Estimating When Westworld Takes Place Using Inflation
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Hey guys,
I really enjoy your podcast and listen every week. Thank you for your time and efforts. This is the first time I have written into a podcast. I live in Chamonix, France but grew up in the United States and Italy.
I have been thinking since learning that the park costs $40,000 per day that we could roughly estimate when Westworld takes place by using a simple inflation calculator. I don’t think this in anyway changes the plot but I thought it could add an interesting data point to the discussion.
In order to estimate the value of $40,000 in the future, we need a starting point. The show suggests that Westworld is an amusement park for the ultra-rich; this doesn’t feel like an experience that the upper middle class get to enjoy. If we then look at the current prices for the best hotels in the world that cater to the same clientele as Westword, we can find the price for a roughly equivalent value proposition today. In 2016, the finest royal/presidential suites in hotels like the Principe Di Savoia in Milan or the Burj Al Arab in Dubai cost around $12,000 per night. An internet search finds at least 25 hotels around the world with rooms in this price range.
If we take this as an appropriate starting point for an equivalent experience, then Westworld takes place approximately 30 years in the future assuming that inflation trends of the last 30 years continue in the future. If we lower the “price of entry” to $5000 in today’s money, then the park exists 50 years in the future. $2,000 a day in today’s money would be $40,000 in 75 years. In 100 years, $40,000 would be equivalent to about $750 a day.
Again, this doesn’t change much, but it would suggest that the show does not take place hundreds of years in the future.
Keep up the good work!
With kind regards, –Federico
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While it was confirmed by creator Jonathan Nolan that Westworld is set in the 21st Century, however what hasn’t been confirmed is when in the 21st Century the series is set. https://youtu.be/1D-GWBgnTJU
The cheapest stay at WW is $442,000: for the minimum of one week in the park, and the minimum of one week at Mesa Gold.
I freaking love this submission. This, and the amusement park engineer post from week 2(?) have been my favorites up to this point. There’s something about applying real-world, fact-based analysis to this content that makes it twice as terrifying.