Prices have risen faster than inflation over the past few decades, yet wages have remained stagnant. This is true of the regular economy, but it is also true of the tooth fairy economy, in which the average price per tooth has risen from $1.30 in 1998 to $3.70 today.
Lindsay King-Miller dug into [the curious and particularly American phenomenon of the tooth fairy]( last week for The Goods. Its origins lie in the mid-20th century, when "a thriving economy, a renewed romanticization of childhood, and the popularity of good fairies in the media" helped popularize the idea that when children lose a tooth, a tiny magical creature rewards them with money.
â[Rebecca Jennings](, reporter for The Goods
The tooth fairy economy, explained
[the tooth fairy](
Javier Zarracina for Vox
When Lydiaâs daughter began losing her baby teeth, Lydia decided that instead of dollar bills, sheâd leave gold dollar coins under her pillow â three coins per tooth. That seemed like a touch of tooth fairy whimsy that wouldnât be too much work. But after a few years of this tradition, when her daughter got a loose tooth at Disneyland, Lydia panicked. Their family was staying on the resort; it was after banking hours. âWe asked every vendor, shopkeeper, and hotel desk person at the place if they had even one of those gold coins,â Lydia recalls, âand the answer across the board was no.â
Fortunately, the loose tooth dangled until the family got home and the tooth fairy could run to the bank. But for a few hours, Lydia was afraid a currency mix-up might give the game away.
Lydiaâs level of commitment is impressive, but not out of the ordinary. American parents put a lot of time, effort, and, of course, money into convincing children the Tooth Fairy is real. In 1998, Delta Dental, the largest dental insurer in the US, began conducting an annual nationwide poll to determine how much money children received from the tooth fairy. The first year of the poll recorded the average per-tooth compensation at $1.30. This year, [the Original Tooth Fairy Poll](, conducted by Kelton Global on behalf of Delta Dental, collected data from a nationally representative sample of 1,058. The results indicated that the tooth fairy leaves an average of $3.70 per tooth in the US, declining for the second year in a row after peaking above $4.50 in 2017.
[Read the full story on Vox ](
What makes a wine ânatural?â
Natural wine has become a signifier of bourgeois taste in certain social circles and on certain menus across the United States. It has become a source of indie social capital, with wine labels that are as feverishly followed and obsessed over as album covers in the â80s.
But what makes a wine ânaturalâ isnât always clear to consumers who are more familiar with the under-$10 section at Trader Joeâs. And itâs become the subject of heated debate in the wine world, with natural wine purists arguing for its virtue and thrilling taste, and traditionalists criticizing the perceived flaws and even its idealism.
[Read the story here ](
Why weâre all obsessed with looking like Fleabag
First Phoebe Waller-Bridgeâs two-season show inspired lipstick and jumpsuit purchases. Now fans are getting her haircut.
[Read the story here ](
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