I remember when the local pizzerias around my neighborhood would sell us a slice of pizza and a milkshake for exactly one dollar. It was a great bargain at the time. It stayed like that during my 4th, 5th and 6 grade years and gave me and my schoolyard friends good reason to avoid the lunch in school. It was also a magnetic way of getting dozens of me and my friends together at lunchtime to hang out and cause a little mischief. However, when I attended 7th grade, a new pizza shop on 14th Street raised the price of the pizza/milkshake combination by one nickle. That was a pain in the neck. Who wants to carry around a single nickle or a dime to make a combo package?
Either way, the price increase became one of those turning points in my life when I realized, that even something as seemingly untouchable as a slice of pizza and milkshake were also going to be affected by inflation. Candy bars, bubble gum, potato chips and soda had already gone up in price. But as a kid, I always felt that the price of pizza and milkshakes would never go up. But they did.
So that inconvenience of carrying around an extra dollar, or loose change to continue to buy my lunch time food is by far a bargain at today's prices for that same combination. I'm sure the generations before me bought a slice of pizza and a milkshake for even less. Here in America...it's just one of those things. The inevitability in the rise of prices in capitalism...sort of like the inevitability of a heavy thunderstorm at some point in the year.
My mother would give me a couple of dollars to ensure that I had lunch money. Today I'd have to give my kids anywhere from $10 to $15 dollars to do the same. Seems like some innocence has been lost. It's not a wonder why the kids today have nothing but dollar signs in their eyes. They too need to survive as the economy becomes more steep.
Either way, the price increase became one of those turning points in my life when I realized, that even something as seemingly untouchable as a slice of pizza and milkshake were also going to be affected by inflation. Candy bars, bubble gum, potato chips and soda had already gone up in price. But as a kid, I always felt that the price of pizza and milkshakes would never go up. But they did.
So that inconvenience of carrying around an extra dollar, or loose change to continue to buy my lunch time food is by far a bargain at today's prices for that same combination. I'm sure the generations before me bought a slice of pizza and a milkshake for even less. Here in America...it's just one of those things. The inevitability in the rise of prices in capitalism...sort of like the inevitability of a heavy thunderstorm at some point in the year.
My mother would give me a couple of dollars to ensure that I had lunch money. Today I'd have to give my kids anywhere from $10 to $15 dollars to do the same. Seems like some innocence has been lost. It's not a wonder why the kids today have nothing but dollar signs in their eyes. They too need to survive as the economy becomes more steep.
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