The significant reduction in the cost of purchasing and operating common household appliances like room air conditioners help us understand that the “good old days” are now!
And it’s not just air conditioners that have gotten cheaper over time.
The chart below shows that household spending on “life’s basics” – food, clothing and shelter – has steadily declined over time as a share of after-tax personal income, from more than 50% in the 1930s and 1940s, to more than 40% for most of the 1970s when it took more than a week of work to buy the air conditioner featured above, to only about 32% in recent years.
The gradual increase in our standard of living thanks to the falling prices (measured in both inflation-adjusted dollars and in the “time cost”) of appliances, food, clothing, cars and household appliances is an under-appreciated and under-reported benefit of the “miracle and magic of the marketplace.”
And it’s not just air conditioners that have gotten cheaper over time.
The chart below shows that household spending on “life’s basics” – food, clothing and shelter – has steadily declined over time as a share of after-tax personal income, from more than 50% in the 1930s and 1940s, to more than 40% for most of the 1970s when it took more than a week of work to buy the air conditioner featured above, to only about 32% in recent years.
The gradual increase in our standard of living thanks to the falling prices (measured in both inflation-adjusted dollars and in the “time cost”) of appliances, food, clothing, cars and household appliances is an under-appreciated and under-reported benefit of the “miracle and magic of the marketplace.”
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Link: http://www.aei.org/publication/the-good-old-days-are-now-home-appliances-today-are-cheaper-and-more-energy-efficient-than-ever-before/
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