Foreecon Funtistics Vol. 1

Since my last posts have been much, much longer than I originally intended, I'll make this one just a few "Foreecon Funtistics." I should probably copyright that, lest my kin exploit my genius...

Here are some interesting little adjusted-for-inflation tidbits for you:

In today's dollars,

One gallon of gas in 1980 = $2.63
Average price of a new car that year = $26,300
Total price of a 2007 Lexus ES 350 today = $31,811
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Median home price in 1968 = $120,341
Median home price today = $231,502
That's misleading - Here, use this:
Average price PER SQUARE FOOT in 1968 = $85.96
Average price PER SQUARE FOOT today = $95.46
So...
Median price of a 2400 square foot home in 1968 = 206,304
Median price of a 2400 square foot home in 2007 = 231,502
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Babe Ruth's purchase price from the Red Sox = $976,500
The contract (piece of paper) for that sale = $996,000
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Minimum wage in 1955 = $5.83
Minimum wage in 1985 = $6.49
Minimum wage in 1995 = $5.81
Minimum wage in 2007, as of July 24 = $5.85
Minimum wage in 2009, reverse-adjusted for expected inflation = about $6.89
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Ten lemon meringue pies in 1940 = $37.20 (Assuming a non-adjusted 1940s price of $0.25 each...)
Present cost of 50 bean burritos at Taco Bell (Last time I checked...) = $37.50
That's a lot of burritos.


So, come 2009, you'll be able to work at Taco Bell and be able to afford (future inflation-adjusted) about 68 burritos per day. Today, you'd only get 62 burritos... That's a 6 BPD increase, or a 9.6% improvement in the quality of living in taco hell.