History Main / RidiculousFutureInflation

Second, governments can sometimes simply revalue their currency when the numbers get too unwieldy, by creating "new" dollars or whatever, worth 1,000 or whatever of the old dollars. Except that governments usually leave that to the central banks. This revaluing is usually only for hyperinflation -- they don't do much about "normal" inflation. For example, they aren't going to change things so that that newspaper in the 1980s that cost 40 cents and now costs $1.50 costs 40 cents again -- ditto that 20-cent bag of candy that now costs about $2. Likely, though, when numbers become ridiculously high for a chocolate bar, new currencies will arise and we'll gradually shift to their use for sake of convenience, with the older currencies likely kept in record (so that they're still valuable).

** One of Doraemon's Gadgets of the Week is a machine that allows the user to buy things from different time periods (with that period's respective price), by choosing a date and object and inserting the corresponding amount of cash in the machine. Nobita manages to make a profit by buying things cheaply from the past and selling them in the present at an increased price. [[TooDumbToLive Being Nobita, he forget that buying candy from the future does the opposite...]]

* In 1978, in the original version of ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1'', part of the indication that Ford Prefect really did believe the world was about to end was that he bought six pints, paid with a five-pound note, and told the barman to keep the change. In [[Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy the 2005 film]], this became a fifty: £5 barely pays for ''one'' pint of beer and a packet of peanuts nowadays.

* Known to be inverted in a Series/{{Heartbeat}} episode: post-match drinks for a cricket team in late-'60s Yorkshire only costs about £1.79 (or given that decimal conversion had not taken place yet, £1 17s 10d), which is ~30 pounds in 2020. (Although because of VAT, you're probably not going to get 12 pints for less than £50).

* ''TableTopGame/CarWars''

* ''VideoGame/SimCity'' 2000 has the price of the newspaper increase over time, eventually costing five dollars in the year 2050. [[TechnologyMarchesOn Not that they will probably be very commonplace then]].

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* In Heinlein's ''Literature/CitizenOfTheGalaxy,'' a girl asks the hero, who is in a pensive mood, "Dollar for your thought?" "What?" "Old saying." Thorby at one point is given a "megabuck", which is a combination of this and WeWillSpendCreditsInTheFuture. The main Terran denomination is the credit (one credit will buy about five loaves of bread, according to Thorby); 100 dollars is 1 credit, 1,000 credits is 1 super credit, and 1,000 super credits are 1 megabuck. In other words, a megabuck is a million credits or 100 million dollars — which is still considered a lot of money, but not nearly as much as 100 million would be today. And that 'megabuck' is considered to be an amount of money that Thorby, Leda, and several other young rich scions could all blow through in several weeks of a holiday amongst the resorts and sports for the super-rich... in other words, about a million dollars. It is also the amount that Thorby pays as a retainer for to top-tier attorney.

* In the 1989 ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "Battlefield", set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, the Doctor buys a round of drinks. A lemonade, a vodka and Coke and a water come to five pounds. The Doctor pays with a £5 coin. In 1989 the drinks would not have cost more than two pounds and both the amount and the fact that a five pound coin existed were mildly startling. They got the five pound coins [[http://www.royalmint.com/discover/uk-coins/coin-design-and-specifications/five-pound-coin half-right]] (they exist and are technically legal tender, but are only made in small runs as collector's items) and the price is actually not far off what you'd expect to pay for that drink order in a British pub in 2013.

* ''Series/ElChavoDelOcho'' made an [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece accidental one]], due to the show's age (and tendency to [[RecycledScript reuse scripts]]). In one script, el Chavo sells "aguas frescas" (soda). In the 1974 version, the prices for a glass of water were 50 cents, one peso, or two pesos. In the 1989 version the prices were 100, 200, and 300 pesos.
* Known to be inverted in a Series/{{Heartbeat}} episode: post-match drinks for a cricket team in late-'60s Yorkshire only costs about £1.79 (or given that decimal conversion had not taken place yet, £1 3s), which is ~30 pounds in 2020. (Although because of other government-imposed taxes, you're probably not going to get 12 pints for less than £50).

* Used and Averted in ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}''. A standard lunch costs $40-60 UCAS dollars. However, in the standard currency of the setting, the Nuyen, that's only 10-15¥.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'' has Ridiculous ''AlternateReality'' Inflation in the trailer, where we see that a burger and some fries cost roughly $30,000. This scene doesn't appear in the final movie, where all the prices are normal.

* Creator/MarkTwain's ''Literature/AConnecticutYankeeInKingArthursCourt'' anticipates this effect when converting 6th-century [[Myth/KingArthur Arthurian Britain]] to decimal currency. He defines the units so that a cent is a ''lot'' of money and a dollar an inconceivable fortune, so that prices can inflate to those of 19th-century America on schedule.

* ''Literature/AlongsideNight'': The US dollar has lost practically all of its value from excessive printing by the Federal Reserve. Eventually the entire government either collapses or ends up privatised because of the advice of a bunch of revolutionaries described in the book as "worse than terrorists and the mafia combined".

* In his ''Literature/Timeline191'' -- stories in the CSA that just lost UsefulNotes/WorldWarI -- he shows one character complaining about the ridiculous inflation that just started. A beer is now a dime rather than a nickel. Of course showing the economic spiral, the beer prices do go up and up -- things start getting really bad when beer gets to a dollar... then ten, then a hundred... It eventually reaches the point where the Hitler Expy says "Bet you a million dollars" during a speech, then takes a million dollar bill out of his pocket and throws it away.

* Several Creator/RobertAHeinlein future stories have mentions that the United States went the "drop a few zeroes" route to address inflation.

* In Heinlein's ''Literature/CitizenOfTheGalaxy,'' a girl asks the hero, who is in a pensive mood, "Dollar for your thought?" "What?" "Old saying." Thorby at one point is given a "megabuck", which is a combination of this and WeWillSpendCreditsInTheFuture. The main Terran denomination is the credit (one credit will buy about five loaves of bread, according to Thorby); 100 dollars is 1 credit, 1,000 credits is 1 supercredit, and 1,000 supercredits is 1 megabuck. In other words, a megabuck is a million credits, or 100 million dollars — which is still considered a lot of money, but not nearly as much as 100 million would be today. And that 'megabuck' is considered to be an amount of money that Thorby, Leda, and several other young rich scions could all blow through in several weeks of holiday amongst the resorts and sports for the super rich... in other words, about a million dollars. It is also the amount that Thorby pays as a retainer for to top-tier attorney.
* ''Literature/SnowCrash'' establishes this as a joke when the teenage Y.T. asks the police if they'll take a bribe to let her go. They say sure, for ''a trillion dollars.'' The deadpan snarker Y.T. counter-offers with $500 billion, and they end up splitting the difference at $750 billion. That's how bad "megainflation" has become. Old billion-dollar bills are now literally being used as toilet paper. Some corporations have fought inflation by introducing new, non-inflated currency such as Kongbucks, which have become the unit of exchange for larger transactions.

* An Creator/IsaacAsimov short story about {{Human Popsicle}}s has a man withdrawing a couple million dollars from his bank account after being revived...and finding out that a new suit cost several million (or was it billion?) more.

* Based on RealLife, Literature/JamesBond, when in France at the beginning of ''Literature/OnHerMajestysSecretService'' (which was written shortly after the franc underwent a 100:1 devaluation) likes to think of the money in his pocket in old francs because that makes him feel richer, while counting his expenses in new francs to make them seem smaller.

* Subverted in the Literature/TimeWarpTrio book ''2095''. In said year, a slice of pizza costs something like $150, but ''antigravity devices'' are a buck apiece. Which might have something to do with said AG disks being powered by MSG.
* In ''Literature/TheForeverWar'' it's mentioned that on the planet Heaven a meal costs a few hundred dollars, of course it's justified as much of the population of Heaven is soldiers on medical leave with multiple decades or centuries of back pay that's been [[CompoundInterestTimeTravelGambit accumulating interest]].

* ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'': has the US undergo a hyperinflation crisis, to the point where people are described as using hundred dollar bills as toilet paper because it's cheaper, a million dollars aren't worth a Mexican ''peso'' and $50 million can just about purchase a hamburger.
* Inverted in ''[[Literature/JohnnyMaxwellTrilogy Johnny and the Bomb]]'': when comparing TheForties to TheNineties, reference is made to everyone's grandparents explaining you could buy a chocolate bar for sixpence and still have change. At the end of the book a policeman in the forties gives Mrs Tachyon sixpence for a cup of tea and a bun, and she travels back to 1903 where it pays for a serving of fish'n'chips. And she still has change.
* Applied ''retroactively'' in ''Literature/{{Mindwarp}}'' when two of the teenage protagonists go back in time to 1945. At first, they are astonished when they can pay for a very large meal out of pocket change, and discuss going back to live in this time when the plot is resolved. Then the waitress notices [[AnachronisticClue Roosevelt's face on a dime]], followed shortly by the years the coins were minted... and the two are swiftly detained and arrested.

* {{Subverted}} in the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E25TheNeutralZone The Neutral Zone]]". The ''Enterprise'' recovers a group of {{human popsicle}}s from the 20th century. One is a businessman who excitedly assumes his investments must be worth a fortune (from inflation and compound interest). He is dismayed to learn that humanity abolished currency altogether many years ago ([[ContinuitySnarl which is actually not consistently true but that's what they're saying this episode]]).

** By 2014, the "pay-to-win" idea and broken economy were bad enough to [[http://books.google.com/books?id=nYyJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA219 be mentioned as an example in a textbook]]. For example, on page 219 the author states that the publishers responded to new players complaints that they couldn't afford anything by [[WhatAnIdiot giving them more gold]], flooding the market and raising prices to the point that the new players couldn't afford anything.

* ''Alongside Night'': The US dollar has lost practically all of its value from excessive printing by the Federal Reserve. Eventually the entire government either collapses or ends up privatised because of the advice of a bunch of revolutionaries described in the book as "worse than terrorists and the mafia combined".

* In ''The Age of the Pussyfoot'', a science fiction novel by Creator/FrederikPohl (written around 1967), Charles Forrester is revived from cryopreservation in the year 2527 with a quarter of a million dollars from his insurance and interest (worth about $1.7 million in 2011). He thinks he is rich. It takes him a while to find out he isn't. It's handled quite well as the main source of inflation is rising health care costs.

* Parodied in ''The Book What I Wrote'' (Eddie Braben's book about Creator/MorecambeAndWise) in which his reminiscing about 1950s Britain is accompanied by helpful footnotes such as "[[UsefulNotes/OldBritishMoney A shilling]] is worth about a hundred billion pounds in today's money".

** Inverted and parodied in ''Film/AustinPowersInternationalManOfMystery'', wherein Dr. Evil, who is from The Sixties, attempts to ransom the Earth for one ''million'' dollars. Cue the ChirpingCrickets... Henchman Number Two has to explain to Dr. Evil that their dummy corporation Virtucon generates $24 ''billion'' in annual revenues.
** In ''Film/AustinPowersTheSpyWhoShaggedMe'', he demands [[WrongGenreSavvy One Hundred Billion Dollars]] from the government in TheSixties. They tell him that amount of money doesn't even ''exist''.

* In Heinlein's ''Literature/CitizenOfTheGalaxy,'' a girl asks the hero, who is in a pensive mood, "Dollar for your thought?" "What?" "Old saying." But a million of dollars is still able to buy the services of the premiere lawyer. Though he treats it as a retainer, rather than his full fee.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'', [[http://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2009-02-21 inflation is specifically linked to the Weimar Republic.]]
* ''Webcomic/QuantumVibe'': Used as an AuthorTract [[http://www.quantumvibe.com/strip?page=228 against fiat currency.]]

* Early on in the history of the ComicBook/{{Legion Of Super-Heroes}}, 30th-century teenager Chuck Taine pays fifty cents for a bottle of soda pop. A reader asked about such a high price in the letter column, and the editor explained about Ridiculous Future Inflation. (Chuck didn't even get to enjoy his insanely expensive soft drink, as he [[TheFool accidentally]] swallows a SuperSerum, that turns him into Bouncing Boy.) Of course, in 2018, you're doing well if you can buy a soda for less then ''a dollar'' and fifty cents...

* The {{Steampunk}} {{Elseworld}} MassiveMultiplayerCrossover ''Legenderry'' has another inversion: the cost of [[Series/TheSixMillinDOllarMan Steve Austin]]'s mechanical implants make him the Six ''Thousand'' Dollar Man.

--->'''Mario:''' Hello! May I have McRib sandwich, please?\\

* Combined with FailedFutureForecast in ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager'', a ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' fanfic written InTheStyleOf a 1950's sci-fi pulp. In the year 2020, cigarettes cost the outrageous price of a dollar a packet because tobacco is a luxury due to Earth having to [[OverpopulationCrisis use all arable land to feed over seven billion people]] crammed into megacities.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' episode "One Thousand Years of Courage", Eustace, Muriel and Courage end up in the year 3000, in a world ruled by sentient bananas. Muriel remarks that something doesn't seem right:

* Combined with FailedFutureForecast in ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager'', a ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' fanfic written InTheStyleOf a 1950's sci-fi pulp. Cigarettes cost the outrageous price of a dollar a packet because tobacco is a luxury due to Earth having to [[OverpopulationCrisis use all arable land to feed over seven billion people]] crammed into megacities.

** Doc Brown gives Marty $50 to buy a Pepsi within the year 2015. Similarly, Marty is asked by a charity collector to contribute $100 for the town hall clock, presumably out of pocket change. Contrast this with the 1985 version of the scene, in which Marty gave a solicitor a quarter -- a pittance of pocket change even then, and definitely less than a Pepsi would have cost in a restaurant.

* Known to be inverted in a Series/{{Heartbeat}} episode: post-match drinks for a cricket team in late-'60s Yorkshire only costs about £1.79 (or given that decimal conversion had not taken place yet, £1 3s), which is about 33 pounds in 2020. (Although because of other government-imposed taxes, you're probably not going to get 12 pints for less than £50).

* ''Series/ElChavoDelOcho'' made an [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece accidental one]], due to the show's age (and tendency to [[RecycledScript reuse scripts]]). In one script, el Chavo sells "aguas frescas" (flavored water). In the 1974 version, the prices for a glass of water were 50 cents, one peso, or two pesos. In the 1989 version the prices were 100, 200, and 300 pesos.

As a rule of thumb, if inflation is 3 percent prices double every 23 years and add a zero every 78 years, while if the average rate is 7 percent prices double every 10 years. When a show pulls out this trope, use this to compare what future prices are actually likely to be at that time.

* ''Anime/{{Doraemon}}'':