Sorry to hear that. You do the same.

Guys, adjusting for inflation, $3600 spent in 1966 is the equivalent of $28,000 today. The median annual household income in 1966 was only $4900, so after living expenses it wasn't like your average Joe could run down to the Chevy dealer and plop down cash for it. Today the median income is more than $55K, and we have more financing options. It wasn't any easier to buy a car in the 60s than it is today.

Nor was that car any kind of reasonable investment. Suppose you spent $3600 on it and kept it all those years. An unrestored "survivor" isn't going to bring you more than $20K, so you'd have lost $8K on it after inflation. You might think you could restore it and get $40K. A cheap $10K restoration takes you up to $38K invested, and then you have to factor in the cost of maintaining and storing it all the years in between.

We actually have better deals available to us now, considering how much tech we have in modern cars that wasn't even available then.

We went off the silver standard unofficially in 1963 when Federal Reserve notes were first issued. The government continued to issue silver certificates for a time after that, but the precious metal standards were effectively dead. A dollar was always a government construct, so a dollar is still worth an actual dollar, because it's a dollar.

Man, talk about thread drift! How did we get from an XJ headliner to national macroeconomics?

There's really only so much you can say about headliners. I think it was said.

It's my fault because I brought up the issue. I don't mind, I like economics and he is right, We did go off the standard earlier than I claimed. But this difference had not yet made much of a change in the first few years after so the purchasing power of a dollar still stayed much better for a few years.

More then enough blame to go around. I did not help. Sorry.

You are right of course, it did happen sooner than I said but the dollar did retain the same purchasing power for several years after. But you say a dollar is a dollar and this would be false, this is what they would like us to think. A currency is absolutely worthless unless it is backed by something tangible or by effort and labor, just ask Venezuela right now.

This guy shares a great historical example of how currency is devalued...

http://www.libertyauthors.com/index....arned-currency

Alright guys, let's get back on track though. We really did deviate from the original topic.

Don't want the mods to come in and start cleaning house do we?

We did... we let it go... we haven't posted to it in three days now...

Lol... You were late to the party man.

Actually the credit goes to my adversary in this debate. He proved to be the better of us by restraining from it any further.

Hey, I had a COMPLETELY valid excuse. I was at Jeeptoberfest all weekend representing the Cherokee Forum community

I saw those pictures. Looked like a lot of fun! That's a serious course they have set up.

They have 3, in fact. Only one I was able to run was the stock course due to lack of proper equipment, but it was still fun and had its share of challenges.

The stock course is about 3 miles long and requires 4wd, front and rear recovery points, and seatbelts for all passengers. Has some off-camber and cross-camber obstacles, a couple climbs, some mud, simulated water crossings (I say simulated because they're hard-pack on the bottom), and lots of concrete obstacles.

Modified course is about the same length, maybe a little less. Requires at least 33" tires, at least 1 locker, seatbelts for all passengers, and no riders under the age of 12. Lots of rock obstacles, cross-camber, rock garden, concrete culverts, climbs, and a mud pit.

Extreme course is just brutal lol... no other way to describe it. Pretty much think of the worst obstacles on the Rubicon trail... that's what they modeled the extreme course after. Large boulder rock gardens, concrete barricade obstacle sections.... hell lookup "Jeeptoberfest Extreme course" on YouTube and you'll have a many minutes of entertainment.