Ask your grandfather, or if you still have one, one of your great grandparents how much was a loaf of bread during the time when they were teenagers.
Wait for the answer.
That's inflation.
Wait for the answer.
That's inflation.
I wonder what kind of salary he was getting paid back then. $3,500 a year?
Looking only at purchasing power perverts things a bit. In terms of wages (how far your paycheck goes) it's not nearly as bad as people make out. In fact, technology and globalization has significantly lowered the price of some goods even after we account for inflation.
The real issue is whether you hold your savings in fiat money, which is obviously a terrible idea. Inflation is a tax on savings. That's actually the point: Keynesians use inflation as a disincentive against hoarding money, which in turn facilitates economic growth because people have to find ways to spend and invest their money before it loses value.