Inflation dates the movie

[pmbug]

Wife is watching The Breakfast Club again. I happened by as the principle cornered the flunky in a closet and chided him by proudly saying he made $31k a year and owned a house. That really dates the movie (released in 1985).

$31,000 in 1985 is equivalent to approximately $93,338.81 in 2025, reflecting the effects of inflation over the 40-year period.

 

[Vichris]

Its remarkable to compare the value of things from the 60's, 70's, & 80's. The larger scale things like cars & houses are astonishing. But the small scale things that I remember buying because it was a daily routine, really strike home. I'll get to that in a moment. I was organizing some of my PM's this weekend and had a good couple of handfuls of loose junk silver coins I had acquired a couple of years ago but had never really counted them up and organized them. As I was looking through them I came across a 1955 Franklin half dollar. I was a bit surprised at the amount of wear on that coin. It got me to thinking about how much value that coin actually had back then and that in turn answers WHY that coin had so much wear and how many times it had exchanged hands. I looked up the Franklin on my handy dandy Silver Coin Melt Value Calculator. $18.81 today Oct 18 2025.... damn near a 20 dollar bill. In the 60's 70's the ring of coins in your pocket meant something, even if it was pennies, nickels, and dimes. Now circle back to that daily routine stuff I mentioned above. We lived in a modest neighborhood with a nearby strip shopping center a 7/11 & a local burger place right around the corner from our house. I was the oldest and almost daily my mom would give me a quarter and send me to get sodas for her and 3 of us kids. I would get her a 10¢ soda and 3, 5¢ sodas for us kids. I'd carry home a full tray of sodas FOR 25¢......daily. I don't remember exactly when but I do remember in 1969 we went to San Diego to visit family and see Disneyland for the first time. I remember my uncle and my parents talking about separating silver dimes quarters and half dollars. My uncles had a big gallon jar of coins. I remember my mom previously handing me a quarter but then taking it back and giving me a different quarter. Astonishing the value of our $$ back then,.... but what's more astonishing is the utter worthlessness of our money today. Inflation indeed.

 

[Viking]

I remember when a penny was a dime.