In 1969 I would stop on Raymond Blvd at the Safeway gas station and fill up at $.28 a gallon, pick up a pack of cigarettes also $.28 and park my car on the top of the Prudential garage and walk to 31 Clinton St . I might stop at the coffee shop and have eggs, toast, potatoes and coffee for breakfast $.99. The $.50 cent toll at the GW Bridge could be avoid by purchasing a monthly book of 40 tickets for $10. The Throggs Neck Bridge at $.25 each way was a no,no and I traveled to the Wiliamsburg Bridge to avoid the toll. I dove my 1969 American Motors AMX($2800) and would often stop at NYU on the way home for graduate classes($105 a credit)and park my car in a garage for $3. Two years latter I purchased my first home just before taking my wedding vows for $34,500. Two years after that the stork arrived and Liz became a stay at home mom for my two sons for the next 14 years. All this on my $8400 starting salary including the 20%for the spring semester. Try pulling that off today.
So what's the point Bernstein, it simple but do the math first. If the GW is $8 it's 16x's more,the gas 13x,forget the cigarettes, I did in 1975, the car well you figure but 12/15x might be a fair guess. The house I bought was resold by it new owner for $600,000 18x. And NYU as Tony Saparano would say forget about it. The point is that the starting salary for a new instructor should be 10 maybe 12 times my $8400, that's $84-100 thousand dollars. Don't gloat old-timer about your pay check,you have not really received an increase in pay for all your years of experience you have merely been given a salary adjustment equal to the cost of living. SO HOW DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING! If measured in financial terms Just OK might be the answer. Now the real issue comes to the surface, if we are not happy with the current happenings at the college we must continue to take a stand. We are not in it for the money.
-Harry Bernstein
