1. Progress/inflation doesn't scale as homogeneously as we think. Producing a consumer good such as a car or computer is easier to optimize than providing healthcare, or an education. It also scales differently with globalization. A global economy competing to produce the best car at the lowest cost, is also a global population competing for the same limited slots in top universities.
2. Costs have a way of cascading through a system. Double the price of oil and it doesn't only mean more expensive plane tickets. It means more expensive everything. This article paints the picture of several costs increasing, but it could just be education. What happens to healthcare costs if medical school costs 20k rather than 200k?
Of course this doesn't explain all of it. The subway instance is probably the strongest counter argument.
1) Would explain stagnent prices, not prices going up as a percentage of total income. And I am about as convinced that there is a massive difference in how much things inflate as I am that the sun will rise tomorrow (one example: compare how much better an iphone you get in 17 vs 07 when they launch with how much gas you can buy for a set amount of hours worked).
2) I am not sure how that would work. If we take gas as an example, then if that is 10% of the cost to produce a good intuitively it should be at most 20% of the cost to produce a good even if it doubles (and might be a lot less, if the new higher cost of gas means it is cheaper to produce closer to the consumer).
1. Progress/inflation doesn't scale as homogeneously as we think. Producing a consumer good such as a car or computer is easier to optimize than providing healthcare, or an education. It also scales differently with globalization. A global economy competing to produce the best car at the lowest cost, is also a global population competing for the same limited slots in top universities.
2. Costs have a way of cascading through a system. Double the price of oil and it doesn't only mean more expensive plane tickets. It means more expensive everything. This article paints the picture of several costs increasing, but it could just be education. What happens to healthcare costs if medical school costs 20k rather than 200k?
Of course this doesn't explain all of it. The subway instance is probably the strongest counter argument.