I'm not disagreeing that housing, tuition and health care costs have exploded. What I am suspicious about is whether people can afford more of those other thing

I'm not disagreeing that housing, tuition and health care costs have exploded. What I am suspicious about is whether people can afford more of those other things than ever before. At first glance it appears so, but it also seems to me like people replace those things far quicker than ever before also. If I have to replace appliances after 5 or 10 years where it used to last 30+ yrs, does it really matter if it's half the cost? Not to mention the repairability factor. It used to be that many items could be repaired but now we buy cheap disposable items and replace them when they inevitably fail. It's hard to compare something like this but this is my gut feeling and I'm curious to hear what other people think.