How many years will it take untill a million dollars won’t be a big deal any more, or as much a big deal as it is now?
Ok, maybe that’s too broad so I’ll ask it like this. When will $1,000,000 be worth what $1,000 is worth now, for example?
Shouldn’t this be in GQ?
(Aah! Sorry, that’s a cliche, isn’t it? Sorry, sorry sorry …)
Inflation rate in the US is 1.9 % currently. Assuming it remains constant (which is not realistic, see page below), we can do the following calculation:
$1,000,000 = $1,000 * 1.019[sup]t[/sup], t being the number of years until $1,000 will have turned into $1,000,000. 1.019 because if the rate of inflation is 1.9 %, you get each year’s amount by multiplying the one from the year before by 1.019.
We divide by $1,000 and get
1000 = 1.019[sup]t[/sup]
Hell, I need logarithms for that, and I don’t know how to get those on my calculator. But with some trial and error, I found that 1.019[sup]350[/sup] = 726 and 1.019[sup]400[/sup] = 1860, so t must be in between.
Here’s a good website about rates of inflation in the US of A during the centuries:
http://minneapolisfed.org/economy/calc/cpihome.html
[sub]It definitely is time I quit school and forget bloody math lessons ;)[/sub]