Joel's article was written in 2004 so, using gasoline as the benchmark, the 2012 dollars figure is $2180 [1].
[1] http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%28average+price+of+gas...
[1] http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%28average+price+of+gas...
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=core+inflation+from+200...
Core inflation is also a poor choice.
My housing costs are fixed, so the variation that I see is in the things that core inflation excludes.
Today, I was looking at UBS in South-East Asia..... A basic system may be a bit below $2k, but a functional system is probably about $4-5k.
Also a basic functional system of Sage ERP for smaller businesses is often well above $10k and below $50k