indeed, outside of luxury items, things have become very cheap. real estate, health care, and education have become very expensive. As an aside, one can pin the persistence of ZIRP on the Fed measuring the wrong things.
The alternative explanation for those items is that items whose price is subsidized and/or not fully disclosed to the consumer tend to rise. The graph shows everything dropping in price except:
- shelter (slight rise - real estate is tax advantaged and routinely debt-financed over decades)
- medical care (significant rise, and insurance and tax shelter of insurance and government programs hide the full cost)
- college (very heavily subsidized, by government, schools, and parents)
The other items the article mentions (summer camps, veterinary care, and broadway shows) are all luxury goods. At least if you're not a farmer/rancher for a living.
Yes, the thesis that services become relatively more expensive is interesting, but the effect of subsidies and hidden prices is well understood already.
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https://www.vox.com/new-money/2017/5/4/15547364/baumol-cost-...