Earning $100,000 a year today can feel a lot like earning $50,000 a year used to. Inflation was actually more dramatic from 1975 to 2000 than from 2000 to 2025. The 1970s brought oil shocks, rapidly rising prices and wages, and inflation that eventually reached double digits, forcing the Federal Reserve to push interest rates to extraordinary levels in the early 1980s. Once inflation was brought under control, the 1990s saw relatively stable prices. Roughly speaking, $32,000 in 1975 had similar purchasing power to about $100,000 in 2000. Since 2000, prices have risen more slowly overall, despite the sharp post-pandemic surge. That same $100,000 from 2000 would be worth roughly $200,000 today.(Historic Vids)