A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.

On its face the sentence is nonsensical—of course a nickel is not worth a dime—yet the joke points to a real economic feeling: money “doesn’t go as far as it used to.” By framing inflation as a mismatch in coin values, Berra compresses a complex phenomenon into a punchy, memorable absurdity. The humor depends on the listener recognizing both the literal error and the underlying truth: prices rise, wages lag, and everyday transactions feel distorted. Like many Yogi-isms, the line also satirizes how people talk about economics in casual conversation—using simple comparisons to express frustration with changing value.