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Thursday, January 31st, 2019

Price Changes Over the Last 20 Years Prove the Economy is Rigged

Author:    
Source:     howmuch
Publication Date:     Jan 29 2019, 5:19 PM
 Link: Price Changes Over the Last 20 Years Prove the Economy is Rigged
Stephan:   This is a very revealing and fact-based data report showing something that I believe is very important about American society. Do you remember George Orwell's novel 1984 from school? Do you remember that the government kept the citizens docile through the use of Soma, a kind of happiness drug?  Well note in the chart that accompanies this report it shows things which are essential have gone up in price dramatically, while things that keep people mesmerized and docile are getting cheaper.

The economy is rigged.

That’s the message behind our recent analysis of price changes over the last 20 years. We looked at everything from mass market consumer items, like TVs, cell phones and apparel, to critical life-altering purchases, like healthcare, college tuition and textbooks. It turns out that the most important things in life keep getting more and more expensive, while the things that don’t really matter keep getting cheaper.

Proper credit for inspiring our visualization belongs to Mark J. Perry at the American Enterprise Institute. His original visualization was so good that we couldn’t resist using the same basic idea for our purposes. The underlying data come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which keeps detailed records of consumer goods as well as average hourly earnings. Of course, these figures take into consideration inflation.

We start by using prices in 1998 as a benchmark, plotting the relative percentage increase or decrease for each category over the last 20 years. The result is a snapshot of the American economy, providing several key insights about both the […]

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4 Comments

  1. Tom Nesser on Thursday, January 31, 2019 at 6:01 am

    Fascinating! Most necessities like housing, transportation, communication and consumer goods costs remain constant (or are lower) after adjusting for inflation. Food is more expensive, but is offset by the lower costs of the other daily necessities. I understand the higher cost of hospital care (large baby boom generation aging and requiring more hospitalization). What I don’t understand is the spiraling costs of education in all forms, far outpacing everything else? Seems these costs need to be reigned in or somehow regulated. Higher education costs are out of control and bankrupting the students of future generations!

  2. Monty on Thursday, January 31, 2019 at 6:13 am

    You’re quoting the wrong novel;
    Soma, featured in Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World, a fictional hallucinogenic drug

    • Damien Broderick on Thursday, January 31, 2019 at 7:35 am

      Closer to a euphoriant sedative. NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR (the title of Orwell’s book, by the way, uses words, not numbers) is a regime of Fake News and terror.

    • Stephan Schwartz on Thursday, January 31, 2019 at 6:11 pm

      You are right, Monty, I will publish a correction. Thank you.

      — Stephan