Inflation's Hidden Bite: Protecting Your Wealth

You know, on the left, here's an old yellow card from 1975.

Hamburgers, $0.35. Cheeseburgers, $0.45. Big Mac, $0.65. French fries, $0.35. Soft drink, $0.20. And across the bottom, it says,

good food, low prices.

Yet on the right, a crisp white card that says 2026.

Hamburger, $2.49. Cheeseburger, $3.19. Big Mac, $6.19. Fries, $3.79. Soft drink, $2.49. And the tagline at the bottom of my favorite part, same food, different prices.

Yeah, the same food, different prices.

And that's

this whole segment

in four words.

Now, prices are going to vary by city and franchise.

So, you know, not every McDonald's is the same, you know, but the story is right.

You know, if you add it up, David, a Big Mac fries and soft drink in 1975 cost $1.20.

Yeah, and today that same meal's about $12.47, more than 10 times as much.

The hamburger went up about seven times, the fries went up almost 11 times, and the soft drink went up more than 12 times.

So here's what I want you to sit

with.

The

burger didn't get better.

Nothing about the food changed.

What changed is the dollar in your pocket.

Measured by the government's own Consumer Price Index, a dollar from 1975 buys roughly 16 cents worth of goods today.

16 cents.

So if you had retired back then on a pension that paid a flat amount that never went up, you'd have lost about five out of every six dollars of spending power, and nobody ever sent you a bill for it.

So that's why I call inflation the silent tax, because no one votes on it, no one mails you a statement, it

just quietly eats away at everything you've saved.