Playboy, Inflation and the US Society

 Playboy magazine is re-releasing its first issue published in November 1953 which featured a nude Marylin Monroe . Two years later Playboy became more popular than  Esquire,  the leading men's interest magazine in those days and went on to become the men's magazine with the world's largest circulation . Price of the magazine at the time : 50 cents . Price today : $ 7.99.  That 's 4.7% inflation since 1953 for Playboy Magazine.  That's higher than inflation as calculated by the CPI (whose calculation has been modified several times by the US Government with the effect of lower than otherwise official inflation). Since 1950, the purchasing power of the dollar has declined by about 90 %, that is with a 1950 dollar you would only be able to buy about 10 cents worth of goods today.

In 1950, the minimum wage was $0.75/ hour, the median rent $42 (per month) and the median household income was $3,200. In 2012 the federal minimum wage was $ 7.25/hour, median rent was $ 884 and median household income was $51,000 *. You do the math.  Between 1950 and 2012, minimum wage increased less than 10 times while median rent increased more than twenty-fold. Interestingly, median household income grew almost 16- fold, on pace with Playboy inflation. However, in 1950, a single earner could feed the family whereas today both parents need to work to afford the cost of living. No causation link probably but after peaking in 1972 Playboy sales have fallen steadily, since the late 60's divorces have gone through the roof and crime rates have followed suit with seemingly the same pattern (divorces and total crimes peaking in 1980, violent crimes peaking in the 90's) .

* Data : BLS, BusinessInsider.com, wikipedia.com

          Courtesy of Michael Hodges, The Grandfather Economic Report
           http://grandfather-economic-report.com/inflation.htm