How come our cost of living has went up?

[Creek S]

I heard that most America make medium wage and that most couples or parents have to work?

[53Eric]

Because the greedy gangster Gov't and Money People can't get enough money. Thats why cost of living went up.

[Jesse]

Inflation, plus everyone is trying to keep up with the Jones's. People buy probably twice as much stuff as they used to buy. Ever heard the expression "they don't make these the way they used to"? Yeah, it's called Planned Obsolescence. It's a multi-trillion dollar industry. How many different kind of iPod are there again? Ask yourself that, and you'll have one of your reasons.

[shallowmaid266]

The problem is taxes by the City, County, State and Federal levels of government. Prior to and shortly after WWII, most only men worked and supported their families quite well. Then the Government's (all levels) stepped in and started social programs from social security to universal health care as of last week. This pushed women into the labor market to help support the family unit. In plain language, the government ruined the family unit in our country. Yes, there were other small contributing factors but taxes and socialism ruined the family unit. It devastated the black families. If we had had civil rights legislation back in the thirties or earlier, the black families would not have been so devastated by our government. Most people will not acknowledge or admit to this phenomenon.

[eagerpail434]

hi..
inflation..
good day..

[John W]

When one controls for inflation, the cost of living has been declining in an accelerated fashion. The principal exception to this trend is housing, which was recently subjected to a bubble. The mechanism responsible for this trend is technological progress; something that translates into greater productivity, reduced human input and ultimately lower costs.

[Masterdust858]

I guess you are asking the reason for inflation? Obviously inflatio means rising prices and thus rising costs of living.

But we have inflation simply because people in an economy are buying stuff, which leads to rises in prices. When people stop buying things, we have a recession because no1 is buying stuff en masse.

When everyone has more income or are able to buy stuff, they simply do, and supplies of things- housing, baby powder, etc- these are limited and human wants/demands are greater- this results in the small supplies of goods/commodities rising in price.

So if you imagine your economy, within the past 100 years, advances in healthcare, peace (if there are no wars) and development: building infrastructure, people feel safe to invest in businesses, people work more in productive activities rather than destruction, people are able to reproduce more, people live longer, people have more money and can buy more things...

Thus you can get an idea how prices thus result from good development: things get better all the time, but also more expensive.

THis is why our grandparents can talk about how the value of a dollar has changed in the 1950s compared to today.