I was doing some house cleaning tonight and stumbled across an old birthday card that my sister had sent me in 1988. It was my 30th birthday. There was some interesting information that I thought I would share along with updated information.

According to the card........

1958 population was 174,141,000
1988 population was 245,900,000
The current population is 294,324,000

The standard price for a home in 1958 was $11,975.00. In 1988 the price had risen to $78,843.00 and it is now $119,000.00

In 1958 the price of a car was $2,045.00. In 1988 the price had risen to $9,940.00. Currently the average price is about $24,000.00.

The price of one gallon of gas in 1958 was .30 cents. In 1988 the price of one gallon of gas was .95 cents. The average price per gallon is now $1.94.

A loaf of bread in 1958 cost .19 cents. In 1988 the price of a loaf of bread was .67 cents. The current price of a loaf of bread now is about $1.00.

One gallon of milk in 1958 cost $1.02. In 1988 the price was $2.36 and now the price is about $3.19 per gallon.

The average household income in 1958 was $5,087 and in 1988 it was $29,896. Currently it is $43,500.00 annually.

Factor in the fact that $1.00 in 1958 had the same buying power that $6.56 has in 2004 and you can draw lots of interesting conclusions given the above information.

That is if you are as sick of politics, pundits, beheadings and war as I am, can't sleep at night and need something else to think about.