sure, but take furniture - is high quality furniture cheaper today than 50 years ago, normalized by inflation? from my investigation the answer is no.

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randallsquared a day ago | parent | next [-]

It depends on what you mean by "high quality", I suspect. Above a relatively low floor, price of furniture seems unrelated to (e.g.) sturdiness or expected lifespan. It's more like fashion, in that you are paying for names or decoration.

	▲	ghaff a day ago \| parent [-]
		Probably a difficult question to answer. My sense is that high quality new hardwood furniture hasn't gotten especially more expensive over recent time (adjusted for inflation) but you'd probably have to ask someone in the industry who is more plugged into various cost inputs. >seems unrelated to (e.g.) sturdiness or expected lifespan I'll disagree somewhat. At least in New England, there are smallish manufacturers who make high quality products that you're not going to find in most, if any, of the large retailers.

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twoodfin a day ago | parent | prev [-]

This is exactly Baumol: If by “high quality” you mean “difficult to mass produce” then yes, the lack of productivity gains in hand-made furniture makes real costs go up.

Of course, it’s easy to mass produce sturdy furniture, such as office furniture. But it’s not what consumers think of as “high quality”.