Everything costs too much. That’s the national mood, and I get it. But your brain is playing a trick on you, and it’s a trick I’ve watched play out over 35 years of writing about money.
Here’s the trick: You remember old prices, but you forget old dollars. A dollar in 2012 bought a lot more than a dollar today. So when you compare today’s sticker price to one from over a decade ago, you’re comparing apples to shriveled apples.
Adjust for inflation and something surprising happens: A bunch of things that feel outrageously expensive are actually cheaper than they’ve ever been. And one of them — gas — will probably make you want to argue with me.
One warning before we start, though. There’s a catch to all of this, and it’s a big one. I’ll get to it at the end. First, the list.
1. Gasoline
I know. You just paid around $4.10 a gallon, the pump made you angry, and here I am telling you gas is cheap. Stay with me.
Yes, prices spiked this year — war in the Middle East will do that. But let’s compare honestly, in today’s dollars.
In July 2008, gas peaked at $4.11 a gallon. Adjust that for inflation, and it’s roughly $6 today. And according to the U.S. Department of Energy, from 2011 to 2014, gas averaged between $4 and $5 per gallon in inflation-adjusted terms — for four straight years.
So today’s painful pump price? In real dollars, it’s still below what you paid through the entire Obama-era plateau. Gas isn’t cheaper than ever — it’s the one exception on this list — but it’s a lot cheaper than your memory insists.
2. Televisions
This is the greatest price collapse in consumer history. TV prices have dropped nearly 40% just since before the pandemic, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Stretch the timeline to the 1990s and the decline is well over 90%.
Remember paying $2,000 for a 32-inch tube TV that weighed as much as a refrigerator? Today that money buys a wall-sized 4K screen with cash left over. If we covered other product categories the way we cover inflation, TVs would be a front-page miracle.
3. Computers and smartphones
Computer prices are down about 7.5% since 2019, per BLS data. But the real story is what you get for the money.
The BLS adjusts for quality. When this year’s laptop costs the same as one from five years ago but is twice as capable, that counts as a price cut — because it is one. You’re getting far more computer per dollar than at any point in history.
Measured by what a dollar buys in raw computing power, prices have fallen more than 90% over the long haul. Nothing else in your budget comes close.
4. Cellphone service
The phone in your pocket got cheaper, and so did the service that runs it. Telephone hardware prices, a category that’s mostly cellphones, have fallen sharply since 2019, according to CNBC’s review of consumer price data.
Meanwhile, cutthroat competition among carriers has kept wireless service prices flat to falling for years while everything else climbed. In real terms, unlimited talk, text and data costs a fraction of what a far worse plan cost 15 years ago.
If your bill says otherwise, you’re probably overpaying for your phone plan.
In the late ’80s, I bought one of those Motorola “brick” cellphones for $1,700 — used. And as I recall, it was about 25 cents per minute to use it.
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5. Airfare
Flying feels expensive because flying feels miserable. But the numbers say otherwise.
According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the inflation-adjusted average domestic fare has fallen by roughly a third since 2011 — from over $420 to the $260 range in real dollars. Go back to the regulated 1970s, when only the well-off flew, and the drop is even steeper.
The catch is that airlines unbundled everything. The seat is cheap; the bags, legroom and snacks are extra — and I’ve shown you how to fight back against those airline fee tricks. Even with fees, though, the total cost of flying is near historic lows.
6. Clothing
In the 1960s, the typical American family spent about 10% of its budget on clothes. Today it’s around 3%, and BLS data shows real clothing prices are down roughly 40% over the long term.
That’s why your grandmother mended socks and you don’t. A dress that cost $50 in 1960 — over $500 in today’s money — now has fast-fashion equivalents for under $40. You can debate the quality and the ethics. You can’t debate the price.
7. Toys
Toys are one of the great quiet bargains of modern life. Consumer price data shows toys, games and hobby items are cheaper today than before the pandemic — and over the past few decades, real toy prices have fallen off a cliff.
The bicycle that strained your parents’ Christmas budget in 1975 has a modern equivalent that costs a fraction as much in real dollars. Grandparents, take note: Spoiling the grandkids has literally never been cheaper.
Now, the catch
Here’s the part the “everything’s actually fine” crowd always skips, and it’s why I won’t tell you your instincts are wrong.
Cheaper in inflation-adjusted dollars only matters if your income keeps up with inflation. For a lot of Americans, it hasn’t. Real average hourly earnings — that’s pay after inflation — rose just 0.1% over the past year, according to the BLS.
Zoom out and it’s worse. Over the past two decades, average weekly pay rose 88% on paper but less than 13% in real terms, according to USAFacts. If you’re retired on a fixed income, or your raises lagged the averages, then “cheaper after inflation” is a statistician’s comfort, not yours.
And notice what’s not on this list: housing, health care, college, insurance. The stuff you can’t skip has gotten brutally more expensive in real terms, while the stuff you can skip got cheap. That’s the whole story of the modern American budget.
We covered what actually got cheaper last year, and that list is telling: mostly wants, rarely needs.
The bottom line
Your brain anchors on old prices, and that anchoring can cost you money — it makes you overpay for nostalgia and underappreciate genuine bargains. TVs, flights, phone plans and clothes are cheaper than they’ve ever been. Even gas is cheaper than the years you remember as normal.
But cheap only counts if you can afford it. If your income hasn’t kept pace, the fix isn’t arguing with the CPI. It’s playing the categories: Ride the deflation in wants, and fight like crazy on the needs.
We’ve shown you things that used to cost money and are now free and groceries that are still cheap. That’s where the winning is.
Inflation is real. So are the bargains hiding inside it. Know the difference, and you’ll spend smarter than the people yelling about both.
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