Interesting, it's a bit different here in Australia, we have free healthcare, free education and incredibly high house prices (eg ordinary house in suburbs > $1

Interesting, it's a bit different here in Australia, we have free healthcare, free education and incredibly high house prices (eg ordinary house in suburbs > $1 million; 2br unit almost $0.5 million). Of course, those first two aren't actually "free" and eg drug prices can be very high. Patented drugs are at least something new - you're getting better tech, enhancing or even saving your life, to an extent previously impossible. The "standard" cost of drugs increases with our expectations, but also their true value. Inflation measures mightn't account for this. eg basics like aspirin and ibuprofen are dirt cheap these days. House and education prices are above their actual utility; a bubble, an insidious monopoly, or something else. Isn;t educatiin high because it's a false ticket to a "good job"? i.e. people get it for that reason (not for the education itself, or for a market demand for that specific skillset/knowledge), but the jobs aren't there, so they double down. Demand for education exceeds supply so the price goes up. Yes, more places are made available to meet demand, but they lack the prestige (and network effects) of the top institutions... On it goes. Mightn't apply to K12 though (that's highschool I guess?). LCOL is it. BTW I used to want to retire, now I want to be able to work on projects. That's a subset, I guess.