Saturday, November 30, 2013

Not sure this is progress

cheapcalculators

Cruising the aisles of our local Dollar General the other day, I noticed these pocket calculators selling for $1 and $2.

The first calculator I can remember seeing was a too-big-for-a-pocket Texas Instruments scientific calculator that my brother-in-law bought for about $500 while he was studying architecture at Purdue University.

That was in 1972. Adjusting for inflation, that amounts to $2,793.61 in today’s dollars. You see, one 2013 dollar has the purchasing power of 18 cents in 1972 currency.

I’m not sure what to be surprised about – what’s happened to the price of calculators or what’s happened to the value of our money. Four hundred percent inflation? WTF?

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