What $122.22 Bought the Taxpayer in 1941
Some 85 years ago today.
The cost to outfit a U.S. Army Infantry Soldier, including a new Springfield Armory-minted M1 Garand, via The Morgantown Post (Morgantown, West Virginia) dated 12 March 1941, as the “Great Neutral” was aggressively ramping up for possible war.
Adjusted for inflation, the cost for everything shown/described would be $2,819.31 in today’s cash.
Note that the Garand is shown, only adopted four years prior, and the GI correctly has an M1917 Kelly “tin pan” helmet, as the new $3.03 ($1.05 for the steel shell, $1.98 for the liner) M1 steel pot wouldn’t be standardized until 30 April 1941, some six weeks after this graphic was published.