Black Friday broke records as Americans spent over a quarter-trillion dollars, but here's the truth behind the illusion: we’re not buying more, our dollar is simply worth less than ever. From $1 buying 30 Hershey bars in 1913 to barely covering a pack of gummy worms today, the purchasing power collapse is undeniable, and compounding inflation keeps silently stripping wealth from every household. Glenn Beck breaks it all down as he explains why this should be a massive wake-up call...
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Did you see that this Black Friday, first quarter of a trillion dollar season. Black Friday. First time ever, quart of a trillion dollars. New highs.
Wow! Okay.
Okay.
Black Friday made up 10 percent total sales for the month of November.
111 billion dollars.
Represents 9.1 percent increase on online sales compared to last year.
They track over a trillion dollars in US retail site visits.
Adobe does.
If this continues, it looks like Christmas will be the first quarter of a trillion dollar season.
That would be a record in the United States. We're still spending!
Of course, you know, it looks like we're buying more. But are we, really? I've got to send this. I've got to send this out. Would you tweet this for me?
The purchasing power of the dollar in 1913. In 1913, you could buy 30 Hershey chocolate bars with 1 dollar. 1929, you could buy ten rolls of toilet paper.
1933, ten bottles of beer. 1944, 20 bottles of Coca-Cola. 1953, ten bags of pretzels.
1964, one movie ticket to a drive-in theater. 1971, you could buy 17 oranges. 1987, with a dollar, you could buy two box of Crayola crayons. 1997, you could buy four grapefruits.
2008, with the same dollar, you could buy two lemons. By 2020, you could buy one McDonald's coffee. And in 2025, you can buy one pack of Great Value gummy worms. I don't know!
I think our dollar has gone down a little bit in worth. This -- this -- this is why gold is so important.
A 20-dollar gold piece in 1913, you could go to the bank, and you could get $20 for it.
Or you can go with $20. Go to the bank, get a 20-dollar gold piece.
Then you can walk in to a good men's clothing store and say, sir, I want your finest suit. And for $20 you could buy the finest suit in the store.
Today, you could walk in with that same gold piece. They wouldn't take it. You would to have cash it in.
You would cash it in, and it would be $4,200.
And you could go into that same men's store, and you could say, I want your finest suit, and for $4,200, you would probably get their finest suit. Gold hasn't changed price! Dollars have dropped in value! What cost you $20, one gold piece, 1 ounce of gold, what cost you $20 in 1913, now cost you $4,200! That's why gold is so important when it comes to inflation. Because the dollar will just keep -- we can buy gummy worms today.
Stu, I don't know how many gummy worms you -- you know, think about how many gummy worms have to be sold for a quarter of a trillion dollars for the quarter. That's a lot of gummy worms.
STU: You say gummy worms.
You keep leaving out that detail that they're Great Value gummy worms.
GLENN: Sorry. Not just any gummy worms.
STU: Right.
GLENN: They're the cheapest.
STU: Would you rather have one pack of Great Value gummy worms, or 33 Hershey bars?
You're on the borderline there. I'm not sure which one you would rather have.
GLENN: I mean. Isn't that incredible?
Thirty Hershey bars. Ten rolls of toilet paper for a dollar! For a dollar!
Ten bottles of beer. You couldn't go in. You could go in with your friends and say, beer for everybody.
I've got two bucks. Think of that.
That's crazy!
STU: And now that we need to get more drunk, we can't even afford the alcohol. It's really sad. What a terrible. Terrible turn of events.
It is amazing. And I think too, we've lost track of that. Because, you know, when inflation rates come down, that is -- you know, a positive, compared to what we were facing a few years ago.
But it is still building on top of those price increases that were locked in. It's not that prices were going down. It's the rate of increases on those prices were going down.
JASON: Right. Why do we accept 2 percent inflation every year? I've heard that my whole life. Oh, the Fed projects 2 percent inflation. That's their target.
STU: Target. Yeah.
GLENN: Why. Why? Would we target our money being worth 2 percent less every year?
That doesn't seem like a good deal.
STU: Yeah. You've always talked about that.
Inertia of money.
And trying to get the dollars flowing.
Which seems to be their motivation on that.
If they were able to hit those numbers. It would probably not be all that damaging.
You would sure have a little bit of money wasting away every year.
Which is not good.
But it wouldn't that be dramatic.
GLENN: Well, we got close. Under Biden it was 9 percent.
STU: Yeah. That was good.
GLENN: Nine.
STU: Then we were like, nine. Six. Four.
Three. We've succeeded! Well, no. Wait. The 9 percent increase, that stayed. And then we built another 3 percent on top of that, and a 6 percent on top of that.
GLENN: Yeah.
STU: It keeps going up and up and up. Did you see, by any chance, hopefully you didn't on Thanksgiving weekend. There was a chart tweeted by Amy Klobuchar. Did you see this by any chance?
GLENN: No. I missed the Thanksgiving I should have prayed for Thanksgiving on that. But go ahead.
STU: It was such a -- it was so moronic, that it actually was kind of a holiday gift to all of us.
She tweeted this chart of energy prices skyrocketing.
And she's like, these prices are skyrocketing under President Trump.
I can't believe this happen.
And it is -- it is pretty much a straight-up line.
The issue is, it went back to like 2020. And shows that all of the increases happened under Joe Biden.
GLENN: Jeez.
STU: They just kind of continued to increase.
And it wasn't even a pricing chart. It was how many people are behind on their energy bill.
Which is still skyrocketing. But almost all of this happened during the president that she passionately supported, up until he seemingly keeled over in the middle of a debate.
So, you know, not -- not necessarily the way to go if you're Amy Klobuchar. We kind of accept all of this. We accept the prices going up.





