Our salvation has been Moore’s law, in one form or another, applying to so many of the things we consume. When you consider that my grand parents paid $850 for a color TV back in the early 60’s, and I sold 50” sets in the early 80’s for $4k-5k.
It’s housing that is killing people.
Yeah, housing and automobiles, which are the two biggest purchases for the average household, really show how bad inflation is. 40 or 50 years ago a young couple straight out of high school with no college degrees, and possibly only a single full-time income, could save up to buy a house and a decent car within 6 months to a year. That isn’t possible nowadays for most people.
Of course housing is mostly excluded from inflation statistics, which is a big reason using those statistics doesn’t tell the whole picture.
“It’s housing that is killing people.”
Amen, I am remodeling a bathroom and spending around two grand for materials, if I had a contractor do the job it would cost me fifteen grand. When I was a first grader fifteen thousand would have bought a sizable farm in this area with a very nice house and barns etc. with enough timberland to be living off timber, pulpwood and firewood sales now. I remember when forty dollars a month would rent a not impressive but quite livable house here and there were some for even less. The current cost of housing is insane.
Housing and food.
Food’s been going up near 10% a year.