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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat if the discontent has always been a lie?
Link to tweet
This is a rabbit hole, but one with a huge amount of traction. What if things actually have been getting better for 50 years?
Kurt V.
(5,624 posts)Recursion
(56,582 posts)Housing costs less per square foot now than 40 years ago
Kurt V.
(5,624 posts)WeekiWater
(3,259 posts)GoCubsGo
(32,103 posts)And, health insurance.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Housing is cheaper per square foot now than it was 50 years ago
TwilightZone
(25,525 posts)And now it has countless ones. So, the demand is down, as is the market share (hence, lower prices), making the comparison not terribly relevant or insightful.
As many also mentioned, make the same comparison with items like housing, tuition, or health care/insurance, which represent a much larger share of the average person's expenses, and the results are quite different.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)A square foot of housing is cheaper now than in 1973
TwilightZone
(25,525 posts)In most cases, one is required to buy an entire house, not the 1973 equivalent of one.
Cars have changed size dramatically. Does that mean we should compare the difference in historical prices by the cubic feet of interior volume?
No, you buy a whole car, just like you buy a whole house.
If one is comparing purchasing power in terms of housing between today and 1973, median house price makes much more sense than price/SF.
Stonepounder
(4,033 posts)1970 Gasoline $0.28/gal
2019 Gasoline $2.89/gal
Incr 1000%
1970: $ 5,893
2017: $35,455
Incr: 601.64%
Increase relative to income = 166%
1970 Volkswagen Beetle MSRP (Under) $ 3,000
2019 Volkswagen Beetle MSRP $ 23,450
Incr: 781.66%
Increase relative to income = 129%
Amazing what you can do with statistics.
pecosbob
(7,551 posts)Agricultural subsidies make some thing ridiculously inexpensive for consumers like sugar. But from a sixty year old who's spent much of his life in the bottom quartile the numbers shown in the tweet never reached those of us at the bottom. Reagan's voodoo economics trickled cash down just far enough to allow Wall Street to coopt the Democratic Party for the last few decades, but nothing ever reached the working poor.