Why Are Things Expensive?

Re:Why Are Things Expensive? by wongarsu on Tuesday December 19, 2023 @04:25AM (#38693524)

Also the industrial revolution happened, which massively drove down the cost of things. Nothing comparable happened for experiences. A restaurant today needs a similar amount of labor to make your meal as a tavern did 400 years ago. Their ingredient costs went down, but waiters and cooks do about the same amount of work, and property values haven't gone down. Meanwhile the amount of work to make a knife has been drastically slashed through technological progress.

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Re:Why Are Things Expensive? by pas on Tuesday December 19, 2023 @07:54AM (#38694921)

environmental awareness, map of the whole world in your pocket, ebooks, 20Ah power banks, good thermal clothing,

skiing/snowboarding, surfing, slacklineing (highlineing), biking, motorcycling

cinema, 4K/HDR, IMAX, streaming, youtube, single multi tabletop gaming, VR/AR/geocaching

music, festivals

psychedelics

sex (toys, porn, acceptance)

...

ordering basically any kind of AMAZING food for ridiculously cheap in most big cities.

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Re:Why Are Things Expensive? by j7ake on Tuesday December 19, 2023 @04:31AM (#38693577)

There was some story once that a quality handmade tailored suit costs about the same amount of gold centuries ago compared to today.

Would love to see this fact checked.

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Re:Why Are Things Expensive? by ajb on Tuesday December 19, 2023 @05:06AM (#38693826)

Given the volatility of gold prices, you can just pick a date when that was true.

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Re:Why Are Things Expensive? by j7ake on Tuesday December 19, 2023 @05:51AM (#38694080)

You could, but then that would be bad analysis.

A more reasonable approach is a linear model.

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Re:Why Are Things Expensive? by ajb on Tuesday December 19, 2023 @12:08PM (#38698265)

True. If I had to, though, I'd bet that the article didn't do that.

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Re:Why Are Things Expensive? by j7ake on Tuesday December 19, 2023 @01:25PM (#38699440)

Here is house to gold ratio: trend is surprisingly cyclicle

https://www.longtermtrends.net/real-estate-gold-ratio/

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Re:Why Are Things Expensive? by johnnyanmac on Tuesday December 19, 2023 @06:02AM (#38694155)

>Nothing comparable happened for experiences.

it kind of did. Fast food sacrificed the experience for the core consumption. Then you have chain restaurants like Denny's that exist to give the bare minimum "experience" without throwing it all away like modern drive-thrus.

Did they cut down enough to eliminate fine dining? Doesn't look like it. But I haven't done a deep dive into the ecnonomics of that. Just general wisdom that food as a business has always operated on razor thin margins.

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Re:Why Are Things Expensive? by nradov on Tuesday December 19, 2023 @08:27AM (#38695238)

There was fast food 2000 years ago with no real "experience". Nothing has changed in that regard.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55454717

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Re:Why Are Things Expensive? by lukas099 on Wednesday December 20, 2023 @09:22AM (#38708970)

> Fast food sacrificed the experience for the core consumption

Going to fast food restaurants is a social outing for a lot of people. McDonald's is one of the best hangout spots, really.

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Re:Why Are Things Expensive? by antifa on Wednesday December 20, 2023 @09:47AM (#38709216)

By 2032, that era will be over. https://www.restaurantdive.com/news/mcdonalds-will-remove-se...

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Re:Why Are Things Expensive? by lukas099 on Thursday December 21, 2023 @06:50PM (#38728857)

I'm not 100% sure that not being able to refill your own soda will kill it, but I suppose it might.

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Re:Why Are Things Expensive? by antifa on Saturday December 23, 2023 @09:35PM (#38750571)

Combine that with the loss of the dollar menu, it's dead for me. The competition is great.

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Re:Why Are Things Expensive? by kridsdale3 on Tuesday December 19, 2023 @05:33PM (#38702820)

The equivalent to the industrial revolution's impact on material goods pricing, in the domain of labor, did happen. It was slavery. Clearly, that did not persist.

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