Suppose it is 1950. You have $5 in your pocket and you have to buy groceries. You've got plenty:
Gallon of milk: 83 cents
Dozen eggs: 60 cents
Loaf of bread: 30 cents
Chopped beef: 53 cents
Frozen green beans: 24 cents
Apples: 39 cents
Peanut butter: 29 cents
5lbs potatoes: 26 cents
3 lbs. hamburger: 89 cents
2 lbs. cabbage: 12 cents
1 lb. bacon: 35 cents
Total: $4.80
If you lived in any of 10 states, there wasn't a sales tax, so you could pocket that 20 cents.
Today, you aren't going to make much of a dinner with your $5. You can buy bread for $2 and eggs for $1.54. Five pounds of potatoes cost about $3.
Of course, today you should have more than $5 in your pocket, because wages eventually rise with inflation.
The exception: Anyone who lives on fixed savings. For them, inflation can lower their standard of living. That's why when you retire, your savings and investments have to keep up with inflation.
Rick Good spent ten years in the newspaper business, including with The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) and The Greenville News (Greenville, SC). He co-wrote, with Melinda Coleman, Rutledge to Riley: Governors of South Carolina, 1776–Present (Published by The Greenville News), and is the author of Mind Games Trivia #1 (Amazon). He has recently spent 15 years creating original trivia content through Sounds Good Mobile Entertainment and continues that with his new company, SGME Software. He edits The Smart Reader’s money, real estate, and business coverage.