> Even with income remaining stagnant, the prices for goods and services should have been continually going down due to technology and outsourcing.
The price for goods did go down. Everything from food to toys to tools got much cheaper than it was before.
However, the price for cornerstone needs that govern access to opportunity - i.e. healthcare, housing, education, physical security -
and the percentage of income and average net worth that these consume went up dramatically.
Furthermore, these things became ever more correlated with each other, meaning that if you have bad access to one, you are likely to have bad access to the others, and if you have great access to one, you likely have great access to the others.
But sure, it's never been cheaper to buy random widget X at a big box store.
> The price for some cornerstone needs that govern access to opportunity - i.e. healthcare, housing, education
First, I wholeheartedly agree that this is the major stakes. I mentioned consumer goods prices because they're immediately tangible. The differences in the others are all too easy to handwave away as improvements.
> Everything from food to toys to tools got much cheaper than it was before
I don't know about toys, and they seem hard to compare. Food has gone up over the past few decades (groceries that used to cost $2 now cost $3, $3->$4, etc). From one of the first hits for historical milk price (https://www.in2013dollars.com/Milk/price-inflation): "Between 1997 and 2020: Milk experienced an average inflation rate of 1.73% per year". Note that I'm talking about sticker prices here, not any "but they actually went down with inflation", as the original argument was referencing stationary wages.
Tools are being made much more flimsy and disposable - eg real high speed steel has been replaced by inferior foreign steel with gimmicky coatings to "prolong" its poor wear characteristics. If you look at good quality tool brands today, the prices are higher than what tools cost several decades ago. This goes for appliances as well - take a look at "commercial" offerings that are built to be maintained.
You mention healthcare, housing, education needing governing and those have been "governed" to outrageous prices. Our governing parties have destroyed wealth for the bottom 80% unless those of us with kush tech jobs or anyone who bought a house between 2010 and 2016.
Maybe the reason the price of those cornerstone services is that people had more money left over, thus were willing to pay more? This effect seems to be happening with housing and education.
The price for goods did go down. Everything from food to toys to tools got much cheaper than it was before.
However, the price for cornerstone needs that govern access to opportunity - i.e. healthcare, housing, education, physical security - and the percentage of income and average net worth that these consume went up dramatically.
Furthermore, these things became ever more correlated with each other, meaning that if you have bad access to one, you are likely to have bad access to the others, and if you have great access to one, you likely have great access to the others.
But sure, it's never been cheaper to buy random widget X at a big box store.