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It's weird how certain things have remained the same, or even cheaper when accounting for inflation. I've bought an $899 MacBook Air. I've bought a $229 65" TV
by bluedino 1y ago
It's weird how certain things have remained the same, or even cheaper when accounting for inflation.
I've bought an $899 MacBook Air. I've bought a $229 65" TV. $20 handheld emulator. A lot of tools and random things from Amazon are still the same price.
But the house I bought was double what the one was in 2018. The car I haven't bought would be up 50%. Insurance costs are way up. Phone bill is the same.
Groceries are way up in general, certain things like meat basically doubled but Yogurt and cheese is still about the same price. Junk food like soda, cookies, and chips are double (thankfully I don't buy much). Potatoes, onions, peppers are still the same price.
- csomar 1y agoThe stuff you mentioned that remained cheap is coming from China/Asia. It is in fact getting cheaper than ever for electronics.
- jalapenod 1y ago[dead]
- mandeepj 1y agoiPhone is screaming: Hello, ahem, I was priced $499 in 2007 and $1100 now
- cjbgkagh 1y agoThere has been a marked quality improvement, it’s not apples to apples
- SirFatty 1y agoOk.. so $499 was too much back in 2007.
- etrautmann 1y agoWith 2% target inflation prices double every 17 years, so that’s not too far off.
- williamstein 1y ago1.02**17 = 1.400..., whereas 1.02**35 = 1.99... At 2% inflation prices increase by 40% every 17 years, and it takes 35 years for them to double. At 3% (closer to real inflation), prices would double every 23 years: 1.03**23 = 1.97...
- bryanlarsen 1y ago$499 was the carrier subsidized price in 2007, not the true price.
- bryanlarsen 1y agoThe true price would likely have been around $999. The 6 was $199 with subsidy; the 7 was $699 without.
- soganess 1y agoNope. At least in the USA, they were carrier locked not subsidized[1]. The 3G was 199$ when subsidized[2]. According to www.usinflationcalculator.com, 500$ would be ~780$ in modern money. Close to the price of the base iPhone 17 and 300+ dollars difference when compared to the smaller of the pro models. So I suppose its price stability is based on the target you pick. If it were me, I'd target against the 1000$ iPhone Air. 1:My personal iPhone 1 never saw an att sim. It was purchased at an apple store. 2:https://techcrunch.com/2008/06/09/3g-iphone-comes-with-2-year-contract/ https://techcrunch.com/2008/06/09/3g-iphone-comes-with-2-yea...
- bryanlarsen 1y agoAs you said, they were carrier locked. Apple got paid for that carrier lock. That's a subsidy. A weird one, but still a subsidy.
- soganess 1y agoBy that definition, every iPhone is subsidized. Google pays to be the default search engine and subsidizes iPhone. I meant a contracted subsidy where the user sticks with att or whatever for $n$ years.
- plorkyeran 1y agoiPhone 16e is $599 and would have been the best phone on the market a few years ago.
- tzs 1y ago> It's weird how certain things have remained the same, or even cheaper when accounting for inflation Cars for example, at least in the base trims. • My 2006 Honda CR-V in the lowest trim level with AWD was $23k, which would be $37k today. That's $3k more than a 2026 lowest trim AWD CR-V costs today at my nearest Honda dealer. • The last new car I bought before that was a 1989 Honda Civic sedan. Its price in today's dollars comes out about the same as a new 2026 Civic. Some research suggests my experience is not a fluke. Base trims with comparable features (e.g., AWD) have been about the same in constant dollars for at least 40ish years for most mass market cars.