Post by MetalRed on Dec 8, 2004 19:50:19 GMT -5
The price of a Christmas carol
Forget the birds, trees, jewellery, labourers and performers. How about a new Jaguar, a BMW 7 Series, a Mercedes Benz, or a 1949 Rolex?
The luxury cars and vintage watch would cost as much as all the gifts listed in the Christmas carol The Twelve Days of Christmas, according to PNC Financial Services Group Inc.
Each year, the Pittsburgh-based bank does a tongue-in-cheek tally of how much the drummers drumming, pipers piping, golden rings and turtle doves would set you back if you bought them for your true love at today's prices.
The bank began publishing the list in 1982 for institutional clients and released it publicly the next year.
This year, the price for all the gifts - if they were bought repeatedly on each day as the song suggests - hit $66 334 (R383 410), up from $65 264 last year.
Buying each item just once would cost $17 279 (R99 873). That's still enough for a Mini Cooper, a ride in a Russian MiG jet fighter, a 4-hectare ranch in Colorado or a 1920s baseball signed by Babe Ruth.
This year, the nine ladies dancing would hit your wallet the hardest - coming in at $4 400 (R25 432) - while the eight maids-a-milking are a bargain at $41.20 (R238.15).
"The abundance of cheaper labour in countries such as India and China has resulted in pressure on US manufacturers to outsource unskilled labour," said Jeff Kleintop, chief investment strategist for PNC Advisers.
"As a result, the cost of skilled dancers has steadily increased, while the unskilled milkmaids haven't managed an increase in pay for many years."
The prices for the birds - swans, geese, canaries (calling birds), hens, doves and partridges - didn't change much from last year, coming in at $4 201 (R24 282) compared to $4 138, according to the Cincinnati Zoo.
But the dollar has been weak - you would have saved buying the three French hens last year when they were $15 compared with $45 (R260) this year.
Published on the web by Daily News on December 1, 2004.