12 Days of Christmas COSTs up 7.4% ($13K Traditional-$20K Internet)

Sorry about the table down below it is the best I could do. Much more readable table on the link.
http://www.pncbank.com/12days/

PITTSBURGH, Dec. 8, 2003 – While stiff import competition is driving deeper discounts on merchandise sold in the United States, skilled labor cost is on the rise, resulting in a 16 percent increase in this year’s PNC Advisors Christmas Price Index – the biggest jump the Index has seen in its 19-year history.

Each year since 1984, PNC Advisors has provided a tongue-in-cheek economic analysis, based on the cost of the goods and services purchased by the True Love in the holiday classic, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”

Indeed, the cost of the five gold rings dropped by 5.6 percent, and the pear tree is down a full 28.6 percent from last year. However, these discounts were offset by the dancers, pipers and drummers who have seen significant increases in the cost of their services over 2002.


Traditional Internet
_______ _____
Change Change
2002 2003 03/02 2002 2003 03/02
One Partridge in a Pear Tree $102.50 $77.50 -24.4% $201.66 $171.67 -14.9%
Partridge 15.00 15.00 0.0% 66.67 66.67 0.0%
Pear Tree 87.50 62.50 -28.6% 134.99 105.00 -22.2%
Two Turtle Doves 58.00 58.00 0.0% 100.00 100.00 0.0%
Three French Hens 15.00 15.00 0.0% 172.50 172.50 0.0%
Four Calling Birds 316.00 400.00 26.6% 330.00 330.00 0.0%
Five Gold Rings 382.50 361.25 -5.6% 171.50 183.75 7.1%
Six Geese-a-Laying 150.00 150.00 0.0% 375.00 375.00 0.0%
Seven Swans-a-Swimming 2,100.00 3,500.00 66.7% 4,620.00 4,620.00 0.0%
Eight Maids-a-Milking 41.20 41.20 0.0% 296.32 296.00 -0.1%
Nine Ladies Dancing 4,107.66 4,230.89 3.0% 6,450.00 6,450.00 0.0%
10 Lords-a-Leaping 3,921.44 3,921.44 0.0% 9,640.80 10,122.85 5.0%
11 Pipers Piping 1,614.60 1,982.40 22.8% 1,550.00 1,600.00 3.2%
12 Drummers Drumming 1,749.15 2,147.60 22.8% 687.50 687.50 0.0%
Total Christmas Price Index $14,558.05 $16,885.28 16.0% $24,595.28 $25,109.27 2.1%
True cost of Christmas in song $54,951.31 $65,264.28 18.8% $99,923.42 $101,206.09 1.3%
"Core" index, excluding swans $12,458.06 $13,385.28 7.4% $19,975.28 $20,489.27 2.6%

is that pear tree a seedling or fully developed???

training of pipers and maids a milking? transportation? hotel, taxi, tips?

proof is in the pudding - the jobless recovery is also shoeless

:bounce:

when I was a kid
Santa left stuff which filled a space from (to some scale)

|...............................to...........................|

today, it's

|..to..| (exaggerated space)

the correlation of space size vs cost, of course, is as expected ~
less is more