A Million Bucks Ain't What It Used To Be:

Back in the 1950s a hit TV show called, The Millionaire, featured a butler who weekly handed over a million bucks to some poor sap with the instructions that he never reveal the exact amount of money he had been given. Then we got to watch what he did with all that money. By the way, the taxes had all been paid by the donor, so the gift receiver was actually receiving more than a million dollars.

In those days, a million bucks could set you up for life, or at least it seemed so. The average Joe earned between $5,000 and $10,000 a year and never referred to himself as middle-class unless he was at the high end of those figures. Not many had health insurance, and a dental plan meant getting your kids to brush their teeth before they went to bed at night.

So how far would a million dollars get you these days? I doubt many would turn such a gift down, but according to the latest statistics, one million dollars is only worth $455 thousand in 1983 dollars. I'd hate to think what it was worth in 1955 dollars. Maybe $100 thousand?

By the way, according to National Geographic, there are now more than 10,000,000 millionaires in the world. The U.S. still has the largest number with more than 3 million of them, but the rest of the world is catching up. Or they would be if the world's economy wasn't on the brink of collapse.

As for me, I'm still waiting on that billionaire's butler to knock on my door with an envelope and instructions to never tell anyone the exact amount of my gift.