MovieChat Forums > Ransom! (1956) Discussion > Inflation

Inflation

posted 16 years ago by MissMargoChanning
3 replies | jump to latest

I'm watching "Ransom" right now. I was watching the scene where Glen Ford's brother in the film, tells the employees that for thier hard work and discretion, they will each get a $25.00 bonus. That was a fairly nice bonus then. I remember that being a whole lot of money when I was a little kid in the early 1960's. I was curious as to how much it's worth today. For anyone who is interested, I checked the internet inflation calculator.
$25.00 in 1956 = $181.82 in 2006.... probably $200.00 two years later, in 2008!
Just something I thought I'd share......
Have a nice day!

[–] rivkahchaya-372-42432 11 years ago

Another way of looking at it, is that minimum wage was $1 an hour in 1956, up from 75 cents the year before. So, $25 was more than 1/2 a week's pay for someone earning minimum wage. Bank employees probably earned better than minimum, though: the starting salary for a bank teller now is about 150% of minimum, so in 1956, we can guess that those employees probably grossed about $60 a week-- the ones who had been there longer no doubt earned more, but the employee who is so excited about the $25 is pretty young. That bonus is more than 1/3 of his weekly pay, and maybe 1/2 of what he actually takes home.

Now think about how much $500,000 was then.

[–] joeparkson 11 years ago

Multiply by at least a factor of 10. A Volkswagen cost about $1700 in 1965. Today, the cheapest VW would be at least $20,000. Not everything appreciates at the same rate; some appreciate far less, like the cost of a TV, other things have appreciated even more, like the cost of a college education.

Absurdity: A Statement or belief inconsistent with my opinion.

[–] paulr03 8 years ago

And the ransom would be $3,620,000!