You can see the power of the 1910s dollar (1910-1920) in some grocery items in our analysis, for example, chocolate peaked in the decade at 2.1lb/$1 as did lemons at 125 lemons/$1.
While our data goes back to 1900, it’s considered that the power of the dollar was actually at its peak in the 1910s after the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913, which was designed to alleviate the damage caused by financial crises, primarily brought on by the financial panic of 1907. Overall, across the goods we analyzed, we found that one dollar purchased approximately 94% less in 2021 compared to 1900-1910.īelow is a breakdown of what one dollar could purchase in 1900-1910 compared to the 2020s. For milk, the best decade was the 1930s, where one dollar could buy 3.8 gallons.Between 1900-1910, one dollar could buy 14.3 gallons of gas, the best value in the 20th century, now the same amount would get you around 0.3 gallons.Since 2010, $1 can’t even buy two lemons. With $1 you could buy 125 lemons in the 1910s, the most in the 20th century.
