In 1976 a big mac cost 75c in New Zealand. Today that price is an average of $5.20. The economist did an interesting article on this which offers good insight into the value of currencies. As a crypto-currency fan I wanted to find out to find out what kind of inflation that equated to and how that compared to the official figures.
The example above equates to 5% annual compound inflation. This is quite high especially in current terms, however looking at the history of New Zealand inflation this may not be too far from the truth. There was so hectic hyper-inflation in the 80' as you can see on the government chart. But how does this compare in the USA? The Big Mac debuted at Delligatti's Uniontown, Pennsylvania restaurant in 1967, selling for 45 cents. Now a big mac costs $4.93, this also equates to a flat rate around 5% a number much further from the official rate. if we are to take the US numbers as accurate the mighty Big Mac should cost an average of $3.24 USD. This is a major difference! More than a buck fifty, a 50% increase.
In July 2010, a Big Mac cost 6125 bitcoins in New Zealand. That year bitcoin gained parity with the USD and after a series of ups and downs, a Big Mac now costs less than half of one cent in bitcoin (0.0038 btc). That is one cheap sounding burger. And people using bitcoin to buy things now tend to talk in "bits" or "Satoshis" which are the terms for fractions of bitcoin cents. It seems like monetary time travel. For bitcoiners prices are going back in the future.
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