Lots of countries introduce “new” currencies to lop zeroes off the old, highly inflated currency. The US needs to do that — lop one or maybe even two decimal points off everything. Then cars would be $3,000 again, houses $30,000, a box of corn flakes $0.50, a candy bar a nickel, a newspaper a dime, etc.
Now if we could only hold onto our “old currency” salaries and switch to the “new dollar,” we’d be in heaven.
“Now if we could only hold onto our “old currency” salaries and switch to the “new dollar,” we’d be in heaven.”
Yeah, if I had just my social security check and 1950 prices, my wife and I would be buying a new vehicle every year, taking long trips all over everywhere, eating in nice restaurants and living in a much, much nicer house. You had to be a professional or an executive and doing well to be paid the same amount as my current social security. What my father earned then in a week as a master carpenter will buy one BAG of groceries now, it won’t fill the tank on our car once.
I was in France in 1964 and 1965 while on a Navy cruise aboard the Saratoga and they actually had old Francs and new Francs in circulation at the same time. IIRC the new Franc was worth ten old Francs.
By the way, I remember when candy bars were a nickel and I mean full size bars, it took too twelve year old boys to eat a ten cent “Baby Ruth” bar. Cars could be had then for well under $3,000 and in this part of the country houses did not cost $30,000 unless you were referring to a mansion. There were livable houses in this area for $3000 and very nice ones for $10,000. The Volkswagen beetle was sold for a long time before the price rose to $1500 and you could still buy some models from Detroit for less than $3000 after I received my honorable discharge. The newspaper for a dime was still standard here well after I reached adulthood.
There was an article in “Farm and Ranch” magazine in the sixties lamenting that a young person who wanted to take up farming needed $30,000. minimum in capital to get started. You would need that to start a decent vegetable garden now.