Numbers, and figures can be manipulated, and have been for decades to meet the needs of a subject.
This is true and why people have to be careful when comparing prices "then and now" using the various calculation index methods.
Fortunately, there is a quick and easy method that can't be easily manipulated by special interests, and that method is by looking at a measurable medium of exchange - silver - since before 1965, all U.S. coins were silver-based. For example, not too long ago, a friend was complaining about today's high prices and that he used to pay $0.20 per gallon for gasoline back in the early 1960's. Back then, the two dimes used to buy that gallon each contained 0.0723 oz of silver for a total of 0.1446 oz silver per gallon. Today, silver is around $16.55 per oz, so those two dimes containing 0.1446 oz of silver at today's silver price (and I am including zero numismatic value to those dimes) is roughly $2.393. And if you look at the national average price today for gasoline (according to AAA), it is $2.343. In other words, when you look at the prices in a fixed medium (quantity of silver), they have not changed much in 50 years ($0.05 decrease). When you compare many near-identical trains from today with trains made in the silver-coinage era, you will see similar results.
The only thing that has changed is the *value* of the dollar, and the unfortunate thing is that we are paid in dollars, and every time Wall Street and the government do things to devalue the dollar, we in the working class effectively take a pay cut.
I highly reccomend the book "The Creature From Jekyll Island" by G. Edward Griffin for a more in-depth look at this subject and much much more.
Andy
