When I was a kid in the 80's I had a paper route. I would collect my $1 at the end of the week from each house and give them one of those little tab tear outs as a receipt. I would then take my money and head to the pharmacy to buy the weeks comic books, a bottle of Foxon Park Birch Beer and some candy, then head back to the house and hide under a tent I made with my blanket and read the stories while getting buzzed on sugar.
Back then...comics were 25 cents a pop. So for each house I had on the route I would get 4 comic books. Kids today would need to collect $15 for each house to get the same deal, since comic books are now running $3 to $4 a shot.
What the hell??
At some point the comics industry lost its everlovin' mind. In the mid-80's collectors got involved and people realized that the old style of printing comics on newsprint was no good because it deteriorates and is only collectable for so long before it can only be used for tissue paper. So they started printing comics on harder paper stock and, as a result, they got more expensive.
That's not the only thing that's out of controle these days...
I used to take two of my dollars (two houses) and head to the dollar movie and get a coke and a box of candy at the Lincoln Theatre in New Haven (double feature!) With movie tickets now at $10, and popcorn and soda another $6 or $7, it would take two houses at $10 for the same value.
Sadly, last I checked, my weekly newspaper subscription was still that same buck. I feel like I'm getting a great value, but kids have lost a precious shot at a great childhood memory.
I'd love to help them kids I work with to learn the value of money, of working to earn to spend, or better yet save (after the movies, the comic books, and the candy were done, half my newspaper route money went into a savings account) but when things have gotten SO expensive that yor average 12 year old would need a college degree to land a job that would pay enough for them to afford the simple things I enjoyed, you have to wonder if we are doing our kids a disservice with all this nonsense.
Really - video game systems haven't changed that much in price or computers. They do more, with all the bells and whistles, but the atari I had in the 80's cost $250 and the first computer I bought with a hard drive cost $2,000. If anything, by value, these have come down in price. The equivelent would be that a comic book would still cost 25 cents but would be 4 times as long, or $2 would get you a movie that lasts all day and the popcorn bucket would be as big as your head - but these haven't maintained their prices the way that electronics have.
So is it any wonder that kids are glued to aol chat sessions or x-box games? It's not like they can afford to do much else...