Inflate this

Not much time for good writing here so I'l keep my seathing to a minimum.

While working on a highly technical investigative story on South Carolina education funding I found myself using an inflation calulator.

Curiosity started sucking on my brain through a straw. "What if," the morbid little bastard of a personality quirk asked, "you calculated your beginning salary in your current job and adjusted it for inflation to 2002?"

I was in the middle of a vulnerable moment. It was a lot like being 13 beers into a drinking binge when a buddy decides he wants to buy shots of Jack Daniels. You don't think. You just drink.

I typed in my beginning salary with this company in 1999 and adjusted for inflation to 2002. Turns out (at this point my malevolent curiosity was pouring drinks for all my other personality quirks) I'm making a base salary of about $100 more per year than I was three years ago when adjusted for inflation.

I suppose it's a good thing I like my job.

Maybe it is a better thing that I don't have a bottle of jack in my bottom desk drawer.