>I find it interesting that despite everything to do with health care, we're only spending approximately 4% more on medical care than we were in 1949. 4% in te

>I find it interesting that despite everything to do with health care, we're only spending approximately 4% more on medical care than we were in 1949. 4% in terms of the whole pie, but over 100% more in relative terms, which I think is more important. >I don't know the data, so perhaps someone could enlighten me as to whether or not this is because houses are just more expensive than they used to be, or because we just like buying larger houses (possibly for status) than we used to, or whether we just have more income available to spend on houses since we're spending so much less on food and clothing? To address the point about houses being more expensive than they used to be, I think the $/sq ft in real terms metric has increased. As people move out farther and farther out into the suburbs and exurbs, the externalities of the house increase. It's much more expensive on a per capita basis to run a full service municipality when the density is 300 people / sq mi vs 4000 or 7000 people / sq mi. It's also more expensive for utilities, etc.