Via Jon Chait, the tooth fairy is cutting nominal wages:
According to a Visa survey, the Tooth Fairy is not immune to the slowed economy. With less money to go around, she’s doling out an average of just $2.60 per tooth this year, compared to $3 in 2010.
That said, by Kevin Drum’s calculations real earnings for kids who’ve lost a tooth are still way up from where they were approximately 30 years ago. I’d suggest that falling family size among middle class professional types is driving the trend. As kids become scarcer, each one can extract more resources from his or her parents.
Previous in TP Yglesias
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies as applicable, which can be found here.