21–30 of 500 posts
that chart shows the price of TVs as basically approaching free over time, but that doesn't include cable or internet, which in earlier times were not necessary to have a functioning TV
Increasing urbanization in cites and sheer population growth would have increased housing costs whichever way it is measured (ownership /rental/median /average) over 50-100 year period.
I stopped reading this about four paragraphs in and did a bunch of web searches to try to find the phenomenon it reminded me of. Once I had successfully found it with my second search ([economics name for effect raises orchestra]) I came back and found Baumol in the very next subhead. Whoops. All a great read though! In retrospect every year at the student newspaper when we ran the "here is how much tuition is going…
There's not an easy fix for this. If you have the government pay for college then the race to get into college gets all the money that would have been spent on tuition. On top of that, it's not inherently clear what amount private universities should be paid or if they should be allowed to charge on top of what public money pays for. I went to a public school and I'd trade my crappy experience (caused by budget shortfalls and bureaucratic overhead characteristic of government-run institutions) for a more expensive private school any day of the week. You really don't want overfilled classes, extreme competition for research positions (even basic things like being an experiment monkey are competitive), and a system that in general only pays attention to you if you have above a 3.8.
If you kill government subsidized loans you fix the market for less prestigious schools, but the top 20 or so are still going to have substantial pricing power. Private market loans and ISAs still have the potential to jack up purchasing power.
To the extent that I met a number of people who had 2 or 3 full time domestic staff but if they had decided to emigrate to the UK or USA would not be able to afford any, and based on their career/education/experience would likely be living in a 650 square foot apartment.
off topic but in many stories of Agatha Christie why husband and wife never slept in same room? Is that how English people in the old day live, sleep in separate room even after marriage?
I’m fortunate to be in such position. I hope to amass enough riches to help the other poorer country.
Agatha Christie's quote is well-known but the exact same situation still holds today in many countries. Here in Viet Nam it is extremely common for middle income families to have a maid or nanny (or both) but not a car. The cars themselves are quite expensive. A Honda Civic is $33,000 by itself whereas a nanny (6-days a week, 10 hours a day) is $400-500/month and a maid who works 9 hours a week, i.e. 3 days a week, 3…
The article is good, but the comparison to cars might not be exactly apt. You might ask why can J.K.Rowling afford a maid and a nanny but not a Falcon X rocket today. Perhaps her great grand children will.
The Model T was released over a decade prior to the point mentioned in the article. Sure cars weren't the staple of American life they are today, but they were definitely accessible to the well-off people of the time.
Those who wanted to could get one but it wasn’t considered a necessity when there were so many other options - including sending a servant to the market for your servants, so no need to drive yourself.
It's an interesting article but I'm not sure I believe his arguments in the last few paragraphs. It's absurd to compare health care, child care, and education to things like cars, television, and manufactured goods. I do believe that quality of life has gotten better but I don't think it's because of cars or things like smartphones which many could argue have actually made life worse.