[api]

> How did people afford to buy anything back then?

Gadgets and appliances were a lot more costly back then but housing, tuition, health care, and food were all quite a bit cheaper.

We've had 30+ years of "disinflation" or "in-deflation" which is high inflation in everything you need and deflation in everything else.

The common denominator in the things that have inflated is that they're hard to outsource.

[kube-system]

Food was not cheaper back then, it is cheaper now. The food market is much more global and mechanized than it was in the 80s.

When I was younger, "imported food" was a novelty because the local in-season food was all you could normally get.

Now it's (hilariously) the opposite.

[api]

I stand a bit corrected on food but I think tuition and health care and especially housing are not debatable. Housing is particularly bad and overwhelms any improvements in food.