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But entry-point Xiaomi and Huawei phones are much cheaper than 10 years ago. How do you explain that? That feels like deflation. Using the Apple iPhone as a proxy of inflation felt by middle class (and below) is dubious. That product is essentially a Veblen good (Wiki says: "a type of luxury good for which the demand for a good increases as the price increases, in apparent contradiction of the law of demand"). Look at the price of desktop computers, laptops, Raspberry Pi-equivalents, and flat-screen TVs: It is shocking how much prices have fallen (vis-a-vis price/performance) over the last 10 years. "The price of eggs." What next: Will you talk about low interest rates "punishes savers"? What portion of wages do highly developed countries spend on food? (Exclude [South] Korea and Japan, which are extreme outliers.) The answer: Vanishingly small amounts. And, it continues to fall each decade. "[P]rices of housing, healthcare, education, retirement" -- is this true in socialist market economies in Continental Europe, like Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Finland, Denmark? No, it is not. I will admit: Life for middle class (and below) in the UK is surely worse in the last decade for all of the above that you mention. |