system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How are things becoming so expensive if our wages are stagnant and we are making less today relative to inflation?
gpt
Some things are getting cheaper. They are things that can be made more efficiently using better technology, or can be made more cheaply using poor labor in markets that have been opening up around the world. This usually applies to movable goods like cell phones or microwaves.

On the other hand there are goods like housing, education, and healthcare. These are (A) essential for most people and (B) generally don't benefit from the above pressures. So yes, you can buy a $20 second hand phone that seemed like space age technology 10 years ago, but its the big ticket items that you absolutely need are getting increasingly expensive. Thus on the one hand people can appear richer but actually be poorer.