MovieChat Forums > Radio Days (1987) Discussion > Was 15 cents alot of money

Was 15 cents alot of money

posted 17 years ago by jughead10m
7 replies | jump to latest

This is hard to understand. If some many relatives live in that house, how can a simple 15 cents in 1943 be alot of money. All Joe wanted was a simple Masked Avenger Ring like some of his friends had. Was that too much. Some choices he could have had like only buying the Masked Avenger Ring of just 15 cents and the rabbi not finding out or making a deal with his parents like if his arithmetic grades come up they will grant him 15 cents or using 15 cents of the non cab money given to him or when Aunt Bea won that 50 silver dollars money at that radio show, asking her for that ring at the time. Or Joe could have borrowed it from a friend.

But in 1943 was 15 cents worth what 5 dollars was worth in the seventies?

[–] JR541 17 years ago

Stealing is stealing. it wasn't his money to take. Back then 15 cents could get you a meal.

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Do you think he wants some cheese?

[–] lumbee 17 years ago

Pleas see: http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/

It has a calculator allowing you to compare the value of an ammount of US currency from 1760- present.

This is the value of 1 US dollar in 1944 converted to 2007 values using 5 indexes:

In 2007, $1.00 from 1944 is worth:

$11.78 using the Consumer Price Index
$9.84 using the GDP deflator
$22.98 using the value of consumer bundle *
$20.67 using the unskilled wage *
$28.86 using the nominal GDP per capita
$62.97 using the relative share of GDP

[–] Stevicus-2 16 years ago

During the Depression, people were inclined to hold on to every cent they had, as money was in short supply and hard to come by. They also had a different philosophy on raising kids back then.

[–] colesbluerose 14 years ago

I got the feeling that of all the people who lived in that house only the father and aunt bea worked

[–] jejozi 12 years ago

$2.34 in 2012 dollars.

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[–] NewtonFigg 10 years ago

In 1940, you could get three subway rides for fifteen cents. Today that would cost $7.50.

A NY Daily News was two cents.

[–] jgroub 9 years ago

Yes, it was. As others have pointed out, you could ride the subway a few times, buy an entire meal, buy the newspaper for a week, or plenty of other things. So not 2 or even 5 dollars, but closer to 7 or so.

Those 50 silver dollars that Aunt Bea won were a VERY big deal - around $2000-2500 or more today.

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