July 19, 2023 • 7 mins
Oh how times have changed. Jack found a list that shows the cost of certain items and services 20 years ago and compared them to now. This also led to an interesting conversation about our healthcare industry.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Came across this chart twenty years of price changes in
the United States, and they selected a bunch of different things,
and some stuff is way cheaper than it was twenty
years ago. This is adjusted for inflation, obviously, or it
would be pointless. Any statistic about money over time that's
not adjusted for inflation is for morons, buy morons. It's
(00:24):
done by morons for morons. Oh, of this list, what
has dropped the most in the last twenty years.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Televisions, which is absolutely true.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
About twenty years ago, I bought a big screen plasma
TV for like what a decent used car costs. It
was like a forty inch television, and now that same
TV would be I don't know, five hundred bucks. That's
a combination of technology and the fact that they figure
out if they make TVs smart TVs, they can spy
on you and sell your information. So some of the
(01:00):
deal toys have gotten way less expensive over twenty years
because a lot of toys are electronics, and again electronics
have gotten way cheaper.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Well, and a lot of toys, you know when we
were kids, were made in America and would last until
your grandkids war them out. Now it's often cheap Chinese junk.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
So we're climbing from dropped the most over twenty years,
to have stayed the same, and then to have skyrocketed.
So next on the list, dropping in price but not
quite as much, wireless telephone services. Absolutely, it's now practically
it's hardly even something you pay attention to. It used
to be very expensive. Then you get up to things
that haven't really changed at all in twenty years. Clothes,
(01:38):
household furnishings, new cars, adjusted for inflation, have stayed about
the same over the last twenty years, which I find interesting.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, from O three, I guess we're buying cheap Chinese
produced clothes and Walmart and stuff back then.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
And couches and that sort of thing just about the same.
How about these things that have started to go up though, Housing,
food and beverages like things you have to have to
live are the first thing on the list that have
gone up a pretty good chunk over the last twenty years. Actually,
(02:13):
it's gone up fifty percent over twenty years from twenty
years ago, which is a lot.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
So if it seems like food and everything is more so,
it's not just inflation. It's just everything's way more expensive.
Above that though average hourly earnings have gone up even
more than that over twenty years, suggested for inflation, which
gets left out of political discussions a lot, but pacing
(02:43):
even faster than your average hourly workings, which means you're
going backwards in terms of what it costs childcare, nursery, school,
medical care services. Then oh, then above that, and this
is where you get into a couple of things that
we should not put up with. College textbooks.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Wow, no, Well, it's been so much more difficult to
distribute and reproduce information these days than it used to be.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Jack, print a book. It's way more expensive to print
a book now than it was twenty years ago. Obviously,
that makes no sense whatsoever.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Or just convey it online or whatever.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
No, right, yeah, exactly, you could just have everybody download
a PDF for nothing if you wanted to. It's purely
you're going to this college. We're going to make you
have this book, and you have no choice, and we
can charge you whatever we want and there's no countervailing
force to keep the price down. So there's your answer.
Above that even higher because it's gone up dang near
two hundred percent in twenty years. College tuition and fees
(03:45):
see previous discussion, absolutely outrageous. How that isn't the focus
of the college student loan bailout? I don't know. And
then even higher than that, And this is an entirely
different top and I wish we could this one's you
were talking about this yesterday. It's too complicated hospital services.
Almost two hundred and fifty percent it's gone up in
(04:08):
twenty years hospital services.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
And yet they've cut weight back on nurses and doctors,
on staff and that sort of thing. Everybody stretched thin.
The care has declined.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, I don't think anybody would say that they feel
like the care is the same or better than.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
It was twenty years ago.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
The ability to get an appointment, to get in in
a timely matter, in manner to you know, the doctors
and nurses' ability to pay attention to you, all that
sort of stuff has gotten worse, I think for everybody.
And it's almost two hundred and fifty percent more expensive
over twenty years.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
And that's brutal.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Is there anything that a free society can do about that?
We haven't gotten to the story they had. Was it
the New York Times that did that big NIH story
over the weekend?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Oh yeah, about the National Health Service there in Britain.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
So liberals always point to britain socialized medicine as, you know,
the ideal for what we should do. And the New
York Times had a long, exhaustive Sunday front page story
on how it's a disaster right now and has been
trending that way for years. And man, you got some
sort of problem in Britain. Unless you're rich and you
(05:18):
can afford the private healthcare, you are going to be
waiting a long long time. And they had the numbers.
I should dig that up, because the numbers are amazing.
Numbers of people that die or have problems get way
worse because they can't get in and get help and
there's nobody to complain to and nothing to do. But
so if that doesn't work, and I never did think
that it would long term, ours isn't working. Of course,
(05:40):
Ours is way too socialized and not free marketing enough.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah. Well, and again this is so frustrating, and it's
complicated too. But as Stephen Brill put it in his
brilliant book That Are Pilled, the government is overly involved
where it shouldn't be, and under involved where it absolutely
should be. And a lot of it has to do
with healthcare spends more on lobbying than any industry except
like one or two. It's an enormously profitable industry. And
(06:07):
you've got your hospital monopolies in a region, like you know, whatever,
Houston or whatever. There's a company that has most of
the hospitals, has all the power. They set the prices,
and if you want to drive two and a half hours,
you can pay a third less a half less, but
you have to drive several hours because they have the
monopoly in that area. That absolutely should not be allowed.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Well, I was talking to somebody who had an emergency
room experience the other night, and they were horrified at it,
and I said, yeah, most of us have a view
of what we think an emergency room will be like
if we haven't had to deal with one from TV
or just I don't know. We just assumed it was
different than it is. And then you've experiencing like this
(06:48):
is what you get?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
This is it? Yes, I have had a serious head
injury and I'm currently having a heart attack. All right,
fill out these forms and sit down. No, you can
actually see my brain. Fill out the forms and sit
down place.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Hey, fill out these forms that'd be like four hours
ahead of where you are going to be. In a
lot of emergency rooms, you wouldn't even get to the
forms yet. You're just sitting there in the hallway with
a whole bunch of other people screaming yish
Came across this chart twenty years of price changes in
the United States, and they selected a bunch of different things,
and some stuff is way cheaper than it was twenty
years ago. This is adjusted for inflation, obviously, or it
would be pointless. Any statistic about money over time that's
not adjusted for inflation is for morons, buy morons. It's
(00:24):
done by morons for morons. Oh, of this list, what
has dropped the most in the last twenty years.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Televisions, which is absolutely true.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
About twenty years ago, I bought a big screen plasma
TV for like what a decent used car costs. It
was like a forty inch television, and now that same
TV would be I don't know, five hundred bucks. That's
a combination of technology and the fact that they figure
out if they make TVs smart TVs, they can spy
on you and sell your information. So some of the
(01:00):
deal toys have gotten way less expensive over twenty years
because a lot of toys are electronics, and again electronics
have gotten way cheaper.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Well, and a lot of toys, you know when we
were kids, were made in America and would last until
your grandkids war them out. Now it's often cheap Chinese junk.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
So we're climbing from dropped the most over twenty years,
to have stayed the same, and then to have skyrocketed.
So next on the list, dropping in price but not
quite as much, wireless telephone services. Absolutely, it's now practically
it's hardly even something you pay attention to. It used
to be very expensive. Then you get up to things
that haven't really changed at all in twenty years. Clothes,
(01:38):
household furnishings, new cars, adjusted for inflation, have stayed about
the same over the last twenty years, which I find interesting.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, from O three, I guess we're buying cheap Chinese
produced clothes and Walmart and stuff back then.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
And couches and that sort of thing just about the same.
How about these things that have started to go up though, Housing,
food and beverages like things you have to have to
live are the first thing on the list that have
gone up a pretty good chunk over the last twenty years. Actually,
(02:13):
it's gone up fifty percent over twenty years from twenty
years ago, which is a lot.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
So if it seems like food and everything is more so,
it's not just inflation. It's just everything's way more expensive.
Above that though average hourly earnings have gone up even
more than that over twenty years, suggested for inflation, which
gets left out of political discussions a lot, but pacing
(02:43):
even faster than your average hourly workings, which means you're
going backwards in terms of what it costs childcare, nursery, school,
medical care services. Then oh, then above that, and this
is where you get into a couple of things that
we should not put up with. College textbooks.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Wow, no, Well, it's been so much more difficult to
distribute and reproduce information these days than it used to be.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Jack, print a book. It's way more expensive to print
a book now than it was twenty years ago. Obviously,
that makes no sense whatsoever.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Or just convey it online or whatever.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
No, right, yeah, exactly, you could just have everybody download
a PDF for nothing if you wanted to. It's purely
you're going to this college. We're going to make you
have this book, and you have no choice, and we
can charge you whatever we want and there's no countervailing
force to keep the price down. So there's your answer.
Above that even higher because it's gone up dang near
two hundred percent in twenty years. College tuition and fees
(03:45):
see previous discussion, absolutely outrageous. How that isn't the focus
of the college student loan bailout? I don't know. And
then even higher than that, And this is an entirely
different top and I wish we could this one's you
were talking about this yesterday. It's too complicated hospital services.
Almost two hundred and fifty percent it's gone up in
(04:08):
twenty years hospital services.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
And yet they've cut weight back on nurses and doctors,
on staff and that sort of thing. Everybody stretched thin.
The care has declined.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, I don't think anybody would say that they feel
like the care is the same or better than.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
It was twenty years ago.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
The ability to get an appointment, to get in in
a timely matter, in manner to you know, the doctors
and nurses' ability to pay attention to you, all that
sort of stuff has gotten worse, I think for everybody.
And it's almost two hundred and fifty percent more expensive
over twenty years.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
And that's brutal.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Is there anything that a free society can do about that?
We haven't gotten to the story they had. Was it
the New York Times that did that big NIH story
over the weekend?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Oh yeah, about the National Health Service there in Britain.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
So liberals always point to britain socialized medicine as, you know,
the ideal for what we should do. And the New
York Times had a long, exhaustive Sunday front page story
on how it's a disaster right now and has been
trending that way for years. And man, you got some
sort of problem in Britain. Unless you're rich and you
(05:18):
can afford the private healthcare, you are going to be
waiting a long long time. And they had the numbers.
I should dig that up, because the numbers are amazing.
Numbers of people that die or have problems get way
worse because they can't get in and get help and
there's nobody to complain to and nothing to do. But
so if that doesn't work, and I never did think
that it would long term, ours isn't working. Of course,
(05:40):
Ours is way too socialized and not free marketing enough.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah. Well, and again this is so frustrating, and it's
complicated too. But as Stephen Brill put it in his
brilliant book That Are Pilled, the government is overly involved
where it shouldn't be, and under involved where it absolutely
should be. And a lot of it has to do
with healthcare spends more on lobbying than any industry except
like one or two. It's an enormously profitable industry. And
(06:07):
you've got your hospital monopolies in a region, like you know, whatever,
Houston or whatever. There's a company that has most of
the hospitals, has all the power. They set the prices,
and if you want to drive two and a half hours,
you can pay a third less a half less, but
you have to drive several hours because they have the
monopoly in that area. That absolutely should not be allowed.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Well, I was talking to somebody who had an emergency
room experience the other night, and they were horrified at it,
and I said, yeah, most of us have a view
of what we think an emergency room will be like
if we haven't had to deal with one from TV
or just I don't know. We just assumed it was
different than it is. And then you've experiencing like this
(06:48):
is what you get?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
This is it? Yes, I have had a serious head
injury and I'm currently having a heart attack. All right,
fill out these forms and sit down. No, you can
actually see my brain. Fill out the forms and sit
down place.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Hey, fill out these forms that'd be like four hours
ahead of where you are going to be. In a
lot of emergency rooms, you wouldn't even get to the
forms yet. You're just sitting there in the hallway with
a whole bunch of other people screaming yish
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