MARK 12 : 41-44
41 And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.
42 And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.
43 And he called [unto him] his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury:
44 For all [they] did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, [even] all her living.
My Bible was printed, bound, and published by the National Bible Press of Philadelphia, and is copyrighted 1944. This Bible has a footnote attached to the "two mites" that states that the amount equaled about 4 cents. Now assuming that this is correct, we have to take the two mites which equaled about 4 cents in 1944, and CPI inflate that number to equate this into 2011 dollars.
First I have to inflate this to 1980 dollars (I will explain why 1980 in a minute) For this task I will use the website called Measuring Worth, under the "Purchasing Power - US $" calculator. We find that when we use the consumer price index, $0.04 in 1944 is equivalent to $0.19 in the year 1980.
In the year 1982, the methodology to calculate CPI was altered, and was altered again in the early 1990's. These new calculations simply do NOT jive with the actual price rises experienced by every household I have lived under since the methodology was changed. Therefore, the number is INACCURATE, and bears no relevance to at least my actual experiences whatsoever! Because of this fact, I rely on a third party to give me a more accurate number, and the pre 1982 methodology indeed jives and is a much more accurate measurement as to what the annual consumer inflation being experienced is.
The name of the third party is called Shadow Government Statistics, and their website is ShadowStats. Since I am not a subscriber, I have to rely on statements John Williams makes from time to time concerning the at-that-time record high for an ounce of Gold in 1980, which was $850. As reported by John Williams to King World News on a blog entry dated December 15, 2010, the $850 using the pre 1982 methodology inflates to $7840 in December 2010. We can cross multiply and determine what $0.19 in 1980 would inflate to in the month of December 2010. When we do so, the number we get, $0.19 in 1980 = $1.75 in December 2010!
It is a possibility too, that at the rate we are going, by December 2011, the US dollar might hit parity with that mite, that is $1 = one mite!
