Think of it this way, they could have bought something for $10,000 at the beginning but now that $10,000 item would cost $15,700 and they only have about $13,810 or less depending on state tax. (That assumes a 23.8% tax rate on the $5000 in “gains”)

So assuming whatever they bought doesn’t degrade, it would have been better to buy it in the beginning rather than invest and make less than inflation after tax