For Younger Generations, First Lesson In Inflation

Samantha Kobor, 14, who learned about inflation in fourth grade, unloads groceries at her Great Falls home. She says her allowance of up to $20 a week doesn't go as far as it once did. (By Lois Raimondo -- The Washington Post)
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"A lot of adults, even those who lived through inflation in the past, have become forgetful about it," said Irene Leech, a professor of consumer studies at Virginia Tech. She said her students are just catching glimpses now.

Money is a frequent topic of conversation in the Kobor home in Great Falls. Samantha Kobor, 14, of Great Falls, receives up to $20 a week, depending on how many chores she does, but it doesn't go as far as it once did. She recognized it as inflation, a word she first learned about in fourth grade, then again in her eighth-grade civics class.

"Now I see I don't have the money to buy what I want," she said, noting that she is worrying about how much gasoline costs, because she wants to get her driver's license in two years.

She and her mother, Pat, have talked about rising prices and try to cut costs by careful comparison shopping at the grocery store. Her mother told her that when she was a student in England, people saved money by putting coins into a meter to pay for home heating instead of being surprised by an unexpectedly large bill a month later.

Amber Williams, 15, the youngest of five children, is hearing a lot about inflation, too. Her mother, who lives in Dumfries, worries about money, particularly when she is buying gasoline.

"She's really, really frustrated with it, just exasperated," Williams said, adding that her mother told her she thought it hadn't been this bad since Amber's grandfather's younger days, when prices rose sharply after World War II. In 1947, prices shot up almost 15 percent. During the Depression, prices dropped, falling by 10.3 percent in 1932.

Triina Tennelo, 28, program director of a homeless shelter in Arlington County, said she had been shocked by the change in prices in just the few years since she began supporting herself.

"The last major inflation was in the Carter era, just before I was born," said Tennelo. "I don't recall it ever being as big an issue in my lifetime as it is now."

The experience is also unprecedented in what Steve Roman, 25, of Kensington, calls his "semi-adult life."

"Everything in the grocery store goes up," said Roman, a marketing assistant with a think tank in the District. "The tricky part is that people's incomes don't rise."

Zack Stafford, 20, a student at George Washington University, scoffed when asked about inflation. He said he isn't that affected by it because his parents pay most of his bills.

Then he thought some more. Milk, he said, has risen to more than $3 a gallon. "I drink a lot of milk. I eat a lot of cereal," he said, the realization dawning slowly on his face.