By Eric Peters
August 19, 2025
The government lies about almost literally everything, except perhaps what time it is - and probably it would lie about that, too, if it served the government's purposes. So why do most of us believe that inflation - the waning buying power of the money we're forced to use by the government - is what it says it is?
Here's what I know and so can attest to:
When I was a high school kid back in the '80s, I worked part-time at McDonald's. The minimum wage back them was $3.35, which meant that an eight hours shift put just shy of $27 in my pocket. Actually, less - because that's gross. Even high school kids earning minimum wage get FICA (Social Security) and other federal taxes "withheld" as the government likes to style seizing some of the money you've earned before you even get to hold it in your hand for a moment.
Anyhow, I recall working two weekend shifts as well as a a couple of afternoons after school, so something like 24 hours a week. This grossed me about $80 per week. The interesting thing to me, as I recall those days, is that I was able to buy gas for the Omacar - the name given my rusty but trusty '78 Camaro and things like a set of Keystone Classic mags and glass pack mufflers for it, too. My friends were able to do similar and we "cruised" on Friday nights, hanging out in the parking lot of the McDonald's where I worked part-time, after school and weekends.
We could easily afford to eat at McDonald's, too.
I think about those days and wonder how managed to afford the gas we burned as we cruised around on Friday nights and never mind the mag wheels and glass packs for our V8 powered old cars. The Omacar had a 21 gallon tank, much larger than the tank of the typical late-model anything that isn't a huge SUV (such as the Chevy Tahoe I recently reviewed) or a big truck. Most new/late-model cars and crossovers carry about 12-15 gallons of gas.
I remember that if I had $10 in my pocket, I could buy half a tank of gas. That half-tank took me about four hours to earn working for the Clown. A week's worth of working part-time for the Clown earned me enough to keep gas in the Omacar and have enough left over to buy speed parts, such as glasspack mufflers, a set of headers and so on after a few weeks of working and saving up to buy them.
Such teenage affluence seems inconceivable to me today. The minimum wage is now just shy of five times as high, but it doesn't seem to buy as much as $3.35 per hour did back then. How many teenagers today can afford to spend $60 on a tankful of gas for a V8 hot rod working part-time for the Clown, even if they're being paid $15 per hour? I have not seen any V8 hot rods owned by teenagers parked at the McDonald's in let's just say a long time.
I have written before about my first house, which I bought back in the mid-1990s in Northern Virginia for $155k. Today, that same house would list for more than $600k, according to my realtor friend who sells similar houses in the same neighborhood. Now, here's a way to more accurately measure what they're lying to us about.
When I plug what I paid for my first house into the government's so-called "inflation calculator," it says that $155k back then is equivalent in cost to just shy of $315 today. Whey then is a house like my old house a $600k house today? What accounts for the nearly $300k difference in cost?
Channeling the Church Lady: Could it be... inflation? That is to say, the waning value of what a dollar buys today vs. yesterday?
It sure seems that way.
Eating at McDonald's has become a kind of near-luxury dining experience that the parents of today's teens are having a time paying for. How many 17-year-olds can afford a $40 bag of fast food? How many can afford a car, at all? How many adults can afford their first house? If the stats are correct - about the average of first-time home buyers being well into middle aged - then the answer is not many.
Yes, they are lying to us, again.
As Dr. Evil used to say, it's what they do.
This article was originally published on Eric Peters Autos.