represent true inflation (though again, the general public feels the pinch on them more.) The generalized number obviously blends in cross country data, but I'm sure it can all be regionally tracked. Still, prices for hobby and other consumer goods are unlikely to vary much at a local or regional level. Job data on the other hand will since different states and regions can boom or bust based on all sorts of factors. Including things such as market pressure, regulatory pressure and taxation.
I was influenced most by the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) New England Berkshire & Western HO system. I've never seen it in person, but every photo I've seen recreates areas of my youth. Thus it has given me tremendous guidance over the years.
I was surprised when looking at the BLS site, to see what all they considered. Including food, toys, postage. I would suppose the bureaucrats look at what we use as being toys.
In recent years it's been Bill Darnaby's Maumee Route.. Shear realism.. As a child in the 1950s the very first MRR club open house I went to was the Nassau MRRC in Williston Park, NY. (long Island). The entire room reaked of cinnamon which they used abundantly for earth color and rust. To this day when I smell cinnamon I go right back to the club..Saw my first narrow gauge here too. Recently read "the V&O Story" by Allen McClelland.. And then there's the late Wolfgang Dudler.....
Yes ! I nearly forgot that I was nailed to this site for a long time during my initial days of being on-line with Yahoo ! This has to be THE most thoroughly organized, planned and built MRRC of all... It figures, being where it is !!
