I didn't say the costs of individual items or services never go down, I said the "cost of living," i.e. broad-based growth in costs over long periods of time, g

I didn't say the costs of individual items or services never go down, I said the "cost of living," i.e. broad-based growth in costs over long periods of time, goes up with productivity. > I agree that most of cost of living is housing-related, but rent price increases are a function of population increasing faster than housing. That's the thing to address. Yes we should build a whole lot more and it will slow residential price growth, but no, in general this will not actually reduce the cost of living. For example, this doesn't address the increased competition (i.e. increased prices) for commercial spaces, which gets baked into every coffee, garment, or meal you purchase.