Brent Cox, writer of the column “Adjusted for Inflation” on The Awl, investigates the inflated cost of adventuring like some of our favorite young-adult heroes.
The premise is this: “Let’s look at the adventures and misadventures found in classic kids books, and how the economics of them compare, over time…We tried to space them over history, but we decided to stick to the past ninety years or so, and we also decided to avoid books with supernatural or sci-fi elements, as the question of how much a wrinkle in time might cost seemed an unanswerable question.
Of course where possible we will compare actual dollar amounts with same amount converted in 2012 dollars, but, for this installment, we are also interested in the general topic of how money informed these stories of escape or crime-solving or adventure.”
While we’d like to know how much a wrinkle in time costs, as well as the current feasibility of a sleepover at the Met, that will have to wait.
