The last REAL US Dollar

I beg to differ, but in 1935, we were on the gold standard, not a bi-metallic standard.

Therefore: the last REAL 1 dollar coin was a gold dollar last minted in 1889 (while still under a bi-metallic standard).

These memes are useless and usually aimed at supporting a particular political POV.

 

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Yeah. The good old days of 1935. Nation in a depression. Scores of diseases handled routinely now that were death sentences then. A high school diploma being a major accomplishment. Facism taking over Europe. Racism institutionalized by either law or custom across all of the US. Companies using goons to beat up workers who backed unions.

The list goes on and on.

Despite the problems of today, I'll take them and deal with them. I'll collect Peace dollars for entertainment.

 

The theory and practice of money is one of history's great stories. People seldom fully understand the differences between the major types of money - commodity, fiduciary and fiat. People also get confused because sometimes money is a simple accounting artifice, and sometimes it's a means to conserve wealth. And most of the time it's something in-between.
The concept that gold is the only real, immutable form of money is nothing more than a social convention. There has never been enough gold in the world to be a stable and universal type of money. Less than 100,000 cubic yards of gold have been mined in all of history. That's an amount that could be stacked on the floor of a typical high school gymnasium, without coming close to the ceiling. No need to put any on the bleachers, either. Are we really going to run the world on the basis of who owns how much of that pile?
While one contemplates the wisdom of making the world's economy an inverted pyramid standing on a tiny point of gold, he might also contemplate the fact that it's a point of basically useless matter. Modernity has brought a few, limited uses for gold in electronics and nuclear physics, for most of history its main use has been as something for those who own some of it to lord it over those who didn't.
That and mostly hideously tacky jewelry.

 

The entire point to my REAL = GOLD is a statement about the OP's comment. The last time we had a real dollar is the last time that one was issued by the government in a standard metal.

This was not the case in 1935, as we had officially left the gold and silver standard by then for a gold standard to back our money.

 

Ah, the Good Old Days...

 

I recall cigs at 19 cents a pac in the pool room and gas at about the same. I worked before jr.hi school in mid fifties washing dishes in a college dining hall for 40 cents an hour. Walked to school uphill both ways

 

Actually, all three in relation to the destruction of the FRN. I would gladly take my wages in 1913 in gold/silver than the salary I have now in debt created FRNs today. The whole thread misses the point that 1913 meeting on Jeckyls Island was the the beginning of the end. You can not even use the manipulated gold and silver prices by COMEX to determine the value of constitutional money. I know this will lead to a whole new disagreement of the value or purpose of the (Non-)Federal Reserve. But the destruction of the U.S. Dollar vs One FRN. I'll stop now before my blood pressure gets to high.

 

And the more things change, the more they stay the same.... just the reverse this time around.

 

I recall Gas being 17 cent a gallon back in 1970. I worked part time in high school at a shell gas station . That price was for Super Shell @ 100 octane "leaded gas" I also recall that from 1960-68 my tuition for a private school was $2.25 @ month . Milk was around 50 cent a half gallon.
A loaf of bread around .25 cents.
My parents first house a Cape Cod was $10,000 in 1960.
Now as we examine most of these items we are talking about a time where the price of gold was fixed at $35 @ ounce. Silver around 1.00-1.25 @ ounce.
We are talking an era where there was no EPA, Blue laws were in effect, a pair of Jack Percells tennis shoes were $5.25 @ pair . Unlike the pair your mother got you at the A&P for $1.50.

One needs to remember also the percentage of women in the work force was lower, less women drivers, most were stay at home moms.
There's hundreds of factors that have caused the dollar to loose its buying power.
One of the major ones I believe is the repeal of the blue laws.
For those who are not familiar with this term the blue laws were laws that no commercial business was open on Sundays . Most food stores closed by 9 pm on a Saturday , there were no Malls, well there was one the first Mall built in the US of A was in Glen Burnie Md 1959. But by the mid 60's they were everywhere.
But the repeal of the blue laws allowed business to be done on Sundays . Malls offered more goods to be had by all.
More goods meant women were entering the work force as more was needed to pay for all the new goods now available .
Revolving Credit another factor ,yes credit has been around a long time. But now each new store had its own. Then credit cards were being issued by big banks.
Stores hours expanded so customers could shop any day or time of the week.
There was no OPEC , so gas was cheap. Then it happen buying power started to slide downward. When the first gas crunch hit in 1972 a used 1970 Toyota Corolla was worth double its new sticker price which was way under $1800.00.
So the down fall of the buying power of the US dollar was caused by a lot of factors. The biggest factor supply and demand . The more we demanded the more supply came for goods. The more we demanded the higher the prices went. Malls charged more rent "over head" for a business
to operate. More drivers meant more cars ,gas prices climbed to meet demand. Each factor chipped away the value of the buck.
One other point in the mid 1960's for a quarter and yes it was a silver .900 you could go to McDonald's get a burger,fries,and a milk shake.

 

Alan not to be arbitrary but Google wasn't around in 1964, I was, .....my parents 1st home in the suburbs in 1960's cost 10,000. In 1964 it didn't double in value,but by 1974 it tripled.
In 1969 a mid size car was under $ 2000.00
Yes a gallon of milk was around .49 cents but one must realize milk was priced fixed by the government and still is today.
A gallon of gas was 14 to 20 cents depending on grade.
A loaf of bread again 15 -20 @ loaf depending on brand and type.
1964 was the tipping point of the devaluation of the dollar.
Heck in grade school I got a nickel a day allowance that was enough to keep me in penny candy to be sugared out all day.

 

Yeah, we all knew that eventually it would get to political soapboxes. Any further will get dinged more than the minimum. STAY away from political, etc!!

 

I recall central park in fall, how you tore your dress, what a mess...."

 

I love that insight, you are spot-on.

 

DIAMONDS - good or bad investment?

 

BAD, unless you are in the cartel.

 

I have benefited greatly by knowing people that "lived" during that time. In the words of one of them, "The good old days were not really that good."

 

The old guy that you heard that from...

heard that saying from Doug when he was little.

 

My dad used to say, "Damn the Good Old Days. A candy bar was a nickel, but no one could afford one. Now they are a dollar and I can buy a box full."

 

Improvements in efficiency of technology, manufacturing, supply lines etc. typically cause prices to go DOWN. Those increases in efficiency mean that todays prices are LOWER than they would have been otherwise.

 

Indeed, people today are working less for a lot more and a lot more goods.