Good Old Days?

A picture of a Shell Gas Station advertising gas for 33 cents per gallon in 1972 periodically appears on Facebook. It’s followed by a long list of people gushing about either how cheap it was then, or how expensive it is today. But using an online calculator, a dollar in 1972 is worth about $7.50 today, making the inflation adjusted price of that gas about $2.50 per gallon. Now comes the fact that I am only using a third of the gas today due to increased efficiency. So in my sometimes convoluted way of thinking, the combination of inflation and better mileage means todays price of gas would need to be approximately $7.50 per gallon to equal 1972’s 33 cent per gallon.

My dad grew up poor. He used to say he remembered when a loaf of bread was a nickel…. But he didn’t have a nickel.

Sometimes the good old days weren’t all that great.

Are there other examples of products that are either more or less expensive today based on inflation or the way we use them?