Data was compiled from a number of sources.
US Census, several sources for cost of wars, articles on US expenditures over the years, and an inflation calculator. I could post a list of urls if that would be helpful.
I spent half a day trying to find such a chart on the Web, without success. So I gave up and compiled it myself, more or less from original sources. I had no idea what it would show.
As stated, I make no claim that I didn’t make any errors. This is just my best effort.
A very interesting fact I ran across is that there was zero inflation in the US between 1800 and 1900. In fact, a dollar was worth more in 1900 than in 1800. Deflation.
Nice work. but obviously we need a fairness doctrine to counter your facts.
Hard money with circulating silver and gold and paper redeemable in kind. Now we have “FR notes” and coins that are more copper than any other content.