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Due to loans, the price of houses and cars skyrocket. It's easy to increase the price of something that you're taking a loan on cause most people are terrible with math. All they care is what is their monthly fee. This is why today a car costs on average $35k, even though the average American only makes $30k-$40k a year. As soon as you drive it off the lot the price drops because that's the true value of the vehicle.
Most people I know that have a iphone are basically homeless. They have a nice car and an iPhone but no roof over their head. They're between homes.
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Because being in debt really fucking sucks. Pay doesn't increase with inflation and if you can't make payments then you get fees and interest rates go up. Debt collectors can levy bank accounts which can cause all sorts of problems. Better yet you have a health problem and can't pay shit.
A 1990 Honda Accord was $14k. A 2000 Honda Accord was $20k. A 2018 Honda Accord is $24k but can go up as high as $35k. The average household income in 1990 was $53k, while today it's $59k. The same car went up in price by at least $10k to at most $20k, and yet the average income hasn't gone up.
Most homes today are 30 - 40 years old. Only new homes built recently are better, and even then people do extensions and what not. But a house in the 80's was like $70k where the same house today is over $400k. What the even fuck. That's why we had the housing crisis because houses were inflating uncontrollably. It's going to happen again cause banks are pushing for higher prices again. New Jersey, where I live, we have the highest rate of zombie homes and forecloses. It's already happening, but we'll pretend nothing is wrong until the banks file for bankruptcy.
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No where in my article says that 1990 money was adjusted for inflation. Going over that PDF that you linked from 1991 shows the average income in homes to be about $30k. That PDF is huge and I really wished you just told me the numbers so that I didn't have to look that up. Assuming that statistic of yours in 1991 is true, and assuming my articles statistic is true in 2016, then the yearly income from 1990 to 2016 has doubled. But inflation has more than doubled. Like I said, a home in 1990 was like $70k but today that same home is well over $400k. That's an inflation rate of 6x.
That isn't free money. What happens when you can't pay it back due to unforeseen consequences?Sure but your loan payments dont go up with inflation either. If youre borrowing so much you cant pay the loan after inflation youre borrowing too much.
I prefer to use other peoples money to do things
If you wanted the same car with the same MPG and same horsepower. Not to forget government enforced regulations for safety and emissions as well. But again, the used auto-market is far more sensible. For less than half I could buy a used Mercedes that's 10 years old with far more features than a 2018 Honda Accord, let alone a Civic.
Because of fucking banks. Look at the PC industry, has prices gone up steadily? I remember my parents buying my first computer in the early 90's to be like over $1.5k. Today you can own a much faster computer for $450. But yet the same car with the same features and engine power is I guess the same price. The Accord got better, but so did the price.
Don't forget Ali chipsets.
I believe that you need a license to make chipsets and Intel and AMD denied that. SIS and Via maybe couldn't keep up but Nvidia most definitely could. And I totally forgot about Ali.
You insist to compare two cars with similar features, but if we applied this logic with computers then I should be grateful to be using a Raspberry Pi for $2k since it has similar features and performance to that of a computer made in the year 2000. Which means in the automotive industry we either made no progress, or limited that progress with a higher price. Also those options you list are just mandated by the government with the exception of bluetooth and rearview camera, which I can put in any car for $140 that literally runs Android. In fact, I've done this like five times. Rearview camera's on Ebay are like $8, no joke.
Or, I could buy a 2015 Mercedes C300 for the same amount. The moment a car drives off the lot its value is then evaluated on the used market despite how little miles are put onto the car. That's cause the vehicle is given its true value.
It would be better to compare an Accord to an Accord cause that's a certain class of car. Which in 21 years there had better be improvements in the same car. A Corvette today is pretty much a world of difference compared to a 1980's Corvette, and there's a lot of cars today that produce more power than that 80's Corvette, but a Corvette holds many more standards than features and engine horsepower. A Camaro is not a Corvette, it's a poor mans Corvette. Just like a Honda Civic is not a Honda Accord. It's similar but the Accord has more space, which is the same reason you bought an Accord in 1997.
I think at this point the Honda cars are a bad example since the Civic and Accords in 2018 are too damn similar. Why even make two cars when they have similar features? But there has to be a reason they charge more for the Accord. It must have more trunk space from the photos. That's a super small looking trunk for the Civic.
