United States inflation fact of the day
…just as the bulk of the growth in employment can be attributed to a few sectors where productivity is either low or unmeasurable, a whopping 88 per cent of the total rise in the price level boils down to four sectors of the US economy…
How did you guess it was health care, higher education, real estate, and prescription drugs?
…In January 1990, those four product categories only accounted for 30 per cent of the money spent on consumption by the average American. (Housing was about half that.) Even after more than a quarter-century in which prices of these goods and services rose significantly faster than everything else, these four sectors still account for less than 40 per cent of total consumer spending.
Within health care, dentistry has seen the highest rate of price inflation. Televisions, however, have been falling in price at the rate of about 12 percent a year since 1990. Luggage, “dishes and flatware,” and household linens are all down in price dramatically, as are telephone and communication services. Durable goods are down in price by about a third.