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In September of 1950, 71 years ago, when I first arrived in the US, the price for one cup of coffee was 5 cents. Two months later in late Fall of that year, the price jumped to 10 cent/cup. This caused such an uproar by the public and in the news media that even new arrivals to the US such as me remembered it well. Well, this morning (71 years later) I purchased my morning cup of coffee for $1.99 – 40 fold increase which is consistent with the increase of the budget of the Massachusetts state government over approximately the same period of time http://blog.sciencenet.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=1565&do=blog&id=1190719 . That is an indication of the inflation over time!

Food is basic to human existence which is why it is often used as an indicator for the cost of living (remember the hamburger index popular a couple of decades ago - the cost of a MacDonald hamburger all over the world).