Timeline for Is 1971 minimum wage "in silver quarters" far, far higher than the current minimum wage?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
18 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| 13 hours ago | comment | added | CrackpotCrocodile | I've seen a variety of similar claims with gold or silver. The gist is that currency has been devalued by removing precious metals, while minimum wage has remained stagnant. | |
| 13 hours ago | comment | added | Paul Draper | @Showsni surprised you didn't choose BTC or NVDA. The obvious difference is that some of these aren't the nation's currency. | |
| 15 hours ago | history | became hot network question | |||
| 15 hours ago | comment | added | Showsni | "In 1993, the Federal US minimum wage was $4.25 an hour, enough to purchase nearly two booster packs of Alpha Magic the Gathering (MSRP $2.45). In 2025, those same two Alpha booster packs cost $40,000; today's minimum wage can't even buy one!" | |
| 16 hours ago | comment | added | Paul Draper | @Oddthinking I agree. I updated the title to try it make it a bit easier. | |
| 16 hours ago | history | edited | Paul Draper | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
edited title
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| S 16 hours ago | history | suggested | ryanyuyu | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
clarify that claim is about the value silver
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| 17 hours ago | answer | added | Lundin | timeline score: 16 | |
| 17 hours ago | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S 16 hours ago | |||||
| 17 hours ago | comment | added | Oddthinking♦ | I know I am tired, but I am having trouble parsing this claim, especially the title. Have I got this right? "Do the silver quarters you could exchange for 1 hour's minimum wage in 1971 [when they were still legal currency] contain $53 worth of silver in 2025?" (with an implied claim that minimum wage hasn't kept up and/or inflation has greatly devalued the dollar). | |
| 18 hours ago | comment | added | Paul Draper | @Giter, sort of. Was that actually minimum wage? Is that the prices of silver? Is that silver content of these coins? Are these coins in circulation? Is this misleading for any other reasons? Etc. | |
| 18 hours ago | comment | added | IMSoP | @Lundin You don't have to convince me. I'm explaining what other people believe, not what I believe. | |
| 18 hours ago | comment | added | Lundin | @IMSoP Silver was mildly useful back in the 1960s - apart from vanity items, the main use ought to have been chemistry. Since then, the whole electronics industry has emerged, introducing a lot of practical use for the previously pretty useless metals silver and gold, making them more valuable. | |
| 18 hours ago | comment | added | IMSoP | @Lundin and Giter "Goldbugs" and "silverbugs" believe that "fiat currency" (i.e. currency not pegged to the rarity of a particular commodity) is responsible for inflation, or in some other way bad for society. The implied claim is that people would be better off if the US Dollar was pegged to the price of silver. | |
| 19 hours ago | comment | added | IMSoP | I note that the two claims use different years as a baseline. This is significant, because 1964 was the last year that silver quarters were minted; so by 1971, the melt value of a silver quarter may already have been more than USD0.25 | |
| 19 hours ago | comment | added | Lundin | According to wikipedia, 90% silver quarters haven't been minted since 1964. So what is this actually about, using your wage to buy collector edition coins from past times? Because such coins will not follow any consumer index at all... | |
| 19 hours ago | comment | added | Giter | I know the minimum wage angle is trying to imply a lot more, but I think the actual claim here is just that the price of silver has gone up by a certain percent over the last 50-60 years? | |
| 23 hours ago | history | asked | Paul Draper | CC BY-SA 4.0 |