History Main / RidiculousFutureInflation

** 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. Unfortunately he decides to celebrate by ordering a bag of candy from the future...

* In ''Film/{{Idiocracy}}'', which takes place in the year 2505, everything costs several billion dollars. Of course, the ridiculously bad economy is actually a plot point in the film -- it's entirely possible that hideous inflation is an intentional choice rather than just poor economic mismanagement, so that everybody can be rich and amazed to have "billions of dollars". Besides, something costing billions of dollars after 500 years would happen with any reasonable rate of inflation.[[note]]A doubling rate of 16 years gives you something roughly two billion times as expensive after 500 years.[[/note]]

* In ''Film/{{Idiocracy}}'', which takes place in the year 2505, everything costs several billion dollars. Of course, the ridiculously bad economy is actually a plot point in the film -- it's entirely possible that hideous inflation is an intentional choice rather than just poor economic mismanagement, so that everybody can be rich and amazed to have "billions of dollars".

* In ''Warlords of the 21st Century'' a.k.a ''Battletruck'', the opening scene features an abandoned petrol/gas station with a faded sign reading, "GAS FOR LESS - ONLY $59.99 A LITRE - WHILE IT LASTS". Justified in that the film takes place in a MadMax-style dystopia where [[TerminallyDependentSociety dire oil shortages]] have led to the collapse of civil society.

* The ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales'' episode "Duck to the Future" had Scrooge get teleported to a [[BadFuture bad, but shiny-looking future]] where Magica stole his Number One Dime and took over his fortune, and his nephews grew up to be super-rich {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s after going into business with her. In this world, things cost about 100 times what they do in Scrooge's time, though some of it can be attributed to Magica and the [=McDuck=] triplets' price gouging.

* In Germany under the Weimar Republic, it did reach a point when a newspaper cost 100 billion marks, and you literally needed wheelbarrows of marks just to buy groceries. In some cases, the wheelbarrow itself was worth more than its contents. Germans of that era would burn wads of banknotes as fuel during the winter, owing to the money being cheaper to burn than the wood/paraffin alternative. Twice during this period, the mark's value was so low that ''100 trillion mark bills'' were printed for regular circulation.

## What cost $1 in 1915 would cost $24.61 in 2017, and if you were to buy exactly the same products in 2017 and 1915, they would cost you $1 and $0.04 respectively. '''''FOUR CENTS.'''''
## In comparison, as of January 2018, an ounce of gold is $1,318. In January 1915, it was $470.40.
## Adjust for inflation; What cost $470.40 in 1915 would cost '''''$11,574.89''''' in 2017. Ouch.
*** There's also https://www.measuringworth.com, but it's even more difficult to navigate...

** Forget UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia, look at the RedOctober era. The scrip of the newborn Soviet Republic had to be revalued every year to keep it barely afloat, and despite all revaluations, prices were in the millions range. The kerenki, scrip of the Provisional Government which was used as more or less universal between Soviet and non-Soviet territories, was never revalued and people just stopped counting zeroes and started to accept kerenki as 1x1 meter uncut sheets.

Of course, this trope is also possible to a degree with commodity currencies as well. The values of gold and silver dropped significantly when Spain opened mines in the Americas, something similar could happen with [[AsteroidMiners asteroid mining]] or {{Matter Replicator}}s.

The portrayal of runaway cumulative inflation in fiction probably peaked from 1973 through 1982, the annual inflation rate in the U.S. never fell below 6% and often reached double-digit percentages. To this day, there's been no consensus as to what caused this period of "stagflation." The "Nixon Shock" of 1971, when President Richard Nixon took the US dollar off the remaining vestiges of the gold standard allowing the Federal Reserve to have no restrictions in printing and loaning money as debt, was a highly likely cause. For all we knew at the time, this high inflation rate might continue indefinitely. Thus, many fiction writers painted a picture of the future with $15 cups of coffee by the year 2000. (Insert joke about Starbucks' prices here.)

In real life, it is a possible but not very likely scenario, especially in a fiat currency system.[[note]]As opposed to an commodity exchange currency system, in which the currency is assigned a fixed value in tangible assets. The best-known and formerly most common example of this was the gold standard, in which [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin currency could be traded for a fixed amount of gold]]. Fiat currency on the other hand has value because you must use it to pay taxes. Therefore a fiat currency's value is dependent on the how credible the issuing government is perceived as being, while a commodity currency is dependent on the commodity it can be exchanged for actually being valued by the public.[[/note]] First, in modern economic science, inflation isn't even seen as something inherently bad. As long as the average income also multiplies, the inflation would do little harm. Deflationary periods are usually tied with ''recessions'' rather than booms. Deflations were only beneficial in commodity currency systems free of debt, such as the gold standard or Lincoln greenbacks. However, if the creation of money is based on loans, such as the fractional reserve system that the Federal Reserve operates under and bank credits that we have now, then this is very likely. Printing money en masse as credits and bailouts with interest can create rapid inflation, and rapid deflation can cause a sharp decrease in the money supply to pay back that debt with interest, causing defaults, unemployment, and stockholders selling off worthless investments. This was theorized to be one of the causes of TheGreatDepression.

## Adjust for inflation; What cost $470.40 in 1915 would cost $11,574.89 in 2017, and, if you were to buy exactly the same products in 2017 and 1915, they would cost you $470.40 and $19.34 respectively - a 94% drop in value - but remember that the dollar lost ''96%'' of its value. Ouch.

* Inverted by "classic" TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}} which still uses 1932 prices, with prime oceanfront real estate going for a few hundred dollars.

*** Though since the dollar was, even then, a fiat currency, $20 in 1920 is estimated as being the equivalent of anywhere from [[http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/result.php?year_source=1920&amount=20&year_result=2014 $180-3,890 modern currency.]]

* UsefulNotes/{{Ecuador}}'s ''sucre'' currency went through severe hyperinflation beginning in 1983, with prices eventually changing almost as fast as merchants could change their signs. The country eventually switched over to the US dollar in 2000, at a rate of 25,000 sucre to 1 dollar.
* While the caveat of the future tropes cannot have any real observations cause it is in the future, what is the present was yesterday's tomorrow. With that in mind, it's always funny to watch movies set in a modern period complain about modern prices which today would be welcomed if not outright ridiculously cheap. For example, in ''Film/EscapeToWitchMountain'', at one point Mr. O'Day is filling his Winniebago with gas and complains about the outrageous price for $10 to completely fill such a vehicle. During the height of the fuel crisis in America, it is pretty high, but it becomes hilarious to people who viewed the movie in 2015 (40 years after its release) where filling a small car (with a minimum 10 gallon tank) is twice as expensive.

* Make your own with ''[[http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ The Inflation Calculator]].'' Simple experiment: what was one dollar worth in 1800? What cost $1 in 1800 would cost '''$14.63 in 2017.''' Put more simply, one 2017 dollar is equivalent to '''''SEVEN 1800 CENTS.'''''
** And what costs $1 in 1800 costs $1 in 1928.
** Or one example, in 1920 a man could buy a fairly nice suit from a haberdasher for one $20 gold piece, which was, of course, worth twenty dollars. Would a $20 gold piece buy you a suit today? Well, it's about one ounce of gold, which means it's worth about $1,700 in 2012, which will buy ''five'' really nice suits, or about ten suits off the rack at a men's clothing store.
*** Spending a little time studying [[http://www.macrotrends.net/1333/historical-gold-prices-100-year-chart Historical Gold Prices]] is enough to send you scurrying for the refineries. As of December 2017, an ounce of gold is thirteen hundred dollars. In January 1915, it was four hundred and seventy. Adjusted for inflation, that's '''''OVER ELEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS.'''''

*** Spending a little time studying [[http://www.macrotrends.net/1333/historical-gold-prices-100-year-chart Historical Gold Prices]] is enough to send you scurrying for the refineries. As of December 2017, an ounce of gold is thirteen hundred dollars. In January 1915, it was four hundred and seventy. Adjusted for inflation, that's ''OVER ELEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS.''

*** Spending a little time studying [[http://www.macrotrends.net/1333/historical-gold-prices-100-year-chart Historical Gold Prices]] is enough to send you scurrying for the refineries. As of October 2015, an ounce of gold is twelve hundred dollars. Twenty years ago, it was six hundred. In comparison, six hundred 1995 dollars is equivalent to ''nine hundred and fifty 2015 dollars.''

* Make your own with ''[[http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ The Inflation Calculator]].'' Simple experiment: what was a thousand dollars worth in 1800? What cost $1000 in 1800 would cost '''$14,627 in 2017.''' Put more simply, a thousand 2016 dollars is equivalent to '''''69 1800 dollars.'''''

* Make your own with ''[[http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ The Inflation Calculator]].'' Simple experiment: what was a thousand dollars worth in 1800? What cost $1000 in 1800 would cost '''$14,312 in 2016.''' Put more simply, a thousand 2016 dollars is equivalent to '''''seventy-one 1800 dollars.'''''

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', presented in the context of far-future people living in a Jetsons-style world watching an old VHS tape, has one character talking about the incredible deal they got on mittens for "only" $3 million.

** To elaborate, the problems with inflation began when the government established a currency exchange control system in 2003 to contain the outward flow of foreign currency (particularly American dollars), and to mask the steady increase in prices, they tried applying the "drop three zeros" strategy to the Venezuelan Bolivar with the creation of the Bolivar Fuerte (Strong Bolivar) in 2007. However, they didn't take any measures to solve the underlying problems with the economy, so the currency exchange control is still there, the government continues acquiring debt after debt with China, with no visible intention of paying them off, and they continue forcing the central bank to print inorganic money. All in all, this resulted in the American Dollar now having a value of over 8000 [=BsF=] (8.000.000 of the old Bolivares) in the black market, with the official exchange rate of an America dollar to 6,30 Bolivars being severely limited and hard to acquire for anyone, and an excessive amount of Bolivars in circulation that have next to no value. And that's without mentioning the current annual inflation rate of 63,4% or the fact that due to the government's treaties with other countries and bad handling of the economy, there's a widespread scarcity of food, medicine, personal care products, industrial raw materials and even toilet paper.

* Creator/MarkTwain's ''Literature/AConnecticutYankeeInKingArthursCourt'' [[GenreSavvy 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.

** Forget TheNewRussia, look at the RedOctober era. The scrip of the newborn Soviet Republic had to be revalued every year to keep it barely afloat, and despite all revaluations, prices were in the millions range. The kerenki, scrip of the Provisional Government which was used as more or less universal between Soviet and non-Soviet territories, was never revalued and people just stopped counting zeroes and started to accept kerenki as 1x1 meter uncut sheets.

* Even gold, the proverbial rock in the tempest of economic turbulence, is not immune to inflation. In 1342, Mansa Musa of the Mali Empire was passing through Cairo his pilgrimage to Mecca. Either he did not quite notice the prices on the other side of the Sahara or he wanted to make a reputation for himself (or both), He ended up spending so much gold in the bazaar of Cairo that the gold market in the Mediterranean region collapsed for a decade. Like every other commodity, gold's value is whatever people are willing to pay for it, making it subject to the same laws of supply and demand as anything else that can be bought and sold. Thus, even the long traditional association between gold and wealth in nearly all cultures doesn't prevent huge sudden increase in supply from reducing its value.

* A 1976 ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' sketch titled "{{Jeopardy}} 1999" had dollar values in the Jeopardy! round ranging from $10,000 to $50,000. This is 400 times the actual {{Jeopardy}} clue values in 1976 ($25 to $125) and 100 times what the actual clue values turned out to be in 1999 ($100 to $500).

* While the caveat of the future tropes cannot have any real observations cause it is in the future, what is the present was yesterday's tomorrow. With that in mind, it's always funny to watch movies set in a modern period complain about modern prices which today would be welcomed if not outright ridiculously cheap. For example, in EscapeToWitchMountain, at one point Mr. O'Day is filling his Winniebago with gas and complains about the outrageos price for $10 to completely fill such a vehicle. During the height of the fuel crisis in America, it is pretty high, but it becomes hilarious to people who viewed the movie in 2015 (it's 40th anniversary) where filling a small car (with a minimum 10 gallon tank) is twice as expensive.