All that for $20 thou?
Sure it was a considerable amount of money back then, but still, they should have made it more, IMO. I guess the amount wasn't the issue for Clint.
"Did you make coffee...? Make it!"--Cheyenne.
Didn't most people make about $30 a month back then? $20,000 would be a fortune.
For argument's sake, for someone who makes $5000 a month today (after taxes), the equivalent would be about $3.3 million.
Many historical sources that I have seen give $1 per day for labor. Grammar school teachers were paid (I think) about $30 per month, plus room and board. Educated work, like bank tellers (you've got to count, do basic arithmetic, and be honest) up to lawyers, doctors, and engineers, made $100 to $300 per month.
Estimates that are based on the CPI come out about 15 times larger, so that $20,000 would be $300,000 today. I found an online source that calculates the inflationary equivalent as $400,000. For the period prior to 1913 when the CPI was invented, they used historical inflation accounts. Not in the millions, but well above chump change.
Cash was also in short supply in many places west of the Mississippi River and paper money was often viewed with suspicion. Gold (American Eagles and Double Eagles) and silver (Liberty Head dollars) were preferred.
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