True or False?

[Sentry11]

[Rob Abernathy]

Amazing!  Who knew that cooking french fries at A & W Root Beer was actually paying me the equivalent of $32/hr in 1965.  Gas was 25 cents a gallon instead of 5 dollars so my 1.85/hr job would buy about $35 worth of gas in todays prices.

  

[caleb1]

Its worth noting cars weren't that efficient back then either.

So it seems that gas has increased 20 times since 1965 ($0.25 to $5.00)

But if you calculate that cars got 14mpg back then, and 28mpg now, there's really only a 10x increase in per mile cost. (1/14*.25 = $0.0178/mile,  1/28*5 = $0.178/mile)

 

But still its a crazy increase.  Don't get me started.

[caleb1]

7 hours ago, caleb1 said:

Its worth noting cars weren't that efficient back then either.

So it seems that gas has increased 20 times since 1965 ($0.25 to $5.00)

But if you calculate that cars got 14mpg back then, and 28mpg now, there's really only a 10x increase in per mile cost. (1/14*.25 = $0.0178/mile,  1/28*5 = $0.178/mile)

 

But still its a crazy increase.  Don't get me started.

 

I just realized I forgot a step in these calculations, adjusting for inflation.  

10x increase in cost per mile, but 8.3x increase in minimum wage.

 

So you could drive about 67 miles on one hour of minimum wage in 1965

Or you can drive 56 miles on one hour of minimum wage now.

 

So it's not that much of a difference.

[Sentry11]

I believe the real difference, or question is in what has remained a storage of value and wealth, and has maintained or increased in purchasing power throughout the above mentioned time period.

 

A face value of a $1.25 composed of 90% silver in quarter 25 cent pieces in the year 1964, or a face value of $1.25 in today's minted coinage and paper money?