# Prices and inflation

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-and-inflation/73111>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [July 19, 2001, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-and-inflation/73111 "2001-07-19T22:35:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2001, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-and-inflation/73111/1 "2001-07-19T22:35:58Z")

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Say in the past 40 years; what item has gone up the most in price?  
The least? (I’m guessing the postage stamp for this one)

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**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2001, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-and-inflation/73111/2 "2001-07-19T23:04:55Z")

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Some other possible candidates:

Pay phone prices.

Beverages in restaurants.

Basic groceries like milk and bread.

Houses in certain areas. (Our babysitter and her husband bought their house on the salary of a part-time tuna fisherman plus the extra money she made babysitting and ironing shirts for 10 cents each.) She just sold it for around $600,000.

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**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2001, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-and-inflation/73111/3 "2001-07-19T23:15:02Z")

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My uncle told me when he was a kid (he’s about 50 now I guess) he was able to buy a bottle of coke for like $.05.

The price of water has inflated infinately, as far as I know, it hasn’t been for sale until recently (I could however be mistaken). Even if it was for sale, $1/litre has to be incredible inflation from whatever it used to be.

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**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2001, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-and-inflation/73111/4 "2001-07-19T23:56:20Z")

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Even though it was at a recent high Gasoline was selling at below pre 70s gas shortage in real dollars last year. I don’t know about todays prices but it couldn’t be much of an increase over such a long time.

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**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2001, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-and-inflation/73111/5 "2001-07-20T01:05:09Z")

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College tuition.

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**Author:** ![Tyklfe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3e96dc/32.png) [@Tyklfe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tyklfe)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2001, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prices-and-inflation/73111/6 "2001-07-20T01:07:32Z")

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For Item that has gone up in price the most:

**Diamonds**

For Item that has gone up in price the Least:

Uhhhhhh, oooooohhhhh - good one…hmmmmm…I guess maybe… a pack of chewing gum?