Inflation

[Mark Roth]

I found this tin of Kiwi Neutral Shoe Polish in my shoe box (It’s still good!) and checked the current price. Bought it for 35 cents instead of 39. Now the cheapest is $5.39. Must date from 1965 when the side spears on my car cost $12.00 according to the bill of sale.

[Wes Bender]

I recently gave away two boxes of 100 .22 long rifle cartridges that had $.99 price tags on them. The guy I gave them to couldn't believe they were ever that cheap. It's a slow but constant creep.

(added note: Glad I quit smoking when cigarettes were still in the $.25 - $.35 per pack range, for more reasons than just the price.)

[Harlan Halsey]

Inflation is the result of the US government spending more than it takes in and causing the Treasury to create money to pay for it. The Federal Reserve was created in 1905 to eliminate inflation. It is the worst of all government failures, yet it goes on its merry way. To the extent that your savings are in 356 Porches, or other goods, you escape the loss.

[Mark Roth]

Notice the back of the old tin. Remember Corfam, the synthetic leather?

[Wayne Arny]

When I first went to sea, the summer after my Plebe Year at the U.S. Naval Academy, on the USS Eugene A. Greene in 1961, I was introduced to Ships Stores cigarettes. Once we were outside the International Limit of some sort, the ship would open up the compartment where the cigarettes were stored and sell them without all the taxes, etc. They were $1.00 per carton! 10¢ per pack! It was almost as cheap as breathing! (I quit four years later!) When I look, and it's not often, I'm shocked at the price today. Of course my Ensign pay back in 1964 was $220/month!

[Pete Indelicato]

I got some old 22lr ammo boxes of 50 that are marked 99 cents--those were the good ole days.

[Wes Bender]

Wayne, when I was in the USAF as a crew chief on a B-47 in the '50s, we got a complimentary 6 pack of cigarettes in our flight lunches. The pilot, co-pilot and navigator were smart enough not to smoke, so I got theirs too. I don't remember what the cigarettes cost at the PX. Vending machines had them at $.25.

[Brian R Adams]

Dad bought these at Buttrey's, a regional grocery chain, in the mid-'60s. Twenty rounds for $3.29, less than 17 cents per round. Equivalent today costs about 10x that.
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[Brian R Adams]

(added note: Glad I quit smoking when cigarettes were still in the $.25 - $.35 per pack range, for more reasons than just the price.)

When I was about 10 years old, my dad sent me on foot to the mom-n-pop IGA grocery, clutching three quarters and a note scrawled in pencil:

Please sell Brian two packs of Lucky Strike
Thanks,
Dick Adams
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[Daryl Bertram]

Inflation yes but how much was your hourly wage in the sixties? My minimum wage experience early '70's was less than $2.00 an hour before I got edjumacated then it was up to $10.50/hr late 70's early 80's as a Registered Respiratory Therapist in Michigan. I rented a house early '80's for $230/month (see picture).

[Mark Roth]

When I was a kid in the 50s I rode my bike to the drugstore to buy my mother cigarettes. No questions asked. Would occasionally buy candy cigarettes.

[Wes Bender]

Should we ask the temp monitor to remove the vacationing monitors duplicate post?

[Pete Indelicato]

My first job was at a Dairy Queen, starting wage was $1.15 an hour in 1968--gasoline at the time was 29.9 cents per gallon but if you filled up the tank you got a 5 cent per gallon discount--knocked it down to 24.9 cents per gallon. And most gas stations had some kind of gas war going on with across the street competitors and they would also give you a bag of sponges or glasses or something else with fill up. Also, you could also get ammo at any hardware store.

[Greg Bryan]

Should we ask the temp monitor to remove the vacationing monitors duplicate post?

I think he's testing me to see if I'm paying attention. Maybe he needs a suspension as he knows better ...

[Wes Bender]

How about a suspension until May 12th? That should be sufficient. It was pretty innocuous.