Basic Trope: Future inflation rates will be completely unrealistic.
- Straight: In a story set in the United States in the year 2100, Bob pays $50,000,000 (50 million dollars) for a candy bar at Alice's corner store.
- Exaggerated: Bob pays $50 quadrillion.
- Downplayed: Bob pays $50.
- Justified: There was a financial crisis at some point.
- Inverted: There is massive deflation in the future, and Bob buys a three story mansion, a private jet, and his own island in the Bahamas for a nickel.
- Subverted:
- Bob asks "How much do I owe? $100,000?", to which the clerk replies, "No, that's a completely unrealistic price."
- It's not that the candy bar is so expensive, it's that Bob's not aware that his surprisingly intact 1974 dollar bills have accrued so much as antiques.
- Double Subverted:
- "...You owe me $100,000,000."
- $1,000,000 is still nothing to scoff at for a candy bar.
- Parodied: Prices are written in an extremely complex scientific notation... even though they're not that high.
- Zig-Zagged: Global currency markets are highly volatile in the future, and something that costs more than a house one day could cost less than a pack of gum the next.
- Averted:
- The prices are realistic for their era. (Note that by about 3400 AD, even 1% inflation will make prices 1,000,000 times higher if there will be no radical changes in economics and even no redenomination.)
- The prices are the same as they are at present.
- The issue is never dealt with.
- At some point in the future, a new currency is introduced. The new currency is never compared to the old.
- Enforced: "We can't show the future world this way! It's too peaceful! Let's have a hyperinflation-triggering financial crisis somewhere around 2080."
- Lampshaded: "My grandfather says this would only have cost me two dollars in 2014. That's ridiculous."
- Invoked: The U.S. dollar gets revalued... at less than its previous value.
- Exploited: Alice adds several zeroes to the prices at her store, and this goes unnoticed.
- Defied: The dollar gets revalued in response to hyperinflation.
- Discussed: "I just hope that prices won't be TOO high in the future."
- Conversed: "Surely the inflation rates in the future won't be that high."
- Implied: The only currency shown is a Zillion-Dollar Bill.
- Plotted A Good Waste: The script writers calculate the predicted prices for goods in 2100 (assuming steady inflation rates), and deliberately exaggerate them.
- Played For Laughs:
- Banknotes are used as wallpaper.
- Bob from the year 2015 Time Travels to 2100, steals 50 million dollars and thinks he's rich and will never have to work again... only to find out that he has barely stolen enough to buy a candy bar.
- Played For Drama: People are suffering because of hyperinflation.
- Deconstructed: People abandon the hyper-inflated currency, underscoring just how bad the economic situation is and leading to more anxiety and furthering the crisis.
- Reconstructed: A new, more stable economic system is developed where goods and services are still very expensive, but it's balanced out with higher wages, more plentiful jobs, and less taxes.
So you want to go back to Ridiculous Future Inflation? That'll cost you one million dollars.
