"...purchasing power for non-core goods has soared." I've heard this argument quite a bit. I'm not convinced it's true. Is it the case that purchasing power fo

"...purchasing power for non-core goods has soared." I've heard this argument quite a bit. I'm not convinced it's true. Is it the case that purchasing power for "non-core goods" has gone up, or that the cost of producing such goods has gone down? More likely the latter, IMO. Look at the cost of home computers, for example. Most PCs cost a mere fraction of what they did back in the '80s and '90s. That has nothing to do with purchasing power increases, and everything to do with the decreasing cost of manufacturing PCs. Same thing with plasma TVs. Or with any new technology as it moves along the curve from state-of-the-art toward commoditization.