What is $5,000 worth today, and is it better than 1,600 in the 80's?


Hey Everyone,
So I found this nifty inflation calculator:
https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
So today if you spent $5k on a piece of gear, it's the equivalent of around $1,600 in 1980.

What do you all think. Is gear better or worse?  Does your modern day $5k buy you more or less gear than $1,600 did in 1980?


Erik
erik_squires
I didn't mean to suggest a budget, but sure!

I meant like, say you buy a $5k pair of speakers today, but trying to build a whole system in that budget is not a bad idea either.


Does anyone thing we are buying gear that is equal to, or better than we were in 1980's?  That is, at $5k are we getting the same than we were at $1600?
The theory is basically the same but the implementation is much better now.  I am not an economist so I don't know enough of inflation (except that it goes higher and higher), but the quality of equipment is "much" better now.  Such examples as capacitors, cables, digital technology, DAC's are all superior vs. back in the 1980's.  

Is $5000 better than $1600?  It depends I think.  A $5000 refrigerator today probably does not have the same value as a $1600 refrigerator back in the 1980's, but a $5000 DAC today is much superior than a $1600 DAC in 1980's.  

In general, things that can be outsourced tend to be "cheaper" today.  Conversely things that cannot be outsourced, they tend to get more "expensive".  For example, a trip to get your car repaired probably costs quite a bit more vs. back in the 1980's.


I am not an economist so I don’t know enough of inflation (except that it goes higher and higher), but the quality of equipment is "much" better now.

Right. The answer is simple and staring you right in the face every time you open your wallet. But we’re all so conditioned to believe the lie we won’t believe the truth even when clearly explained. Hold my beer and watch this:

Printed right on the green bills in there are the words Federal Reserve Note. A note is a loan. You could look it up. Its an IOU. That’s why if you go on-line or to a coin shop and look up our old currency, it used to say things like "payable to the bearer on demand in gold" or silver, or "there exists in the vaults gold..." in other words the paper was a claim on physical money (gold and silver) and the further back you go the more explicit and clear this was. Printed right on the note.

As a matter of fact if you go back to 1776 the Constitution defines money as gold and silver coin, and gives congress the authority to regulate its fineness. You don’t regulate the "fineness" of a paper Federal Reserve Note. FRNs you "print" like this: Ctrl+P. Yeah. Because its so far removed from money its not even paper, its digits. On a screen.

This becomes relevant real fast when you go look up the price of things like corn. Going back to the 1600’s when the only money was silver and gold coin the price of a bushel of corn was the same all the way from the Pilgrims to the Civil War. Oh there were blips. But DYODD. Look it up. The blips were all brief and mostly due to.... wars. They’d print paper money to pay the troops to fight the wars. Sound familiar?

Only now the wars go on forever.

Human beings however are really clever. Someone makes something better they make a nice profit. Better, or cheaper. Or both. The profit motive is strong as can be and so someone somewhere is always striving to make a buck by making something cheaper and better. Economists call this productivity.

Productivity is always going up. Computers sent it rocketing up crazy fast. Everything should be so much better today no one would even think for a second to ask Eric’s question. It would be so obvious.

The reason its not is because we’ve all been deluded into thinking of the USD as a sound basis for measuring over time. Day to day, fine. But over the years? Has it somehow escaped your attention we used to measure dollars in thousands, now its trillions? Going on quadrillions? How on Earth is that a stable measure?

Meanwhile, another simple exercise, instead of dollars go look at the price of things in ounces of gold. Or silver. The gallon of gas that used to be a dime STILL IS- IF you sell your SILVER dime for FRNs. The best mens $50 suit STILL IS but only if paid in the same ounce of gold, now $1500 when priced in FRNs.

You can do this with all kinds of things. OF COURSE your dollar buys a lot more today. Your DOLLAR. NOT your Federal Reserve Note.
millercarbon ...

That was truly excellent. Thank you for posting it.

The term "dollar" is a term of measurement, not unlike the terms "pint" "quart" or "gallon." So, when we ask  someone how much they want for a certain product, and the response is: "ten dollars," the retort should be: "ten 'dollars' of what?" Americans used to know that "ten 'dollars' of what?" ... meant ten "dollars" worth of either gold or silver.

The hidden secret is that with precious metals as a basis for money, it is impossible to build a welfare state.

 In order to create an additional "dollar" under a metal system, another "dollar's" worth of metal must be dug out of the ground. That applies the worth of labor to the "dollar." 

Under a fiat (paper) money system, the government can print at will to support all kinds of nefarious things ... like unending political wars for example.

The benefit of a fiat money system is that it empowers those in control at the present time. The ultimate price of a fiat money system is huge debts that must be paid by future generations. At the present time, the national debt stands at 23 trillion dollars, and the unfunded liabilities stand at over 200 trillion dollars.

Gold/silver is the currency of free men. Paper is the money of economic slaves.

Here's a good start for anyone interested in the subject:

https://www.amazon.com/Ron-Paul-Money-Book-Congressman/dp/B000M0R36M

Frank