ADJ,
I think you are comparing apples to apricots.
Mule Deer's figures are based on the true average inflation rate over the last 50 years which the experts agree is $1 then (1965) equals $7.50 now.
Since, with rare exceptions, you can't buy the exact same new items now that you could in 1965, the amounts are going to vary some.
Picking out one item, like a computer, or a Dodge van, doesn't prove much one way or another.
Here is an extreme example:
In 1972 the first electronic Digital watch was introduced to the public at a cost of $2100. The Pulsar. (I actually knew a very rich guy that bought one, and he paid that much for it). Obviously demand was limited by the high price. But they did sell quite a few.
In 1975 Texas Instruments came out with their electronic digital watch at a price of $20. They sold a gazillion of them and made a fortune. Pulsar lost $6 million dollars that year.
A year later, in 1976, as demand started to slow, TI lowered their price to $10 and sold a gazillion more, and made even more money.
The same type simple watch today costs about $2.
What does it prove? Nothing.
Back to JB's 1 to7.5 ratio, I just happened to buy my very first factory new centerfire rifle in 1965. It was a Remington M-600 in 308 Winchester that I bought at the big-box Gemco store in San Jose, California.
It was on sale for $89.95. Multiply that by 7.5 for today's dollars and it comes out to $675.
That sounds reasonably close to what that rifle, new, might cost today. There are currently several NIB Rem. Model Sevens on Gunbroker for $699, and Davidson's shows new ones for $730. Noting also that a Model Seven isn't exactly a M-600 either.
An awful lot has changed in the last fifty years, but the average buying power of the average guy for most types of things hasn't changed much.
