English Language & Usage Asked by L. Arpaia on April 17, 2021
On this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millionaire
In the right part, there is a photo of a luxury house. The text underneath says:
A large suburban home valued at roughly $1,000,000 (2006) in Salinas, California, shown for scale of purchasing power
I’ve read that sentence many times, but I can’t figure out what they mean. Do they mean that the photo is shown on the article to demonstrate what a millionaire can afford (but then they would have $0 left…)? Or does it mean that the house itself is "shown for scale of purchasing power", in the sense that the owners are "showing off" by living in it?
I very often find sentences like this which are probably crystal clear to everyone else, but confuse me.
Scale = a set of numbers, amounts, etc., used to measure or compare the level of something:
The reader is invited to compare money with property, and the house is shown as a measure of what could be bought (= the purchasing power) for a million dollars at that time in California.
The set that comprises the scale is small in this case, being only one sum of money and one house. In general, a scale would include more example pairs.
Such scales usefully illustrate purchasing power or the worth of money in different places or times. Other scales might have compared sums of money with cars, areas of land, jewels or other assets. The scale appropriate to money and property in California would not necessarily apply elsewhere. A million dollars in desirable areas of London might have bought a small apartment or a few square metres of land. In north Scotland it may have bought a mansion or a thousand acres. The scale of purchasing power of 7.2 million today is a modest New York apartment; in 1867 it was sufficient to purchase Alaska.
Answered by Anton on April 17, 2021
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