2 thoughts on “Price check – June, 1940

  1. p/s says:

    Another photograph of the filling station (original Kodachrome transparency) by Russell Lee https://www.shorpy.com/node/84?size=_original#caption Reportedly “the town needed paint, and Standard Oil said they would donate it if the [entire] town was painted in their colors–hence the red white and blue. This garage building burned sometime in the early or middle 40’s.”

    $1 in 1940 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $19.76 today, an increase of $18.76 over 81 years. The dollar had an average inflation rate of 3.75% per year between 1940 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 1,875.64%.
    This means that today’s prices are 19.76 times higher than average prices since 1940, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index. A dollar today only buys 5.06% of what it could buy back then.
    The inflation rate in 1940 was 0.72%. The current year-over-year inflation rate (2020 to 2021) is now 6.22% [Oct 2021] https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1940?amount=1
    The closest gas station is 56 miles away in Magdalena.

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