Coffee was a dime for a very long time
Yes, dear reader, coffee really was a dime throughout the sixties and on into the early seventies. And a soda was ten cents back then too.
A dollar was a solid dollar backed by gold and coins were real silver (90 percent). I remember that time vividly.
As a teenager, I was working in a movie theater for ninety five cents per hour. I was thrilled when the minimum wage was increased to one dollar per hour.
Our local Woolworths was known as a five and ten cents store. And those were about the prevailing prices at that time. But it was not that things were really cheap back then.
You see, the wages, prices and cost of living at that time were about the same as they are now compared to the amount of dollars in circulation.
I came to America in ninety sixty one from Ireland. It was an exciting land of promise and opportunity.
My family and I lived in Queens, New York. And I was rapidly learning all I could about this strange, wonderful land.
The talk of the time in that community was about the amazing starting salary for a New York cop. It was eight thousand dollars per year.
My oh my how times and things have changed in my lifetime.
Subway tokens were a dime and a glass of beer was fifteen cents. And these prices also lasted for a long time.
I remember White Castle burgers for fifteen cents and a steak dinner with salad at Tad’s Steakhouse in New York City was ninety nine cents.
I know for you young whippersnappers that this seems like ancient history.
But is it really? You see, with the same price progression over time and applying math out a few years, today’s two dollars and fifty cent cup of coffee may well cost you twenty five dollars!
This is called inflation and some see it rapidly accelerating into hyper- inflation.
That’s when the cost of everything escalates into infinity until finally your money is no good anymore. That would be like the Confederate dollar and the Argentine peso at their end phase.
Thousands, millions, billions and now trillions: the US Treasury continues to churn out unlimited amounts of currency. This of course makes the dollar in your pocket worth less and less day by day.
So, as I mentioned, it’s not that the ten cents cup of coffee and the fifteen cent hamburger were so much cheaper way back then. They were equivalent to today’s prices considering the constant devaluation of the US dollar.
The actual purchasing power of the dollar from just the early seventies has decreased by about nienty five percent. But it’s still called a dollar and remains on bank statements as such.
And for an example, let’s say you’ve been successful and prudent and you’ve saved as much of your salary as possible through the years for your old age. But just try to retire on your life savings that have lost ninety five percent of their value!
I would say good luck. You might well exclaim “I’ve been robbed”
And you would be right.
Sadly, the US dollar lost its gold backing in ninety seventy one. That was mostly due to America’s tremendous cost of funding the Vietnam war.
This resulted in the buck falling like a rock and it has continued down ever since. It’s easy to see this effect whenever you go shopping at your local grocery store.
There was another setback which occured in the early seventies.
The Middle East war broke out between Israel and its Arab neighbors. This resulted in the infamous oil embargo which shocked the world and drove gasoline prices through the roof.
Being that transportation costs apply to almost everything, prices of goods of course soared.
Wars not only bring tragic death, misery and destruction, they are also ever so expensive to wage. And America’s involvement in wars one after the other since the Vietnam conflict have steadily continued.
So how did it cover the outlandish cost, you might ask? Simple. It just created trillions of dollars out of thin air, which makes the dollar in your pocket worth that much less.
Wars and threats of wars: sound familiar? Well the US is busily cooking up another one with its mighty battle carrier strike forces massing off the coast of Israel in the Mediterranean Sea. The neocons, warhawks, along with Israel have been itching for an excuse to hit Iran. And this eventuality is growing ever closer.
How might Iran react to such an invasion on its sovereign territory? Well it has an ace up its sleeve without firing a shot.
That is in its supply of oil to the rest of the world. It can easily close the Straits of Harmose and choke off the lifeblood of energy to the western world.
Would it do it? I don’t see why not.
So, sadly, that’s what our world is degrading to in our here and now. War rages with chaos, confusion, inflation and a bleak future for all concerned.
Hey, I didn’t intend to look into this dark mess and sound so negative about it all. I just wanted to tell you a bit about the good old days when things were fine, the world was mine and coffee was still a dime.
Dan can be reached at danhughoconnor@gmail.com