Inflation

Here's a simple tale.

I asked my mother how much she earnt as a teacher each month when she started out. She thought for a while and said, "About $300."

I asked her how much a bowl of noodles cost in those days. She could see where this was going, and promptly said, "Two cents, sometimes five."

That meant, of course, that she could afford anywhere from six to fifteen thousand bowls of noodles a month, if all she spent her money on was bowls of noodles.

I've worked out how many bowls of noodles I can afford. It ranges from about one to three thousand bowls a month (well, that's stretching it a bit far, really).

I earn five times less than my mother did forty years ago, in real terms. Sigh.