Back in pre-civil war days there was “the penny press”. The first instance I know of with stores proclaiming their pricing on the sign was the five cent store. Woolworth’s was the first, (“The Great 5¢ Store” was the name of it, I think), which morphed into the 5-and-dime.

I remember the Kresge’s store in my hometown had a sign with the name and the logo was “10¢ & 25¢” in a seal next to the name.

Flash forward 50 years, and it was the Dollar Store or one of the many variants (Family Dollar, Dollar General, 99¢, etc.) and now there’s a chain called 5-Below, presumably everything under $5. Eventually that will go away, or become irrelevant, because inflation marches on.

I suppose that’s the foundation of a modern society - a little bit of inflation, but it does rack up over the years, and I do resent having to pay tax on the “appreciation” of my house through no fault of my own. (Improvements I have made is a different thing.)

Anyway, yeah. Inflation: too little is not enough, and too much is a disaster. Funny game we play.

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