Inflation

It seems that the recording industry has now identified CD burning as the evil du jour. I haven't a whole lot of sympathy; when they started selling CDs it was with a significantly greater per-CD profit margin than with cassette tapes. I was going to demonstrate how lame the argument was by showing how the price has increased even adjusted for inflation.

Actually, though, it hasn't. When I'd buy cassettes in 1987, they ran about $10. According to this inflation calculator, that would be $16.81 in 2005 dollars, which is not that much different from the $16.99 that seems to be the typical CD price today. I can't say I feel less ripped off, though.

But I did learn something useful (more or less). When McDonald's first introduced the Value Meal in the late 1980s, they were all $2.99 + tax. That would be $4.46 + tax in today's dollars. So you're getting an equivalent deal if that's what your value meal costs.