Measuringworth.com is a web site where you can use a variety of calculators to determine how much something was worth historically.
For example, in the book I’m wrote with Charles W. Gehrke before his death about his life, his career and his accomplishments, he told me he’d raised roughly $200,000 to get what is now called ABC Labs going in 1968. Naturally, I wondered first how he did that — that answer is in the book, “From the Melon Fields to the Moon,” to be published.
Then, I wondered how much $200,000 would be worth today. That answer I found at measuringworth.com, using one of their calculators to determine the value of currency at various time periods.
The answer is $200,000 in 1968 would have been worth roughly $1.1 million in 2007 dollars, according to MeasuringWorth.com.
A tool like measuringworth.com can help a reporter provide context to an article or a book. And that, in my opinion, is one of the jobs journalists are supposed to do: provide context to help make the world understandable to readers.
Dianna Borsi O'Brien, freelance writer 