But $5.00 in cash don't buy what it used to. I'll explain, in 1947, my mom and dad bought a new Chevrolet for $1,000.00 cash, or they could have paid for it with 25, 1oz, Gold coins, which were worth, at that time, $35.00/ oz. Today, it takes $21,000.00, to buy the same quality car, but you can still buy it with the 25, 1oz, Gold coins. This means that "NOTHING", [there are many more examples of this story], has actually increased in worth, it's just that your cash is worth less.
Think about it!
binko
Just to add a bit here and looking at this another way our dollar is worth between 5% & 10% of what it was worth in 1947. The typical family income was around $5,000 back then and I believe it's around $50,000 today. I'm sure many of you are thinking so what?
Income taxes on $5,000 would have been very low and with exemptions such as a mortgage,children etc. perhaps nonexistent.
However income taxes on $50,000 today would be substantial even with those same exemptions. This bears out the old expression that "It's not what you make it's what you get to keep that's important."
The bottom line here is the government can now put it's hands much deeper into your pockets that it could back then.
I grew up in a single family income environment with a mother and a sister(father worked) in our own home with one automobile. We lived ok but certainly not lavishly on this kind of income. I think I can safely maintain that the same size family would struggle today on an income that's 10 times greater. And I do understand that there are a lot more "things" to buy today than there were back then.
So when many people today start having very uneasy and insecure feeling I think we can see what's wrong with this picture.
Jim
