[maximara]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

This is not what "Universal Gurps $" means. That has the $ being the same amount of money regardless of tL or location. Cliffhangers 3e (and WWII 3e) have their prices in period dollars. Many other 3e books do this as well.

My comment about inflation was only to indicate that futuristic TLs used a $15,000 Starting Wealth the same as TL7 as if their had been no inflation. Late 3e books started increasing Starting Wealth at higher tLs.

Classic Basic Set pg 16 and Steampunk 2 Steam and Shellfire pg 5 both touch on inflation regarding prices. Regarding future TL wealth levels Classic likely thought about post scarcity settings when putting out a base wealth value.

Steampunk 2 Steam and Shellfire has this multiply historical sources by 22 and divide GURPS $ value by 22 for the 1850-1915 period.

4e Basic Set states "In a contemporary setting, $1 is a modern U.S. dollar. In other periods, $1 equates roughly with the amount of local currency needed to buy a loaf of bread or equivalent staple – not with historical U.S. dollars."

Basically this seems to be using Adam Smith's idea that "corn" (grain) in relation to labor is a better benchmark than gold silver or whatever else the setting uses. Of course if you have a magic/real high tech setting this goes pear shaped real fast.