Aunty Acid by Ged Backland for January 07, 2023

Then is a penny like a baby quarter?

I hadn’t thought of that, but it’s true.

I was thrilled as a kid to make $1 an hour, which was the minimum wage back then. Of course that was in 1959. Wouldn’t be happy to make $20 an hour today although the minimum wage today is around $15, right?

It would have to be a c-note today for the $20 of my young adulthood.

Make that 50

$20 a week was my salary when I was in high school (I worked in a grocery store on the weekend).

Minimum wage back then was $1.50. At 20 cents a gallon for gas an hour’s work bought 7.5 gallons.

Minimum wage today is $7.50. At $3 a gallon an hour’s work buys 2.5 gallons.

To fill a 15 gallon tank back then took two hours of work at minimum wage. Today it takes 6 hours. To level the playing field, the minimum wage should be $22.50 an hour.

To be fair, with the exception of senior-level executives, nobody’s salaries have kept pace.

At the risk of sounding like a Communist, the rich enjoy the benefits from the exploitation of the working class.

That makes cents, Aunty…

$100 is a teenager’s dollar now. But I didn’t pay six dollars for a cup of coffee when I was their age.

It is nowadays.

US Inflation Factors NOV 2020 – 1.2 , DEC 2020 – 1.4 %, JAN 2021 – 1.4 %, FEB 2021 – 1.7, MAR 2021 – 2.6%, APR 2021 – 4.2% MAY 2021 – 5%, JUNE 2021-5.4%, JULY 2021- 5.3%, AUG 2021 – 5.3%, SEP 2021 – 5.4%, OCT 2021 – 6.2%, NOV 2021 – 6.8%, DEC 2021 – 7%, JAN 2022 – 7.5%, FEB 2022 7.9%, MAR 2022 – 8.5%, APR – 8.3%, MAY 2022 – 8.6%, JUNE 2022 9.1%

Wonder who is to blame?

¥2,600 ($20) would buy a nice snack… ☺

$10 is a Dollar from 10 years ago.

Dollar Tree is now A Buck Twenty-Five Tree.

When you could buy a Butterfinger candy bar for a nickel (1960), that’s like today’s dollar.