I think that should be the flip side but aside from 2009-2010 (the bulk of the recession), inflation has remained constant over the last ten years. While this

I think that should be the flip side but aside from 2009-2010 (the bulk of the recession), inflation has remained constant over the last ten years. While this may be true, technology has definitely become cheaper and more accessible. Eg. in my country, which is a Western economy, few people could afford computers in the 80ies, except maybe for the very low end (C64, MSX). Now many families have multiple laptops, smartphones, and maybe even a tablet. Also, fixed Internet connections used to be expensive, pay per minute. Nowadays, for 20 Euros per month you get an internet connection without data limits and plenty of bandwidth. Technology did become more accessible for the average family. And the impact is real: snail mail is almost killed, records stores have mostly disappeared, and next up are book stores. The price of e-mail is near-zero, iTunes music purchases are often cheaper than new physical albums (especially if you have to pay S&H fees), and Kindle ebooks are often cheaper than paper equivalents.