by Bernie Goldbach, content wrangler
The numbers are startling. The media home price in 1950 was 2.2 times the average income; by 2020, it was six times the average annual income. Child care costs grew about 2,220 percent—yes, you read that right—between 1972 and 2007. Family premiums for employer-based health insurance jumped by 47 percent between 2011 and 2021, and deductibles for out-of-pocket costs shot up by almost 70 percent. The average price for brand-name drugs on Medicare Part D rose by 236 percent between 2009 and 2018. Between 1980 and 2018, the average cost of undergraduate education rose by 169 percent. I could keep going.
— Ezra Klein, New York Times, July 17, 2022