What $122.22 Bought the Taxpayer in 1941

[Talyn]

Some 85 years ago today.

The cost to outfit a U.S. Army Infantry Soldier, including a new Springfield Armory-minted M1 Garand, via The Morgantown Post (Morgantown, West Virginia) dated 12 March 1941, as the “Great Neutral” was aggressively ramping up for possible war.

Adjusted for inflation, the cost for everything shown/described would be $2,819.31 in today’s cash.

What $122.22 Bought the Taxpayer in 1941

Some 85 years ago today. The cost to outfit a U.S. Army Infantry Soldier, including a new Springfield Armory-minted M1 Garand, via The Morgantown Post (Morgantown, West Virginia) dated 12 March 194…

laststandonzombieisland.com

Note that the Garand is shown, only adopted four years prior, and the GI correctly has an M1917 Kelly “tin pan” helmet, as the new $3.03 ($1.05 for the steel shell, $1.98 for the liner) M1 steel pot wouldn’t be standardized until 30 April 1941, some six weeks after this graphic was published.

 

[USMC6094]

I think we were also on the Gold Standard back then as well.

 

[Belt Fed]

Now that helmet will cost more than that.

 

[Winchester67]

In todays dollars: $2,212.60.

 

[Lo-Profile]

I think we were also on the Gold Standard back then as well.

Yes and No

1933 (The Beginning):Following Executive Order 6102 on April 5, 1933, private ownership of gold was outlawed, and the U.S. abandoned the gold standard domestically
.
1934 (Gold Reserve Act): The government fixed the price of gold at $35 per ounce, decaying the dollar but keeping a partial link for international transactions

1971 (The "Nixon Shock"): President Nixon ended the "gold window," stopping the conversion of dollars to gold for foreign central banks, effectively ending the Bretton Woods system and adopting a pure fiat currency system.