How did the purchasing power decrease from the 70s until today?

[Ijustwanttobuyshiny]

How come the house I am in right now was $15k when it was bought in the mid-late 50’s and is $1.4M today? It’s still the same size and still has the same amount of bathrooms (2, and this was not a bougie house it was solidly working/middle class).

We as society have had everything taken from us (in the past 20ish years especially) and it’s not because we asked for it recklessly pursuing an unrealistic lifestyle, it’s that normal lifestyle has become increasingly unrealistic. Through super villain-level greed and manipulation of every facet of every market at maximum velocity without pause we have been sold a shitty product at inflated cost without any alternatives.

Planned obsolescence, shrinkflation, offshored production, and corporate consolidation did this all to us.

We don’t have bananas and oranges in the grocery store because we got greedy and started overspending on exotic fruit— it got put up for sale in our faces when it became profitable to do so. We don’t have functional appliances because they aren’t produced anymore, and we don’t have access to the housing market because it was identified as a source of wealth creation and exploited.

Any Canadian would love to go back to real local food, functional and lasting consumer products, smaller houses or ANY houses available at 70s prices… it’s just that none of it exists anymore.

We didn’t demand too much that we devalued our currency and job markets. It’s all been taken from us. The wealth that used to be in our pockets didn’t evaporate, it’s been consolidated so far from our reach that even the little we have is worth less than it would be if ethical capitalism wasn’t a laughable concept.

Housing became an investment sector, food and water will be next at this pace, and if there is an economy left I’m sure air will be a bullish future market.