I remember going out in the 80s as a family of four and the bill averaging around $20-25 total. I miss that. It’s nearly or over $100 to take my family out to eat now.
Something I like to consider, how different is your salary today compared to one from then? Do you, technically, make 4x as much now vs an 80s wage, in line with the 4x cost increase?
Naturally, it’s still not going to be a great answer either, but I’ve learned to take things with a grain of salt and instead of comparing dollar costs from then and now, get a wage from the same time and convert it all to working hours.
Example, my gramps liked to talk about 10 cent cheeseburgers at a time when they were a dollar. He also used to make about a dollar an hour compared to my $8/hr at the time. Yes, that means it’s not equal inflation between wage and cost(that’s the real problem), but at the same time they are both up and cheeseburgers were not as drastically more expensive than they used to be.
Unless you want to rope quality into this then it’s just depressing…
What I’m saying is, dollar for dollar, everyone gets hooked on seeing a platter meal so much cheaper than today and despairs. They forget the guy buying it also made near ten times less than you do at the time.
TL;DR: My understanding: While not equal and unfortunately drifting apart, costs and wages both inflate. Weren’t wages almost as low as that food price at the time?
I remember going out in the 80s as a family of four and the bill averaging around $20-25 total. I miss that. It’s nearly or over $100 to take my family out to eat now.
Something I like to consider, how different is your salary today compared to one from then? Do you, technically, make 4x as much now vs an 80s wage, in line with the 4x cost increase?
Naturally, it’s still not going to be a great answer either, but I’ve learned to take things with a grain of salt and instead of comparing dollar costs from then and now, get a wage from the same time and convert it all to working hours.
Example, my gramps liked to talk about 10 cent cheeseburgers at a time when they were a dollar. He also used to make about a dollar an hour compared to my $8/hr at the time. Yes, that means it’s not equal inflation between wage and cost(that’s the real problem), but at the same time they are both up and cheeseburgers were not as drastically more expensive than they used to be.
Unless you want to rope quality into this then it’s just depressing…
What I’m saying is, dollar for dollar, everyone gets hooked on seeing a platter meal so much cheaper than today and despairs. They forget the guy buying it also made near ten times less than you do at the time.
TL;DR: My understanding: While not equal and unfortunately drifting apart, costs and wages both inflate. Weren’t wages almost as low as that food price at the time?
My dudes really out here talking about the phenomenon of inflation as if it’s some brilliant discovery they just worked out
We know, dude.