The point? Yes, I am a college professor, although this isn't a test. 
It's just curiousity. I'm amazed how much things cost, and how readily people will go in debt for them. I'm not sure anyone actually thinks about what the real price is relative to how much they make.
My car, for example, cost me $17,000. If it lasts like my last vehicle did (for 15 years), then my cost per hour for that car seems like it must be pretty reasonable. I've had it 4 years already, but only put 15,500 miles on it. Since most of those mile have been in-town miles, I'll assume a 35mph average, meaning I've driven it approximately 423 hours so far. That's 110.7 hours a year. If I keep it for 15 years I'll have spent 1660.7ish hours in it. 17,000/1660.7 is $ 10.24 per hour. My car is costing me more than $10 an HOUR to drive, and that's ignoring taxes, gas, maintenance, and such. That's roughly 1/3 of my hourly pay. So for the convenience of being able to drive my car, I work the first 20 minutes of an hour just to cover my 30 minute commute (x 2) that day.
If we were talking about an iPod Shuffle for $49, which I see more people listening to for more time, the real hourly cost is probably a couple cents.
As I stated in the first post, my Touch costs me 90.4 cents an hour. How much do you make an hour? if you're a college kid making $9 an hour, then 1/10th of that wage goes to that Touch. Hopefully it's something to think about.
4D
It's just curiousity. I'm amazed how much things cost, and how readily people will go in debt for them. I'm not sure anyone actually thinks about what the real price is relative to how much they make. My car, for example, cost me $17,000. If it lasts like my last vehicle did (for 15 years), then my cost per hour for that car seems like it must be pretty reasonable. I've had it 4 years already, but only put 15,500 miles on it. Since most of those mile have been in-town miles, I'll assume a 35mph average, meaning I've driven it approximately 423 hours so far. That's 110.7 hours a year. If I keep it for 15 years I'll have spent 1660.7ish hours in it. 17,000/1660.7 is $ 10.24 per hour. My car is costing me more than $10 an HOUR to drive, and that's ignoring taxes, gas, maintenance, and such. That's roughly 1/3 of my hourly pay. So for the convenience of being able to drive my car, I work the first 20 minutes of an hour just to cover my 30 minute commute (x 2) that day.
If we were talking about an iPod Shuffle for $49, which I see more people listening to for more time, the real hourly cost is probably a couple cents.
As I stated in the first post, my Touch costs me 90.4 cents an hour. How much do you make an hour? if you're a college kid making $9 an hour, then 1/10th of that wage goes to that Touch. Hopefully it's something to think about.
4D
