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▲ akavi 5 hours ago

There are a thousand medicines that have experienced literally infinite deflation over 50 years: not available at any price to having a finite price. GLP-1s, Trikefta, Mavyret, Checkpoint inhibitors to name just a few recent blockbusters. People complain about insulin prices, but the insulin from 50 years ago costs 25-50 $/mo (https://www.walmart.com/cp/relion-insulin/8418641), it's the new stuff that wasn't available 50 years ago that's more expensive.

Spending on food as a percent of income has declined significantly (~30%) over the past 50 years: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/food-expenditure-share-fa.... The decline has flatlined over the past ~20 years, but at least some of that is affluence meaning we choose to eat out instead of cooking at home.

House spending as a percent of income also seems to have declined over the past 50 years (https://economistwritingeveryday.com/2023/04/26/spending-on-...). To be honest, this one surprised me, I would've bet the other way.

▲stouset 5 hours ago | parent [-]

> There are a thousand medicines that have experienced literally infinite deflation over 50 years

There are always individual counterexamples. And yet as a whole the cost of healthcare has exploded.

> at least some of that is affluence meaning we choose to eat out instead of cooking at home

A lot of that is poverty, not affluence. People working two jobs and living in food deserts aren’t cooking a lot of meals at home. It’s expensive being poor.

▲akavi 5 hours ago | parent [-]

The cost of "the healthcare that was available 50 years ago" has cratered in price.

> People working two jobs and living in food deserts aren’t cooking a lot of meals at home

The percent of people with multiple jobs has declined over the past 30 years: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS12026620 (longest time series I could find)