Look up the inflation adjust prices for a computer or a "big-screen" TV and realize almost no one pays anything near those prices for any consumer good. On the other hand there are a lot more people in the US and it is not like land is sprouting up from nowhere, so the price of land is a lot more.
Most things though fall into what people's personal preferences are. Cars have more luxury, house are bigger and have better finishes, movies are huge spectacles, one person can't watch 8 infants, you get more than an aspirin from formerly untreatable diseases; roll all this back and prices will drop.
Obviously it's partial (or else there would be a billion lines) but it gives a good broad view of what things have gotten more or less expensive.
- TVs, toys, software, and cellphone services are cheaper.
- Clothing, funishings, and cars roughly flat.
- Healthcare, education, childcare, food, and housing are all more expensive by more than 50%.
So this is the moment we are in, we can certainly find things that were cheaper but your average consumer buys a TV once every few years, they buy food and pay for housing every day.
I don't think people are ignorant of the upsides of this deal, they are just capable of also recognizing the downsides.
Grocery inflation is not nearly as bad as the food inflation overall, which is driven by food-away-from-home just absolutely skyrocketing.
Billions of words have been spilled about housing, so I will boil it down simply. It is a mixture of policy and preference. It doesn't have to be the way it is, we just need to collective will to change things.
1. Households in 1980 spent a large share of their income on food then today, and CPI tracks food expenditure and it's below wage increases. So this one is a victory for today vs the past.
2. Shelter is difficult because we expect much more today than the past, houses have gotten much much larger. One big issue is interest rates, which were about twice as high in the 80s than in recent times. If you want to buy a small house without air conditioning and other amenities that are now standard you can do it cheaper than what you would have paid back then. So another victory for today.
3. Health is once again hard, because a lot of the increased cost is for things that weren't around back then. We can just call this one a draw
4. Education. This is the one that is most clearly an increase above inflation. Some of this is due to decreased funding by governments, some due to admin bloat, but mostly it's just that labor is getting more expensive and education is a very labor focused sector. So victory for the past.
So overall I have to say you are incorrect, the past was more expensive than now and less affordable for a middle class person. I also have to say I find this whole thing kind of odd, I was born in the 80s and remember what it was like, I would not want to switch places with my parents economically.
As another pointed out, I think we're "fetishizing" the affordability of the previous decades, not the cigarette smoke in the restaurants.
As per cherry picking: housing, transportation, education… These are kind of important. If it had only been, say, giant TVs I would agree it is cherry-picked.
Perhaps you think the examples themselves (Ford F-150, etc.) are what are cherry-picked?
A brand new Nissan Versa for $17,300.
Work for an entire year after high school while living with your parents and saving money so you can attend a state school for <$10,000/year. Don't take out student loans so you can buy a premium laptop, luxury clothes, and travel. Don't get a new phone every one or two years. Don't sign up for 5+ streaming services. Don't buy coffee and toast from cafes.
(the downside of 20th century work on increasing life expectancy is that most of it happens in retirement, making pensions much more expensive)
edit: I have not done the maths, but I would not be surprised to discover that the total average pension paid to someone retiring at age 65 in 2026 was much more than the total average pension paid to someone retiring at age 65 in 1986, while at the same time the weekly amount of the earlier one would be higher. Because the more recent one has to spread the money over more years.
(inflation adjusted as well)
It makes no sense to give someone else control of your savings in this day and age.
On the car comparative. I have a 2010 RAV4, and my wife drives a 2023 RAV4. I love mine, but even if it was perfectly kept. It is smaller, lighter, it has less equipment, I have seen older RAV4s and they look even smaller than mine. What is is the opposite of shrinkflation ? I don't know if it is social pressures or what is is causing us to expect things that are bigger and more expensive.
I'm annoyed that in the UK the prevalence of "SUV crossovers" has suddenly jacked all cars up by 10-20cm, especially at the bonnet line. Selection pressure (bollards are the natural predator) is at least keeping the width slightly under control.
I got my 17 Pro ($1100) from ATT for free which is almost twice the cost of the phones back then. And my monthly cost is only $35/mo as well for the 3 year term, for unlimited data too, which is cheaper than the data plans back then.
So sure it's half as good, if 8% really was common back then... but weren't loan interest rates even higher back then than today too?
$0 pensions? Thats just a lie? The pension comes out of your paycheck. Its literally a line item on your pay stub.
Also this site would be better if you overlay inflation or something to highlight when/where costs rose. E.g. using the CPI inflation calculator the $7400 for a new car would be $28k today. $28k wont buy you a F150 today (starts at ~40k) but its a good chunk of the way, and there are other cars you can buy for $28k easy.
So, adjusting for inflation, a single income family in 1980 would be equivalent to a four-income family today. Since millennials currently get by with just two incomes, they actually come out way ahead when adjusted for inflation.
The productivity gains from fancier computers haven’t accrued to workers either.
True, you have to have Internet, but you're going to have Internet regardless.
Compare to the 1980s where you had to drive to a Blockbuster and pay $3 or $4 a pop for VHS.
And you can still rent movies. Heck, if you want to live in the 1990s, your local pawn shop or flea market has tons of DVDs you can buy for less than a 1990s rental.
If you don't want to pay subscriptions, don't subscribe to those services. You can trivially buy Bluray, DVD, and CDs. Or you can get DRM free music from multiple sources. You can stream spotify and youtube for free. OTA TV is still a thing.
Apparently, I'm in a contrarian and argumentative mood today.
Taking your first, the $47K 3 bedroom starter home with a yard. In 2026 that would be $200K (cumulative inflation is a little over 4x[1]); picking a random US city[2] and looking on Zillow[3] I find that...yeah, you can get a comparable home today.
There are certainly arguments to be made about tradeoffs, quality issues (though those aren't as obvious as you might initially suppose[4]) and so on. But just listing unadjusted price comparisons like this is disingenuous.
[1] https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1980?amount=1 [2] https://www.randomlists.com/random-us-cities [3] https://www.zillow.com [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4C62HC1HSo
But then they also need to make sure to also match salaries to inflation too.. Because wages have not kept up with inflation, which is the reason for most of this..
This is not true.
https://econofact.org/factbrief/fact-check-have-inflation-ad...
Yes, the house now is more energy efficient. The car is safer. But if the price of everything went up 4x-10x, and the median income only went up 2x, AND you have to pay for more things that used to be included, then everything is more unaffordable, inflation be damned.
Inflation-adjusted wages have been at worst stagnant. Inflation-adjusting prices is necessary for these comparisons to be meaningful at all.
This is a website for engineers, you should be embarrassed to be posting these completely innumerate comments.
There's one good effort - comparing a car to the salary of a car-worker. But it only has half the comparison (what are today's car workers earning?). That's the comparison that Marx would recognize: how long do the people making something have to work to buy the thing they made?
The assembly-worker making a Civic and a 7 Series BMW are doing effectively the same thing, but the BMW assembler shouldn’t be getting paid 3 to 4x.
It's a nonsensical position, meant to invoke a certain sort of feels, and nothing more.
I'd paste the text, but you've somehow disabled select/copy/paste, UX strike number two.
The problem is global. Any time you are told the problem is immigrants in your country or that your local politicians didn’t build enough housing - that’s not the root cause.
The root cause is the inevitable centralization of all wealth in corporations who can dodge taxes. This affords them the ability to accrue assets endlessly, buy politicians, achieve monopolies and bump up the prices.
There are 3 things that need to happen to restore the first frames: 1) some things like housing and healthcare must not be asset classes. It is unsustainable to demand profit growth year over year from either. 2) the wealth needs to be redistributed. It is a systemic risk for corporations and individuals to have accrued as much wealth and power as nations (and it doesn’t seem to be good for the mental health of those at the top) 3) we all need unions so workers can advocate for themselves and even the playing field. Including tech.
I’m not a communist, I think capitalism broadly works, but it requires regulation. We deregulated and it’s made a mess, we need to wind that back and patch the bad logic.
None of the prices are inflation-adjusted. That gives more sticker shock than reality.
> The Starter Home / No bidding war. / Gary just... bought it.
That was back when land was plentiful and cheap, and homes had fewer features and comforts. Now all the desirable land is taken, and existing homeowners don't want to increase density, so prices go up and newcomers get pushed farther out. NIMBYs and exclusionary zoning are a large part of the problem.
> The Pension / Your employer saved for your retirement.
I dislike the old-style "defined-benefit" pensions, because you are completely at the whim of your employer. They set the arbitrary terms of tenure (how much pension you receive in relation to how many years you work), pay-in, and payout. You're also reliant on your company staying solvent to pay you in retirement. Nope, I much prefer "defined-contribution" self-funded pensions where your account is segregated from everyone else, and usually you get to choose excellent low-cost broad-market index funds. In Canada, DC is RRSP, and I guess in the USA it's 401(k) and IRA. DC also allows you to job-hop much more easily because the amount you contributed to your retirement account is clearly yours and not a matter of company policy.
> One-Income Household / Dad worked. Mom stayed home.
I think that arrangement was bad for women's autonomy and rights, but someone more qualified than me can speak about it.
> National Park Vacation / Pay $5. No reservation required.
Well, the growth in parks didn't match population growth. Or there's a growth in domestic and international tourism in general.
> The Savings Account / The bank paid you 8% a year
I'm pretty sure that happened during a period when annual inflation was 10~15%, meaning that you lost money by "saving" cash. Also, interest is taxed at a much higher marginal rate than capital gains, so it's dumb to invest in cash instead of stocks. It is true, though, that in much of my adult life, the savings account interest rate is around 0~2%, making it a completely meaningless financial product to me.
> c. 1994 / The Family Computer / $2000
You can buy an entry-level laptop for about $500 since the year 2010. The barrier to entry in getting a computer went down gradually each year.
> c. 2000 / The $1 Slice / A massive, greasy slice of New York style pizza
I bought a $1 slice in NYC in the year 2019 and it was a decent size. I haven't visited afterward so I can't say.
> The DVD Collection / You owned your media.
You can still buy Blu-ray discs of your favorite movies. Most people choose not to out of short-term convenience.
> Flying / Free bags, shoes on
Those features aren't "free". It costs the airline money and opportunity cost to move your luggage (excess room can be used for paid cargo shipments). Those features have just been unbundled so that people who don't need the feature don't pay it, people who need it pay it, and you don't have the non-users subsidizing the users. That's like saying a $50 buffet is "free" even though you'd be equally satisfied with a $20 meal paid à la carte.
> 401k Matching / Free money
Lolno, there's no such thing as free money. "Employer pays" still affects how much the employer spends on you, which ultimately affects their calculation on who to hire and how much to pay them. It only affects the split of how much of the employer's money gets paid to you as an unrestricted salary versus restricted programs like healthcare insurance and pensions.
> The 99-Cent App / No accounts
I'm pretty sure you need an Apple or Google account to buy the app in the first place. After you bought the app, you can reinstall it for free on any newer phone that you buy.
> The Subsidized Smartphone
I heard that the old days were not good, because the 2-year contract forced you to buy a higher tier cellular service plan than if you brought in a fully paid-off phone. Also, there are significant fees for breaking the 2-year contract.
> Buying a House in a City / you could still buy a 2-bedroom in Austin for $210,000
Yeah, thank NIMBYs for that again. When residential construction can't keep up with demand (mostly due to regulatory reasons), prices go up.
> The Stimulus Check / Billionaires blame inflation on you buying groceries with it.
You don't believe that printing money causes inflation? WTF
> Remote Work / Your company saved millions on office real estate.
You make it sound bad. I think it was great - zero time spent commuting, access to amenities at home such as a kitchen, more privacy, better mood.
> The Subscription Everything / You own nothing.
Renting isn't necessarily worse than owning. There is a break-even point that is different for every person. Renting Netflix for $0.01/month would be awesome. Maybe most people will be happy to pay $10/mo to have access to an enormous media library. $100/mo would be unreasonable. Consider the alternative - how much per month does it cost to purchase physical media to derive the same amount of enjoyment from entertainment?
> The Tip Screen / barista ... ask you to subsidize their wages because the corporation won't
"The corporation" ultimately receives money from customers who pay for the product. If no customer paid tips, "the corporation" can't magically create money out of thin air to pay the employees more; the corp would need to raise prices on the menus (which I agree with).
No, the question isn't whether "the corporation pays", because that's nonsense; it's whether people are obliged to pay because it clearly says so on the menu price, or generous people "voluntarily" pay more towards the barista's wages because they are socially "expected to".
> The End. / You own nothing. You subscribe to everything. Your rent is higher than your parents' mortgage.
It's worth repeating: Renting is not necessarily worse than owning. For housing, many people have done the analysis and I can point you to a heap of YouTube videos explaining the situation. There are both financial and non-financial aspects (e.g. Realtor fees, breaking a mortgage) to this comparison.