Healthcare fits that description, food possibly, housing and education not so much. Have they become more regulated? Are regulations the reason for education prices increase?
The main reason for the increase in education costs is the availability of student loans.
Lenders will loan huge amounts of money to students, who have often never worked and have no assets, because the loans are almost impossible to discharge or otherwise get out of. In many cases, students qualify to borrow more money than even their parents could.
State governments know that students can get student loans in pretty much all circumstances, and they use that as a justification to cut funding to state colleges -- after all, aid is available for those who need it.
Colleges increase tuition to make up for the shortfall in state funding. They also need to attract students who have the means, via the loans, to attend the school of their choice. So, colleges build amenities, such as luxurious student housing and health clubs, which increase operating costs and necessitate further increases in tuition.
Meanwhile, students are being told by their parents that they will have no problem paying back their loans, but that's not generally true. Their parents went to school before this vicious cycle of loans and funding emerged, and don't fully understand the burden these loans can cause for new grads, especially in non-STEM fields. The students borrow more than they ought to.
Well, yes, but that's also from the expectation of higher standards. Combine that with the sheer mass of consumption for - pick a product, pork - and the costs soon become very high indeed.
Scary thought: very little of our actual total food produced and imported is actually examined. If we insisted on complete examination it would be prohibitively expensive.
For good reason: if you don't take care of the regular maintenance people die. Homeowners are notorious for not doing maintenance until it is too late unless the maintenance is also cosmetic. (fortunately for roof and siding when it looks bad it is bad, and most other parts of a house don't wear out)
The original comment was almost certainly about zoning regulations, not safety regulations. Obviously inspecting elevators so people don't plunge to their deaths is something we know how to do.
Yes, I was a being tongue-in-cheek at the expense of clarity. The elevator, in combination with advances in building materials and engineering, allows for construction of high-rise condominiums. These lower the cost of housing by improving the efficiency of land use. Regulation prevents this technology from being used in many of the areas where it is needed most.
Lenders will loan huge amounts of money to students, who have often never worked and have no assets, because the loans are almost impossible to discharge or otherwise get out of. In many cases, students qualify to borrow more money than even their parents could.
State governments know that students can get student loans in pretty much all circumstances, and they use that as a justification to cut funding to state colleges -- after all, aid is available for those who need it.
Colleges increase tuition to make up for the shortfall in state funding. They also need to attract students who have the means, via the loans, to attend the school of their choice. So, colleges build amenities, such as luxurious student housing and health clubs, which increase operating costs and necessitate further increases in tuition.
Meanwhile, students are being told by their parents that they will have no problem paying back their loans, but that's not generally true. Their parents went to school before this vicious cycle of loans and funding emerged, and don't fully understand the burden these loans can cause for new grads, especially in non-STEM fields. The students borrow more than they ought to.
This is a parable of unintended consequences.