WTF is with Inflation in Fallout?

[@creaturefeet3036]

I've always thought the 99 cents stores in Fallout 3's downtown areas were a missed opportunity to have $99 stores become a canon part of the Fallout lore. Nothing would make it clearer just how out of control inflation was if a $99 store was considered reasonable.

[@UnholyWrath3277]

@Knight-Sgt. Reyes i mean you dont see shops in japan for 1 yen or less (unless im just oblivious which is possible) because the currency is devalued to that level. The american dollar could easily reach that point in a decade of hyper inflation let alone potentially 100 years in which fallout deviates from our world before the bombs fall

[@aaaaaaaard9586]

@Knight-Sgt. Reyes well, in reality stuff you find in dollor stores are mostly made in china. That’s never gonna happen in fallout universe. Also chinese submarines in FO are super advanced so the intercontinental trade would’ve been very hard for the US

[@vonfaustien3957]

@@aaaaaaaard9586 I mean there's also the fact Eroupe and the middle east were also radioactive ruins before China and the USA came to blows subs aside there wasn't many people to trade with left at the end

[@OversteerAllDay]

Inflation is a bitch, it’s the reason I can’t get a decent car to fix up for when I turn 16 under 500$…

[@UnholyWrath3277]

@@OversteerAllDay you havent been able to do that for over a decade now

[@SalamanderTrash]

Here’s my little game theory. Maybe some of those terminals or mr. handys have an automatic inflation calculator built in. So maybe by the time you get to them in fallout 4, they’ve been ticking up for almost 300 years, as opposed to just 55. That could definitely justify the hotel prices, maybe even the bowling.

[@lUseMyBlade]

New head cannon thank you now my head dosent hurt.

[@Historyguy-xu5ht]

I was thinking that too. It make sense

[@helbent4]

Possibly set by government benchmark, which sends out periodic "economic updates". When the signal stopped, they just use whatever the last benchmark was.

[@ONEisN0THING]

What about the magazines or old broken billboards? Think theres some holes in that boat

[@BlakeTheDrake]

@@ONEisN0THING Except that all the old magazines and billboards have prices with perfectly reasonable (or, at worst, *marginally elevated* ) inflation. All the unreasonably high prices seem to be from electronic sources, at least going by those listed in this video.

[@Feraligono]

Given that the Fallout 4 protagonist, who would've been familiar with the prices during the war, calls $5000/game of bowling outrageous, it makes me think that something is up in that specific instance.

[@K9TheFirst1]

Maybe the showcase was partly for fundraising?

[@ravinraven6913]

yea it was going out of business and they wanted to save it so the gang can continue to play there, specially after what happened to the guy. So maybe that price was what it cost to play a game on the donation night meant for him

[@buttahXD]

Could be automatically calculated by computers for inflation over 200 years, if things kept going with no nukes being used.

[@Gearhead66]

@@ravinraven6913 isn't the $5000 bowling game talking about the General Atomics Galleria?

[@billionsmustfight]

I doubt that it has anything to do with the Fallout universe's inflation, but that it's just a gaff to make the deteriorating memory of _most_ Pre-war robots seem obvious

[@SpiraSpiraSpira]

One thing to note when considering a product's cost for inflation is due to the resource scarcity Fallout universe built things to last, which is why a lot of things still work 200 years later. As such, essentially everything is a durable good. A car might cost two hundred thousand dollars, but it is a car that your grand children inherit and then give to their kids, too.

[@CuppaLLX]

"they do build um like they used to"

[@AlpineBishop]

That makes sense for the capitalist market too - margins are higher per item, but the pressure to sell cars is extremely high since cars are so good and durable they don't sell often. Used market dominates many high demand goods like cars, so new stuff has to have unique advancements and therefore more varied options.

[@christophervanoster]

That is a good point. After all radios and even light bulbs are still working 200+ years later

[@alyssavanderklift9296]

@@christophervanoster and then to consider that the lightbulds are actually possible, if you take away the light bulb cartel that cooperated to make all lightbulbs last far shorter, they used to have actual lifetime-esque lifespans.

[@MrAhkmid]

Very true. Though I question why you'd use the car as an example, to my knowledge, there isn't a single car in existence that is in working order in any fallout game (correct me if I'm wrong though).

[@doughyguy2663]

Small clarification - in New England, some old timers refer to all soft drinks as 'tonic', so it's probably not Tonic Water (carbonated water + quinine)

[@alexfrideres1198]

in some parts of texas they call all soft drinks "coke"

[@Notenum_]

@@alexfrideres1198 the worst quality of the people in my state (Texas) is that people have yet to learn that using improper wording doesn’t make you original, it just makes you sound dumb.

[@someshtbaglcpl5455]

@notenum Go back to California.

[@Weldedhodag]

@@Notenum_ oof, I think I found a child with a superiority complex

[@peanutbutter6720]

@@Notenum_ mocking a regional dialect doesn’t make you sound very original either

[@onieyoh9478]

It's terrifying how accurate the inflation is. PS, the more expensive paper products could be the result of a tree scarcity.

[@cyanidenightshade]

Bethesda spent more on making accurate inflation than they did writing a good story

[@brendorockz]

Was looking for a comment like this! Yes in times of economic downturn, poorer people will burn forests to keep warm and cook food there is also a process to turn wood into fuel (Germany from ww2 are a good example of doing this)

[@reddeaddude2187]

Also in this 1950's-esque society, what else is there really for entertainment besides reading?

[@baldrian22]

thought the same :)

[@t-hatguy]

Was looking for a comment like this. Still another thing to take into account is the war effort, and I know it's mentioned specifically that one of the reasons behind the annexing of Canada was to use their timber and forests to further aid in the war. Being a war resource in a serious war time would further explain the higher prices I think.

[@christopherlewis1847]

I respect how you actually broke the prices down and analyzed them rather than making hyperbolic statements. May we all bask in Atom's Glow

[@adwarbarbar3722]

Atoms glow be with you

[@StandTallTx]

Lmao

[@CynicalPOV]

I was your 500th like. It was satisfying. Lmao

[@Theratsintrenchcoat]

Atom be with you, brothers

[@erikvale3194]

16:40 at a guess, buying and driving a gasoline car could be a status symbol, with the super rich showing off that they can still afford to burn dinosaurs for locomotion.

[@lukemccready2886]

It could be that tours are really cheap because they have robot tour guides, so costs would be a lot lower.

[@Blox117]

the coolant is a LIE. ITS WATER

[@KefkeWren]

Something you forgot to account for is the fact that the Uncanny Caverns in Fallout (as well as other tourist attractions in 76) are heavily sponsored. Nearly every info station, if not actually all of them, along the tour route features a plug for a sponsored product, and from the messages we can conclude that their gift shop was also heavily featuring sponsored products. I haven't been on the real life Lost World Caverns tour, but I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say that it does _not_ feature commercials throughout. So, it's likely that the relatively low inflation can be accounted for by the fact that the attraction is making up the difference through monetization deals.

[@____________838]

The inflation rate gets even worse if you use 1950 prices as the base. “Action Comics vol1, #140” was from Jan, 1950. It had a cover price of 10¢. “Action Comics vol1 #259” was from Dec 1959. It still had a cover price of 10¢. The Unstoppables comics featured in Fallout 4 are presumably new copies prior to the Great War(2077) all have a price on the cover of $15. The Grognak comics have a cover price of $23.

[@fallen8bitotaku]

What about estimating the price of superman action comics. First edition. In the 80s cost effective but that calculation. But you could deviate from the norm and. Use 1920s. Prices. Because you know. Reasons. I wonder how much a weird science magazine goes for today don't know what those are look them up. 😊

[@____________838]

@@fallen8bitotaku Was that an attempt to sound like Ben Shapiro? Anyways, the reason I used popular comics from the 50’s should be obvious.

[@onieyoh9478]

The $15-$20 price range is about on par with the prices of comics nowadays.

[@____________838]

@@onieyoh9478 Where you buying comics? I don’t think I’ve seen any over $6 in the US.

[@____________838]

@@onieyoh9478 Taken from a comic solicitation website: BATMAN #128 Written by CHIP ZDARSKY Art and cover by JORGE JIMENEZ Backup art by LEONARDO ROMERO Variant cover by GABRIELE DELL'OTTO and FRANCESCO MATTINA 1:25 variant cover by RYAN SOOK 1:50 foil variant cover by JOCK $4.99 US | 40 pages | Variant $5.99 US (card stock) ON SALE 10/4/22

[@andyb2260]

I came to pretty much the same conclusion a few years ago but all I did was use one of those online inflation calculators to get an average inflation rate from 1957 to 2017 and just projected that average forward in time 60 years and using historical data the prices in Fallout are reasonable. I mean if you went back to 1957 and told someone that they'd be paying $5-$7 for a pound of hamburger they'd look at you like you were crazy.

[@randomlyentertaining8287]

Or that they'd go from paying 28 to 30 cents a gallon to well over 3 dollars.

[@scottblank5678]

I thought the Mister Handy offering bowling games at $5,000 per game was clearly malfunctioning. The way he says the price sounds like he added "thousand" at the last second, like it was gonna just be $5.

[@ishill85]

could be related to prewar parlance. normal people might just say a thing that cost 5000 cost "5", but mr handy makes sure to specify, for legal reasons i expect.

[@boxingking70]

I would assume that it was meant to be “$50.00” but the decimal was not added

[@ALovelyBunchOfDragonballz]

@@boxingking70 that sounds like a fitting error for that in-gane area.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

At some point I actually nerded out about inflation and calculated the worth of caps and NCR$ relative to real world $US Based on the caps value for the Dead Money gold bars and the gold price around the release time of FO3 and NV. 1 cap is worth about $42.10 ($US in 2008) based on the weight of a bottle of purifed water (1 lb) for 20 caps, the gold bars are 35 lbs ($443,730 in 2008, when FO3 released since I assumed they would just keep the numbers between FO3 and NV) Also the caps/$NCR exchange rate in New Vegas (We can exchange caps and $NCR for casino chips and back 100 $NCR are 40 caps), 1 $US in 2010 (when the game released) would be worth 16,84 $NCR in 2281 (when the game is set) The $NCR has lost about half it's value between 2241 (FO2, backed by gold) and 2281 (NV) A 1lb bottle of water costs 20 caps in 2281, which are about $NCR 50 or $US 840 (around the 2008-2010 gold-$US exchange rate)

[@flamesofchaos13]

It's lore in New Vegas that the NCR-Brotherhood War has destroyed quite a few of their gold mines. Then Reno is seemingly becoming more autonomous meaning actually seeking to split/secede in the long term...Which it's one of their busy and rich cities. They're also having a food shortage estimated to be in famine in a few decades. So it's no wonder the NCR economy is worse for wear even when negating the passing of time.

[@anthonyibarra5732]

So crazy I was just thinking today what the NCR to US dollars rate would be

[@stevensteven3417]

If 1 dollar is worth 16,84 NCR then how is 840 dollar only worth 50 NCR. Your math sux.

[@Kris-wo4pj]

gold mines are gone now so the ncr fun bucks are backed by a thought and a prayer like the current freedom dollar is. only caps are backed by anything worth anything which is water.

[@frankieb9444]

Great topic, I still remember first noticing the +20 dollar magazines in FO3...with that price, no wonder they give you powers.

[@troodon1096]

To be fair, if a magazine actually gave you those kind of powers, the price seems pretty reasonable.

[@ThomasBlithe]

For the printed media prices: The use of metal in the printing process probably led to increases in price. In the 60s for comics, newspapers and magazines the images were chemically etched into metal plates. The plates were then used to create the rubber rollers that transfer ink to paper. The price of metal was assuredly high due to the war. Especially with the robotics industry competing for resources. Couple that with international trade falling apart and you're left with a shortage of metal. Furthermore, most of the factories that produced these plates had probably been converted to manufacturing military gear for the war, leaving the few that still make the plates to set whatever price they wanted. With no competition, they can jack up the prices as high as they want, thus driving up the cost of printing.

[@jacobford3452]

Im very suprised most thinhs were roughly reasonable, considering I highly doubt anyone put much more thought into other than "Haha inflation was crazy dawg." Also I think those two outliers of the bowling game and the hotel stay might have been because those prices are from computers that may automatically account of inflation. So instead of $5000 a game being the price in 2077, that is the auto-calculated price for it in 2287.

[@1th_to_comment.]

"This inflation is killing me."

[@ravinraven6913]

The bowling if you spent time looking through the terminals....tells you they tried saving the bowling alley from being shut down by doing a charity and just like Halloween ornaments, the bombs dropped before it happened so everything they had put up for a temporary thing became permanent

[@bradyghan5872]

Looks like that could be it! That would be roughly $7.50 in 2022 dollars for a bowling game which is reasonable

[@yannickgrignon2473]

Ooh, that's a good theory!

[@RebSike]

that would be a cool explanation!

[@christophervanoster]

16:10 there was a guy who came into the red rocket by sanctuary and had his gas motorcycle worked on multiple times. The terminal in the office there talks about the repair jobs they’ve done on it

[@randomlyentertaining8287]

That's something I didn't even think about. That'd also make the prices less insane because you'd only be getting a couple gallons, not a couple dozen.

[@TheFirstDarkKnight]

I'd imagine the high prices for the printed media being solely due to corruption. With no internet, people would rely almost entirely on magazines and newspapers for information. Which means that the price is probably artificially increased since people are forced to buy them anyway.

[@Xahnel]

@@williampotter3369 Newpapers don't seem to be sold to individuals anymore. Companies seem to set up contracts to buy bulk papers for employees, and households get long term subscriptions. And remember, matter manipulation was apparently commonplace enough that Dean Domino was thoroughly unimpressed by the vending machines in Dead Money. Newspapers and comics were probably very cheap to PRINT. The high cost comes from the employees, who's salaries probably rose with the price of inflation.

[@chekovsgunman]

@@Xahnel Very good points, but the rising “cost” of production wouldn’t be limited solely to increasing employee wages, mind you. Certainly something to consider, but not the main driver IMO. More realistically, the biggest cut of the profits not reinvested into expanding operations would be going into the hands of shareholders (read: American oligarchs), not employees.

[@michaelwood2866]

It could actually be due to the fact that the US has just recently annexed Canada in their war to retake Anchorage, and that Canadian pulp production for paper was stopped in this annex period?

[@qdllc]

INK comes from OIL. So.... You'll get the connection. Also consider the fuel needed to run machines turning wood pulp into paper.

[@SonsOfLorgar]

I'd suspect the inflated print media prices has more to do with collateral damage as the US invaded and annexed canada, as in: There's a paper mass lumber shortage! I would also expect some of the chinese bio warfare to have homed in on the logging industry with both super destructive insects, fungi, viruses and bacteria, all aimed at ruining the wood for industrial use.

[@jhap4734]

I would argue the “coolant” top off for the fallout vehicles would be more similar to a oil change on todays cars. It would help the inflation be more in line with the other ones, regardless nice video man.

[@Blox117]

coolant = water with antifreeze. lol

[@yeez13]

Since the cars are Nuclear Powered, I’d argue that the Coolant they’re using is most likely something more specialized or sci-fi than we would for normal cars. I’m no Nuclear Physicist or even a Rocket Scientist (same thing more or less) but you could easily justify it as “a newer and more efficient Coolant” than just Anti-Freeze 🤷🏽‍♂️

[@getfreur2458]

I think the gas stations are probably using gasoline most for logistic companies vehicles, like companies that still relies to transport goods using trucks, vans or pickup.

[@georgemurdock7670]

There where nuclear powered transport vehicles. A gallon costing 1300$ today wouldn’t make any car viable to drive, especially heavy delivery cars that burn much more then smaller cars. There was probably some very rich dude close by that liked to drive his oldtimer and kept the gas station alive on its own lol

[@benwillis5840]

I wonder if only a small amount of gasoline is needed in the Fallout universe, perhaps just to start the vehicle and then an alternative fuel is used.

[@kristiangnarsen]

It’s coolant for the onboard nuclear reactor, not gasoline

[@benwillis5840]

@@kristiangnarsen two separate things with very different prices. Coolant at 14:30 and gasoline at 15:35

[@K9TheFirst1]

I figured that the gasoline car market would be those that drive and maintain vintage /pre-nuclear cars as a hobby. Like Live Steam Railroading, which is similar in terms of using an outmoded fuel source few people have need or availability to use.

[@eyoshinthemaximum]

This isn't what I wanted when I looked up "Fallout inflation" but close enough

[@falloutshorts]

Fun fact: In Fallout 3 Tranquillity Lane, Timmy sells lemonade at his stand for 5 cents. I know it’s a simulation but it’s still meant to be pre-war.

[@ravinraven6913]

those donuts do say .99c so makes you wonder about the lemonade. But it could be a full throw back to the 1940s and 1950s as everythings even black and white. So it was staying true to the price of that era. But I think the donuts were just from the grocery store and at least a couple days old and about to be tossed.

[@ernestoacosta7918]

@@ravinraven6913 wrong comment lol, the one above this one is about donuts

[@thebowler5506]

To be fair Tranquility Lane is supposed to be a paradise of sorts, so very low cost lemonade fits the bill I'd day

[@TOBAPNW_]

@@thebowler5506 yes, it's intended to make the inhabitants recall better, more hopeful days. I doubt any vault resident would be old enough by 2077 to actually remember a time before inflation, but they certainly would have heard stories of such from their elders.

[@Blox117]

@@thebowler5506 so paradise isnt free? wtffff

[@MistaOppritunity]

For the wild caverns one, that makes sense. During times of economic downturn, people have to cut things to survive, and that usually starts with the most luxurious, and works it's way down. You might make the same argument for printed material, but a lot of people would consider news to be a vital thing to have, so they'd continue to pay for it if they could. So Uncanny caverns probably had to maintain their prices to stay in business at all because people just didn't want to waste their money on it when they could choose to do that, or eat.

[@AidenRKrone]

You put more thought into the inflation rate in the _Fallout_ universe than any of the developers for any of the games did.

[@video-luver769]

No mention of the Giddyup Buttercup that costs $16,000 dollars, which is by far the most expensive toy I've ever seen.

[@kwc0435]

The zetans fucking love those things

[@spartanseth7392]

THIS IS AN INCREDIBLY UNFORTUNATE TITLE, RADKING.

[@cinnamonflavord]

Hmm. I want to know more, time to search Fallout hyper inflation

[@kritizismmusics9737]

Lmfao as we love before the great war

[@nathanielturner2577]

Maybe the Grandchester Mystery Mansion tour as well as other attractions in Nuka-World are so cheap because of cost cut by having dangerously low safety standard and some back room “ Project Cobalt” deals done between John Caleb Bradberton and the US Military.

[@BockwinkleB]

When I started playing Fallout in the late 90s It all seemed so far fetched and silly. Not so much anymore. Inflation and 31 Trillion in debt is insane, Resource Wars and Nukes might be days away.

[@ZX-Gear]

We might get to live both Fallout and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

[@MikeS7]

@@ZX-Gear fallout in the real world isn't as fun, no one turns into ghouls we just all die of cancer

[@Subject_Keter]

If anything, it would be some giga"brain" chad who thinks resetting the world to caveman age would help us would end the worl.d

[@capitcha]

@@MikeS7 🤓

[@AbyssalPlague]

@@MikeS7 I better turn into a damn mutant. Even if it is complete agony and pain, at least I can prove that I became one!

[@wesleyflatten617]

Paper inflating over norm is quite sensible, if we continued using printed media as normal from the 1970's onward we would have started running out of trees on the north American continent. To be frank we've gone thru a great amount of existing forest as is and we can't crop up trees fast enough for demand for paper pulp and lumber so if the use of both of those never slowed they would also have been tending towards being a critical resource likely in the same time frame that oil reserves were dangerously low in the fallout world.

[@raziyatheseeker]

Heck, didn't people have to bleach newspaper to make toilet paper in the Great Depression and/or WW2? So I could see this.

[@g_kamikazi]

not to mention that ink is a petroleum product, so a full color magazine in a petroleum scarce world would be rightfully expensive

[@MortalWombat4480]

This would make sense if trees didn’t, y’know, reproduce. The United States has 228 *billion* trees. Unless they’re also just mass deforesting for no reason we’re not running out of paper anytime soon.

[@bobbthebeard6891]

there was me thinking about how dangerous it would be as a journalist

[@ericsteenbergen9470]

Perhaps the paper costs have something to to with the lack of lunber for paper prior to the annexation of Canada. Also I love how Radking just straight up baited the Jersey Mike's stans.

[@kdisley]

Regarding the Winchester Mansion, it's worth remembering that *A)* the real-world mansion isn't attached to a larger theme park (which would usually mean it's an additional surcharge at Nuka World rather than what you might call an individual "gate price" as in real life), and *B)* is a lot bigger than the one represented in the game - visiting the real-world attraction would give you a decent-length tour, while the game-world version's tour would be a lot shorter. As a result, you wouldn't expect our version of the Winchester Mansion to charge as little as the price we'd be seeing for the game version adjusted for retroactive inflation. Therefore, being an apples-and-oranges comparison, I don't think it's as much of an anomaly, and can be safely discounted with regards to the generalised inflation rate. That doesn't change the individual calculations (in fact, it basically adds supporting evidence, albeit more on the theoretical side rather than giving us solid numbers), but it would change your final calculation with regards to the broad overview - namely, the standard deviation would be a lot less given that the majority of the other figures were all around the 2% mark and the only really anomalous rate of 0.8% is for something we can't really compare to real-world prices in the same way as the others (while of course still taking into account the logical coffee scarcity theory and the resultant additional price increase from non-inflationary factors). In short, looks like Bethesda is actualy pretty realistic and consistent in their projections. We've found a game mechanic they can actually get right!!

[@youmukonpaku3168]

further, Nuka World in FO4 is implied to be subsidized by the research facilities attached and some implicit human experimentation on the park guests, while I'm pretty sure the real mansion isn't doing.

[@housewilma4904]

@@youmukonpaku3168 i know for sure at least the cloning tech must of come from good old dr borus at big mountain cause who else would make something that insane specific and unique even in the fallout universe pre war?

[@fojisan2398]

After all, money is all they care about.

[@barkbuck5521]

The wild inflation helps hammer in how desperate pre-war was. We find so many guns, drugs, and security systems all around the place because robbery, murder, starvation, and injury were already common before the bombs. Society was already at its ends, the bombs were just the final nail in the coffin.

[@thelastwordreview]

Love this kind of deep content. I was thinking about this a lot recently for caps in the wasteland. Avg price of a bottle of purified water from vendors is 98 caps. Typical reward in FO4 for going to some ruined metro and murdering a dozen people is 200 caps. So, two bottles of water... I thought about this way deeper than this, but I'll keep this comment short for now.

[@randomkriegsman8444]

The gas might have been used to power generators? Also in tactics there’s a WW2 Sherman tank, which obviously doesn’t run on nuclear power so maybe the gas was put there as an explanation for how it runs.

[@dmj271095]

With all the mods out there, economic inflation wasn't the first thing that came to my mind.

[@abdullahtshabal9522]

Newspapers and magazines may have simply been in much greater demand in the Fallout universe than in reality, due to personal computers and the Internet not being as widespread. Paper could have also cost more to produce due to said demand cutting down more trees. Or simply that the newspaper prints did not have much competition.

[@olivercuenca4109]

I think the real reason newspapers are so expensive in Fallout is the labour cost involved. Most of the world was falling apart, making it hard work for foreign correspondents - meanwhile at home, the USA has basically turned into a police state, with widespread censorship, corruption in both the public and private sectors, ridiculous levels of automated security, widespread organised crime, probably tonnes of surveillance etc - again making the work of journalists really, really hard and potentially very dangerous. Consequently, they probably have to pay much higher salaries and spend a lot of money on assistance, insurance and repatriation services to keep them safe. Whereas irl those kinds of costs might make a newspaper unsustainable and force them to shut down, if in the Fallout universe papers face a lot less competition, they might have a lot more demand to sustain themselves despite these expenses.

[@offcourseoverland]

Fallout and current timelines are merging after the hadron collider was activated.

[@BockwinkleB]

After we elected a demented President.

[@ishill85]

rather than *finding analogous magazines for these three... my brother in christ, that is Astonishing Tales, Guns and Ammo, and Life magazine. Those are, well two of them anyway, are very different products with different average price points.

[@kelllogg4838]

The reason the Stations still have signs stating the price of fuel might have been a legal requirement to prevent the full take over of fusion based vehicles

[@RebSike]

interesting theory.

[@GlitchySet5]

Just had my dog put down due to his decline in health, needed something to make me feel normal, just glad you uploaded, keep putting in genuine effort into your videos like this, it's nice

[@_.poser.kyle._3666]

I'm sorry bro im dealing with something similar my childhood cats died one died of cancer and the other got hit by a car the day after just tryna let ya know your not alone hope things get better

[@nickhueper2906]

Bruh Moment

[@pugthemaster8]

This is the grade A level theory crafting I've come to expect from this channel, keep it up!

[@LumiMoonCh]

I'd guess the high price of print media in the Fallout world could be due to paper milling being a resource intensive process, which in a world at war over resources is inevitable. It's one of the factors which pushed us to go digital. I used to buy guitar magazines which would cost up to 16AUD at the high end a few years ago.

[@JoMcD21]

My dad went to Hy-Vee the other day to buy some donuts. He told the cashier that they were $1.50 each. He had two boxes full of donuts. The cashier thought he meant the whole damn box was $1.50! Easy to say that was the most donuts we've ever gotten for just three bucks. 😆

[@couriers1x]

in what stores do they let you tell the cashier the price of an item???

[@JoMcD21]

@@couriers1x I think the guy was new and the box didn't have a tag on it. He probably should have double-checked a few things, lol

[@Woooookdnene]

@@couriers1x Worked at Hy-Vee. If you go in and pick out donuts (like you do at Dunkin’ for example) it doesn’t have a barcode sticker. You have to input a code on cash register that rings it up. I’m assuming he was new and didn’t know that lol. Edit for clarity: Usually the boxes have an area that tells you what kind of donuts they are, you input the code for the donuts, you put in how many donuts they have and ring it up.

[@abcdeisthekey]

@@couriers1x There is actually a lot of places that will take your word for unmarked items. I've done this at stores like Walmart and gas stations. I've also let customers tell me the prices of items I don't remember for my family business during festivals

[@Blox117]

@@JoMcD21 usually you put donuts in a box and the box is the price of whatever is inside.

[@ollie459]

Theres a quote from the prewar PA announcer in nukaworld saying you can get a replacement pair of shoes if you ruined them in the petting zoo for only $50, I remember hearing that the first time and it sticking with me because it seemed like a pretty good deal if they are of decent quality.

[@Bear989]

for the newspapers, delivery is usually a lot cheaper than delivery. when i delivered papers in the 90s for 5 daily papers and 1 sunday a week for a month we charged 6.25 per month. but the papers where 25 cents daily and $1 for sundays. so ~$9 if you paid cover price vs the 6.25 for delivered. also this was a small town newpaper, check the prices vs the new york times they are way more expensive and this being boston, same maybe for there paper. good video though, i enjoyed it very much, keep up the good work!

[@theonlybilge]

Delivery is cheaper than delivery

[@ravinraven6913]

whats that mean, delivery is usually a lot cheaper than delivery? Are you saying non delivery is cheaper than delivery or delivery is cheaper than non delivery?

[@Bear989]

@@ravinraven6913 yah sorry, i got my fingers crossed, "delivery is usually cheaper then newstand"

[@sethbright7615]

@@theonlybilge It's not delivery, it's Digiorno

[@Blox117]

your mom ordered delivery and i delivered

[@insomniagobrrr5542]

When you mentioned Tim Hortons, the acknowledgment of something Canadian that isn't Hawaiian pizza (yep, we did that) my soul lifted a little

[@insomniagobrrr5542]

@Krill Bill Phil I agree

[@laughingman6426]

👍 great video...added it to my playlist for your "of fallout" series. Side note: the coolant prices most likely based on having to store and dispose of the spent coolant since it wouldnt go anywhere during operation of the vehicle. Like underneath that red rocket station in the beginning of fallout 4. If you take the three factors and apply them to the price it comes out a bit more even

[@magicpyroninja]

One thing that could affect some of these prices is a lot of the items use petroleum products in their creation which in the fallout universe is extremely expensive and rare

[@Pigness7]

I've always calculated inflation based on that Slocum's Joe poster for the large coffee and jelly donut judging it based how much that would cost from Dunkin Donuts given I think it's the real world allegory for Slocum's. And when I first looked into it I was surprised as to how close it is to our modern rate. Also the armor I cool I did that :)

[@troodon1096]

If coolant is analogous to oil, yes, it's about the typical inflation rate you see elsewhere.

[@Blox117]

@@troodon1096 coolant is analogous to coolant. it's water

[@robesdebah4811]

Best RadKing videos are always the ones where he gets to do some world building. I imagine the guy is a pretty good DM. He's always thoughtful and always goes with the legend over the facts.

[@lijimusic]

you should add monetary before inflation, radking

[@leerman22]

Keep in mind amusement parks want to keep all rides attended, so the lower price for one might indicate its (last days) interest to the public.

[@GreenBlueWalkthrough]

About the physical media in Fallout their could also be a paper shortage as while they do grow on trees I doubt The fallout pre war world was that ghreat at conservation and with China/ US 2 of the last bastions of plenty during the Resource Wars and the chaos after. It would make sense that due to the high demand and lack of imports that paper was skyrocketing in price.

[@Kropolis]

Oh, you meant economic inflation? You don't hear that type of inflation in online gaming communities anymore...

[@pandorasflame7742]

I've always felt like the inflation that the US was experiencing in Fallout was just manufactured by moving the decimal point to the right by a varying amount.

[@Vanished584]

This is my first time seeing your content. This video is so cool. I was expecting a lot of speculation (No actual irl data) To explain the inflation. Amazing job Rad. :D

[@NetraAmorosi]

As for the magazines, maybe their ink is somehow oil based maybe? As for the hotel and boweling ally, it's also important to note they are on a island and have to have everything shipped to them via ship, which is going to be much more expensive (see hawaii for an example).

[@TheInsaneShecklador]

8:50 In Fallout 4 the Boston Bugle vending machines show a price of only $1.00 despite the paper itself having a printed price of $56.00. That's a WTF all by itself.

[@epep-2189]

You could use Warship powering nuclear reactors as a reference for the amount of times people would need to refill on coolant(though that's more renovating than just refueling in case of the ships) but it's the closest analogue there is to modern day nuclear powered vehicles, you'd need to take the scale into account too, i imagine a car powering reactor is much smaller than that of an aircraft carrier hence it'd require to refuel more often

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

A good scale would probably be nuclear subs. They tend to be much smaller than carriers and be more space constrained, so less coolant.

[@Blox117]

if we used warship nuclear reactors then the price would be equal to water

[@Blox117]

in fact, the "coolant" IS water

[@matthewryan2060]

I’m happy that I’m not the only one that can’t do without the Inquisitor Cowl.

[@CR7966]

I just have to point out that the Large Tonic advertised on the Joe’s Spuckies billboard is most like referring to soda and not tonic water. Tonic is used as a slang term for soda in the Northeast, even if it is an older term

[@HrothgarHeavenlight]

"WTF is with Inflation in Fallout?" Our future, son.

[@ponyperson7513]

Now if we could get a giddy up buttercup in real life, that would be nice

[@garmtpug]

That was very impressive! Researching and then calculating all of that must have taken a long time! It was very interesting because (like many others) I was surprised at prices in the Fallout universe. But, as you've stated they're not that far off, inflation-wise. It's too bad there wasn't some way to find out what wages were during Fallout times. They would have to be astronomical! Thank you for all your hard work. You made an excellent video!

[@SkyFly19853]

When real life meets with video game life... 😏

[@TR33ZY_CRTM]

At least he haven't been nuked... *YET*

[@totallyreal8428]

If i had half a penny for every "Don't google fallout inflation" joke in the comments I could buy a giddyup buttercup

[@avathememelegends1293]

Good job on the video, my great dude and I love your videos! Also I love the meatball sub with melted mozzarella cheese from subway. Also I Actually been inside of the lost world caverns in West Virginia myself more than once, I Love the tour in caverns too, and they sold real crystals and gemstones for upward of 20.00 a piece!

[@tessfairfield6435]

My hypothesis in regards to newspapers and magazines is this: on top of increased demand, I suspects that wood products are also in much higher demand, as I can imagine people using wood for fuel when oil and coal run dry. That, combined with the kind of deforestation caused by the desperation of the pre-war nations, may lead to anything made from wood being incredibly valuable

[@EvilParagon4]

I think the Dollar might have become something like today's Yen, with cents largely becoming an obsolete currency. People would still be able to afford things, even if prices for magazines are half the price of a 2022 video game. As for the price discrepancy for tours, it's really hard to justify the Wild Cave tour, since the whole economic situation is right there in the game at 2077. But for the one in Nuka-World, my proposal is that the robot monitoring the place is simply updating his pricing to the new circumstances. He's been standing there for 200 years, he's had time to adjust the price to allow for profitable admission. As for the lemonade, perhaps $50 is just catching up on the new monetary conditions. 99c works as a price because people usually have a dollar on them, or loose change to make a dollar, and anything. But in a world where people could be presumed to be walking around with wads of 10s, 20s, 50s, etc., perhaps $50 for lemonade is just catching up to the new economic reality. People buying lemonade just have the cash on hand ready to go.

[@kotzpenner]

I really appreciate the effort. I thought a lot about inflation in the Fallout universe, but this analysis is great. Didn’t know it would be more or less reasonable because it’s such a big timeframe.

[@dannyj1597]

I'd love to see a video of specific pre-war employees and whether or not they could actually afford to live pre-war with those prices but I don't know where you'd find their employment info/wages/etc. Nate is ex-military and his home seems swanky asf😂 I'd love to know if the Vault Tec Rep could afford Nates car or his Mr Handy 😂 Just me? OK 🤷‍♂️

[@stony7347]

It's probable the house was purchased with the help of the GI bill, assuming that existed pre-war.

[@canadian2665]

I searched up "fallout 4 inflation" trying to find this video, worst mistake I've made this week.

[@NemFX]

You want an answer for why newspapers cost so much more? Resources. Ink, paper, the actual printing costs, and DELIVERY. The last one would be huge, because they are delivered by truck, and even if the paperboys use bicycles or walk, the fuel cost would be high for their initial drop off. Add in whatever they have to pay their reporters, some of which are war correspondents.

[@Pattern51lover]

What’s the confusion? We’re living through it right now…

[@dantee323]

I wish I could keep my salary and move back to the 80s-early 90s. I’d be living real good instead of almost losing my apartment. Keep in mind I make over $60k a year but I live in Colorado. Average rent in my area for a one bedroom is $1600 and I have a $1k child support.

[@Kimarnic]

I'm gonna google "inflation" without safe search

[@brandogents6624]

Holy actual crap fallout is coming closer and closer to reality

[@BockwinkleB]

Vote Trump

[@BelligerentKnight2481]

@@BockwinkleB I think we're beyond the point of politicians fixing anything

[@black-uh1df]

@@BockwinkleB Trump got us into this mess

[@louisbeerreviews8964]

⁠​⁠@@black-uh1dfhe didn’t it’s Biden did this mess

[@neacct9839]

at 14:53 the “coolant” must be D; 20 heavy water, it’s costly too irl 😂

[@kidfox3971]

I didnt know Joe Biden was canon in Fallout

[@SPECTRA_87]

That hotel price sounds like Disney's star wars hotel.... At a discount

[@Rocky-rs8tw]

Wait. this isn't deviantart

[@michaelfixedsys7463]

Pre-war America has a stronger focus on STEM and Military careers rather than art and writing, meaning there would be fewer writers and artists, driving up the price. That's why printed media is more expensive, probably.

[@Steel-101]

They would explain why Nate and Nora had a decent home & car in sanctuary. Still they didn’t have a ton of food though. Well there was two bottles of milk three bottles of soda and two TV dinners in the fridge. That’s a college dorm snack lol 😂. There’s no fruit, no vegetables, no meat, etc. I can only imagine the prices in the super Duper mart.

[@technomancer106]

As someone from the UK, this feels a bit close to home right now… :[

[@ROOFTOPGUY]

Gott Strafe England!

[@technomancer106]

@@ROOFTOPGUY Wrong country mate, I’m Welsh ;D

[@ROOFTOPGUY]

@@technomancer106 your good then ;)

[@louisbeerreviews8964]

@@ROOFTOPGUYBritain

[@unyielding.entertainment]

I've been watching since you had less than 10k subs, it's great to see how much your channel is growing. I'm excited to see how far you'll go, keep up the great videos man💯

[@ValerianAndStuff]

do you know that economics in fallout universe has an interesting topic? search for "fallout inflation" to learn more!

[@a50ftfall6]

I believe the high price of newspapers and magazines is a lot like subscription services they just get ridiculously expensive because of corporate greed.

[@rbenoit1978]

The Fallout timeline also elected Joe Biden...

[@colehartson477]

Counterpoint: Why do people buy high fashion when it's gonna go out of style in 5 years? There's way more economical options.

[@mr_ThreeEight_1776]

Even the fallout economy suffers under the biden admin 😢

[@stevenpeterson8582]

As far as the newspaper price goes, most big city newspapers have a special Sunday edition which costs 3 to 4 times the price of the regular weekday editions; my assumption has always been that the newspapers that survived in Fallout are probably the Sunday editions because they are thicker and more likely to be durable.

[@myfavoriteviewer306]

Very cool video! This makes me really want to know what, if anything, was the thought process for prices throughout the games. Seems like there's a little bit of consistency with easily enough explanations for the outliers.

[@Warlocke000]

I looked this stuff up once for a mod I'm working on, and used the coffee and donuts prices as a comparison. It was for some prices listed on the back page of a catalog, which you could pick up to unlock some skins for a piece of clothing. Making sure the prices on that catalog were consistent with Fallout inflation was not even remotely necessary for the mod, by any stretch of the imagination. This is why I never finish projects.

[@Y34RZERO]

This wasn't the inflation I had in mind.

[@JWG.LLC_The_Artist]

The price of coffee inflating rapidly may also reflect the real world due to the idea that coffee is getting more and more rare in our real world and will most likely get more expensive as a result

[@richardford5317]

As for papper. A lot of water goes in to the production. If I remember lore right. There was also a water shortage too.

[@Averagemomrespecter]

10:31 my theory is that ink prices have gone up due to extremely high demand, large scarcity, and world trade prices.

[@instructoruber1807]

Meanwhile we’re going through 8.7% inflation irl

[@RedShocktrooperRST]

The price of coffee vs. the price of a dozen donuts is probably explained by Coffee exports. I somehow doubt that compared to everything else, Folgers and Maxwell House (or their Fallout equivalents) would stay low in terms of price since Coffee is a bit of a luxury item.