When I started working in 1980 a million was a lot of money. You could park it in a boring, old fashioned passbook savings account at 5-1/4% and live nicely off the interest. $52,000 was a very, very, very nice income at that time.
Now? What does such an account (withdrawals on demand) pay? You’d be lucky to get 2 or 3 percent. Say 2-1/2, about half. You would need a bit over $2-million to generate the same income. But you need $150,000 min to have the equivalent purchasing power of the 52. So you would need $6-million.
What was gold in 1980? $600? So 86 ounces of gold was about $52K.
86 ounces of gold at $1,950 gives you $167,000.
The currency is being destroyed.
Correct. My nieces, early 20’s, didn’t at first understand it when I explained that it wasn’t just that the cost of things was going up, but they were also getting a cut in wages-— that their time/energy/life were being devalued. My house is paid for. I have a very strong pension and almost a million in some ‘safe’ investments. Five years ago, I felt OK/well-off. No more. The future indeed looks bleak, with fewer and fewer people being able to afford a decent standard of living.