[twelve40]

Because housing is essential to life does not mean it should double in price every ten years.

Because education is valuable it doesn't mean the amount of student debt in the country needs to double like it has in the last two decades.

At least in these two examples, these "industries" are flying off the charts in the last two decades not because of how essential they are, or how technologically progressive they are, or how the value they bring to people's lives has correspondingly doubled just now (nope, same essential value as before), but because there are large groups of people who have figured out how to milk the shit out of these parts of society, and technology (which didn't start with ChatGPT yesterday) doesn't seem to be helping with that.

[ShroudedNight]

> Because education is valuable it doesn't mean the amount of student debt in the country needs to double like it has in the last two decades.

If we change the basis of our model to financial pain, for things that are purchased with significant leverage, the cost going up as the interest rates go down would keep the financial pain relatively constant.

[djs070]

> Because housing is essential to life does not mean it should double in price every ten years.

I agree, and didn’t mean to imply that the price rising is inherent to these services. What I should have spelled out is that a capitalist market can only self regulate when the buyer has the ability to say no. Largely a customer of health, housing and food has limited ability to opt out.