A question of money

[:]

I'm a bit confused by the inflation..or lack of it in the year 3000!
The suicide booth and car wash were 25 cents!!! I mean I doubt those things would even be that cheap now never mind then!!! And other things are reasonably priced...18 dollars etc.

But in 'A fishful of dollars' Fry's 93 cents or whatever turns into 4 billion dollars! Which in itself seems a bit odd LOl Not done my maths but I can't imagine 2.5 % interest a year would turn into that!!!
But *if* it did..then surely with inflation the everyday values would be much more like that rather than still using 25cents!!!     

[#1 :]

Some members of another board I frequent/lurk did some calculations, and 93 cents at 2.25% interest for 1000 years actually does give 4.3 billion $. More precise: 4283508449.71$, if the interests is compounded annually.

[#2 :]

Wow!!!! They must have a lot of time on their hands LOL thanks for that! I think I'll set up an account for my great great great  etc relatives

Makes the question of inflation even more curios though, as inflation should be around the same level...so how come things were still 25cents and Fry's money was *so* much more than the values in 3000??

[#3 :]

If you listen to the DVD commentairy they did actually work it out and got 3 different answers but used one of them

[#4 :]

 

Originally posted by aslate:
If you listen to the DVD commentairy they did actually work it out and got 3 different answers but used one of them

What was it?

[#5 :]

I am sure the figured out how to float a decimal point by the year 3000.

[#6 :]

I'm guessing that the interest rates were keeping the prices down.

[#7 :]

Perhaps the global economy was frozen and prices kept artificially low in order to induce and encourage mass public spending so that the world could rebuild after the last alien attack.

Or maybe that's good 'ol BS. You decide!

[#8 :]

Maybe they restored the s.XX inflaction after the aliens destroyed the Earth civilization.

[#9 :]

I heard on the DVD that using one of the crew's PalmPilots, they got 3 calculations which were all the same.

:P

[#10 :]

This has already been done before in another thread that I won't bother to find, so I'll give you the "solution" that was decided on:
Eventually, the price continued to rise until everything cost so much you'd buy a loaf of bread with a wheelbarrow full of cash. People (being much smarter then our current leaders) decided that it was getting out of hand and brought the price (and the average salary) back down to reasonable amounts. (Our prices are what they settled on, conveniently).

The other theory is that inflation will rise and then fall, ultimately returning prices to the extremely low amount of around the 1800's. It will then hit bottom and rebound again until it tops off. It it were graphed against time, it would be something like a:

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

pattern.
Thoughts? 

[#11 :]

That's always been my solution to this question.

[#12 :]

Inflation rates and interest rates are independant beasts, that do have some relation to each other. High inflation means people spend more money on the same stuff, therefore interest rates are generally set above inflation. Deflation has and probably will occurr again. Deflation will generally lower interest rates though. Hyper inflation (see Russia in recemt past) causes things to rocket in price (supply and demand also a factor)faster than interest raises peoples capitol, if this goes on too long the only option is to devalue your currency.

Anyway, 1000 years is a long time and economics is an intrinsicly chaotic system so anything could happen.

Geez, I think I am a geek! 

[#13 :]

True, you can never do an accurate projection relating to economics because economics is based on people's behavior in choice making. People are unpredictable; we are all contributing to the change of prices/interests.

[#14 :]

Why hasn't Nurdbot posted here yet?

[#15 :]

i think nurdy killed himself

[#16 :]

*sniff* Poor little guy!...

[#17 :]

The other theory is that inflation will rise and then fall, ultimately
returning prices to the extremely low amount of around the
1800's.

I know that's not your theory (Chump doesn't post here anymore anyway ), but respectfully I highly disagree. Things will never cost what they did even fifty years ago. Prices will keep going up, and what little deflation there is, inflation will be ten times that at least.

Theory 1 seems a bit more closer to home, although I offer this solution: I think that prices got so high that money was revalued. Hence what used to be a "cent" or penny is now say, twenty dollars back from our time (the present). So essentially a robot wash for Bender that costs 25 cents might actually cost $500 in today's world (I'm using that as an extreme). It's all relative, anyhow, and yes it certainly sounds better saying a rented 1 bedroom apartment costs $1000/month in the future than than saying it costs $2,000,000/month.

[#18 :]

Bored, Randi?

[#19 :]

No one's in Offtopic But I'm still making valid points. Please continue the discussion, it was not my intention for these to be closed.

[#20 :]

The whole thing about inflation can pretty much be explained away (like lots of things in Futurama) by the fact that civilisation was destroyed several times while Fry was frozen.

[#21 :]

Prices will keep going up, and what little deflation there is, inflation will be ten times that at least.

Been watching the gasoline prices?

[#22 :]

Theory 1 seems a bit more closer to home, although I offer this solution: I think that prices got so high that money was revalued. Hence what used to be a "cent" or penny is now say, twenty dollars back from our time (the present). So essentially a robot wash for Bender that costs 25 cents might actually cost $500 in today's world (I'm using that as an extreme). It's all relative, anyhow, and yes it certainly sounds better saying a rented 1 bedroom apartment costs $1000/month in the future than than saying it costs $2,000,000/month.

This really isn't all that historically uncommon. Little tip: most of the time when this happens, only digital and paper currency are revalued, and coins are generally left as is due to the hassle it would be to collect them. So if everything is revalued, say, for example, $100 equals $1 after the change, then that dollar coin in your pocket? It now buys as much as a portrait of Benjamin Franklin did previously.

[#23 :]

Your theory is basically a super quick deflation switch.  Price of goods returns to normal spending from the perspective of society... the problem with inflation is that it tends to run up higher than what most of the society is currently making and it does so faster than the society can make more money, until it slippery slopes down the hill and most of society stumbles afterward.

Since deflation/inflation are completely relative to the perspective of who has buying power.  Your scenario is essentially no different than the huge inflation then deflation occurred; albeit the mechanics of yours were more clearly defined than the previous posts.

[#24 :]

The whole thing about inflation can pretty much be explained away (like lots of things in Futurama) by the fact that civilisation was destroyed several times while Fry was frozen.

Every time I think I've hit my genius mark, you come along and explain it one sentence. Thank you Jezzem, I completely forgot about that tidbit!

If civilization crumbles and rebuilds itself then inflation along a straight line doesn't really hold true. However...the money in Fry's bank account was still there so banking systems weren't completely destroyed then I guess...hmm...

[#25 :]

Exactly, Jezzem is actually wrong.