The US Dollar and Monopoly Money

I was listening to Free Talk Live today and a caller brought up a great point. Many libertarians compare the US dollar to Monopoly money when ranting about how bad the dollar is doing these days. But this isn’t really fair to Monopoly money. The Monopoly Dollar has been growing by leaps and bounds compared to the US dollar. When the game first became popular in the form we know it today in the early 1970’s it cost considerably less than what it costs today. I searched high and low but I couldn’t find its price in the 70’s. We’ll just assume it was around $5. I doubt it was as high as $10. Today you can get your very own Monopoly game for around $29.95. Both versions of the game however come with $15,140 in Monopoly Money.

If you do the math, that means that in the 1970’s, it would cost you $3,028 Monopoly dollars to get you just $1 US Dollar. Today the US Dollar is only worth $505.50 in Monopoly Money. Against the US Dollar, Monopoly Money is skyrocketting! For the same amount of US Dollars, you could only buy 1/6 of the Monopoly Money you used to be able to get. Monopoly Money is strong right now. Don’t let anyone insult it by comparing it to the US Dollar.

~ by DontTreadOnMike on June 23, 2008.