Guest Posts on County 10 are provided by contributors and the opinions, thoughts, and comments within are their own and may not necessarily reflect those of County 10.
There was a sign in the late Terry Statton’s office that rang true long ago when he was principal at Riverton Middle School, and is even more accurate today.
“I thought I’d be on Easy Street if I made $40,000 a year… They moved the street.”
It remains apropos to the economic conditions we all faced in 2025 and are continuing to have to deal with in 2026, possibly for several more years.
The dollar isn’t worth what it once was.
In writing many historical pieces, I always convert costs from the time period in question into the modern era. A century ago, a dollar had the buying power of 19 dollars today. That’s a long time ago; the world has certainly changed greatly since 1926, but how about 1986? Just 40 years ago.
It’s tripled, a 300% increase due to nearly constant inflation.
There is a silver lining to this if you’re a homeowner. If you paid $50,000 for your house in 1970, made no improvements, and put it on the market today, you’d expect $400,000 to $450,000 for it. Youngsters complain about this all the time. They can’t afford to buy a house today, and they can’t use over half of their monthly income to pay rent. That’s one of the reasons so many of them live in their parent’s basement.
Jokes aside, it’s tough to get started today. It’s always been a challenge, but young people today face the burden of insane health care premiums, a dwindling income, and rapidly rising prices in nearly everything they need.
How, what, and why, you might ask? My answer is a bit flippant; it’s because Congress is the opposite of “progress.”
Our federal coalition ostensibly representing the people of Wyoming isn’t the least bit concerned about high prices, limited job growth, and, least of all, health care.
A young couple I know with two small children now pays $2200 a month for health care with an insane $13,000 deductible tacked onto it. Do the math, and that’s about $40,000 a year before their plan kicks in.
Those opposed to socialized medicine don’t ever look at every other advanced nation on earth that already has it in place. They just scream socialism! Then don’t say a word when billion-dollar corporations take hundreds of millions of dollars in government handouts to keep operating, oil companies included.
The idiocy boggles the mind.
When I started my professional career, health care cost me $59 a month for a single policy with a $250 deductible. In modern terms, those 1980 costs would be around $240 a month, with a $1000 deductible. Try to find those prices for insurance today with a deductible that low. You won’t, the for-profit health care industry has taken away that option while adding a bewildering array of policies and procedures that often require a team of accountants and attorneys just to see what is and isn’t covered. Suffice it to say, if the insurance companies had their way, they wouldn’t cover anything.
We don’t worry about health care costs as much as we once did since Sue and I both reached the magical age of 65. Medicare still isn’t free. We kick in an extra $350 a month for various plans to cover the gaps in the basic government package. Most people do. In retrospect, we’re paying more in supplemental coverage now than we did on a family plan when we were first married in 1982, and yes, that’s adjusted for inflation.
We planned our retirement for a long time. We invested, paid off our home, property, cars, trucks, farm equipment, and a few big toys in anticipation of a “fixed income.”
That fixed income we so carefully calculated to begin arriving in 2012 is now worth only 70% of what it was originally. Retirement plans don’t get adjusted for inflation. They just dwindle away over time because of it.
I feel sorry for the older teachers who retired before Trent Blankenship became the Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction.
During Trent’s brief tenure, he did the educators of Wyoming an incalculable favor; he managed to convince the state legislature to increase funding for salaries across the state. Retirement income is double what it would have been before Trent was in office.
Social Security is another piece of the retirement puzzle for many people, sadly the only piece for those who didn’t plan well.
It would be a much better option if Ronald Reagan and the Republican congress didn’t enact the Social Security Amendments Act of 1983. Before that year, there was no income tax on Social Security. You paid federal income tax when they took it out of your check, but after 1983, they imposed federal tax on it once again. Double taxation, didn’t we fight a revolution over something similar?
Now you pay income tax on up to 85% of your Social Security payment.
Hey, “Free Dumb Caucus,” how about battling that instead of trying to close libraries, universities, burning books, and closing public schools? You wouldn’t have to hide your affiliation if you supported that tax cut. How about taking a stand on healthcare as well?
Probably not, it requires too much reading, and they don’t read much as it is.
During COVID, when I was tired from hours of reading and didn’t want to watch TV, I discovered Channel 148, “Radio Classics.” I enjoy listening to classic science fiction on X Minus One, but my favorite show is “Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.” The man with the fabulous expense account…
The adventures of an insurance investigator who solves murders, arson, and elaborate international criminal conspiracies are entertaining, and so is his expense account.
The radio show was broadcast from 1949 to 1962. Lunch was $1.25, and an elaborate dinner for two with drinks was around $20. Coast-to-coast flights from New York to Los Angeles ranged from $89 to $195, but a long-distance phone call was sometimes $15.
A rental car cost $50, about the same as today, but adjusted for inflation, it was around $600 in the 1950s.
You could fill your car for less than five bucks. A train ticket for anywhere along the East Coast was less than $10, and yet, a short cab ride could cost just about as much. The real difference comes in medical care. The adventurous Mr. Dollar pays $14 for a night in the hospital, or $8 to have his injuries cleaned up. Today, its $3500 to get a stitch in the ER. The difference is vastly more than inflation. Hospitals until the 1980s were operated by counties, cities, and religious groups. American medicine is now a for-profit enterprise, and the cost of medical care in the United States is the highest on earth as a result.
The prices are as interesting as the storyline.
There isn’t much interesting in our current economic situation. If you pay attention to gold and silver prices, you’ll notice that they’re soaring to new, astronomical heights. It’s a reflection on the impending collapse of the American dollar and a national debt that is due to increase more in 2025 and 2026 than all the years combined before 2016.
What can you do? Maybe limit dinner to a piece of chicken, some broccoli, and a tortilla? That should fix it.