If you’re a steady viewer of this blog you know we focus on economic issues and none has seen more headlines lately than inflation. So we thought we’d summarize a “by industry” accounting of inflation since the year 2000.
HOSPITAL SERVICES 225% CHILDCARE 125%
COLLEGE TUITION 180% FOOD 80%
COLLEGE TEXTBOOKS 160% HOUSING 70%
MEDICAL CARE SERVICES 140% NEW CARS 25%
Some items like clothing (down 5%), cell phone services (down 40%), toys (down 45%) and TV’s (down 100%) have benefitted from production cost declines, technology improvements, more widespread distribution, efficiencies of scale or other market factors. Unfortunately some items cost less because foreign manufacturers and their competition drive costs downward. A final note: NOTICE HOW NOT-FOR-PROFIT INDUSTRIES (hospitals, colleges, medical care services) almost seemed to ignore the inflation felt by the average citizen and raised prices without any concern of what they did to the affordability of their services. This should be a concern as we hear rumblings of a national health care plan. Consider what the historic inflation rates in hospital and medical care services would do to your tax burden. Bernie Sanders–are you listening? And maybe the Biden Loan Forgiveness Plan wouldn’t be necessary if colleges were more careful with their budgets.
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