Grandparents love to brag about how inexpensive a chocolate bar was “back in their day” or how little they paid for their first home. And in a perfect world, it wouldn’t really matter how much prices had increased because our salaries would inflate on the same scale. But as we all know, that’s just not the case today.
Costs of living are soaring all over the planet, and it seems like every year, things that were once basic necessities or little treats are turning into luxuries reserved only for the rich. Redditors have recently been discussing some of these things that have become unattainable for most of us, so we’ve gathered some of their thoughts below.
Health care. Dental visits. Glasses.
deeBfree , Pavel Danilyuk / pexels Report
Tickets for events.
shingaladaz , anna-m. w. anna-m. w. / pexels Report
A house
Top-Ranger-289 , Curtis Adams / pexels Report
Groceries.
Born-Throat-7863 , Jack Sparrow / pexels Report
University tuition.
SludgeMaiden7 , Keira Burton / pexels Report
Uh, life. Vaguely gestures
Red217 , Liza Summer / pexels Report
Stay at home Mom with a family that has food security, social activities, and family vacations.
daHawaiianKine , Ketut Subiyanto / pexels Report
Disney has gotten crazy expensive. Going to sports or concerts.
Urbanredneck2 , Craig Adderley / pexels Report
A summer house. I know many families that have an old house on a lake that they go to in the summers. It’s been passed down for a couple generations. Nobody in the current generation could afford one but some how a family with a single income bought it 50 years ago and the man’s wife and wife and kids would spend the whole summer there and he would go up on weekends.
spidereater , Connor Danylenko / pexels Report
Very large families, as in having 4 or more kids
SquallLeonheart14 , Yan Krukau / pexels Report
Healthcare that covers whatever you actually need done including surgery, imaging, childbirth, etc.
Laser-Brain-Delusion , Thirdman / pexels Report
A middle income starter home.
Blutroice , Kelly / pexels Report
Everything… f*****g everything.
GimmeCRACK , Alex Green / pexels Report
Housing, the younger generation are being forced to rent. sad to see
nickilisa , Karolina Grabowska / pexels Report
Automobiles. My first car cost me $3255. My current one cost me nearly $40,000
Forever-Retired , Antoni Shkraba / pexels Report
Chicken wings, nobody should be paying $2 per wing
utopianexile , Nadin Sh / pexels Report
Privacy
Dog_N_Pop , ERIKA CRISTINA / pexels Report
Housing, education, most high quality food, vehicles etc etc.. you can still get those things but you will die in debt
EmeraldCrows , cottonbro studio / pexels Report
Books are so crazy expensive. I was book shopping the other day and a tiny paperback copy of I am legend was $20. I’ve had a coworker telling me to read it, saying it’s better than the movie by a lot but man. It’s a small a*s book for that price.
OstrichPaladin , George Milton / pexels Report
Well, more than 50 years ago, but lobster. In New England It used to be used by prisons to feed inmates. Plentiful, cheap, and kinda gross, so no one else was going to eat it.
Traditional_Ad_6801 , ROMAN ODINTSOV / pexels Report
Reasonable living standards. Edit: apparently people aren’t able to put the original question and answer together. My point is that having reasonable living by today’s standards is something fewer people can afford compared to 50 years ago. The difference between living standards of wealthy and poor was far narrower than it is today. Sure, we didn’t have internet and fancy TVs and take away deliveries from our phones back then, but nobody had that, so that’s irrelevant. 50 years ago you didn’t have to be rich to own your home, to work reasonable hours, to have some leisure time. Now you simply cannot afford to even rent somewhere in some places unless you’re earning well above minimum wage.
spiraldinosaur , Pixabay / pexels Report
Cod in Sweden. When I grew up, it was the staple fish, the base for most traditional fish dishes and you’d eat it several times a week. With a dwindling cod population in Swedish waters, it has now gotten so expensive that I can’t remember when I last had cod. In 1980, according to Statistics Sweden, one kilogram of cod was 15 SEK (US$1.42 with today’s FX rate). In 2024 money, that would be $5.60. But in the stores today, one kilogram of cod will cost you $29.70 (cheapest cod at Hemköp). (Apparently Statistics Sweden stopped tracking the price of cod in 2012, which I guess is just proof of its loss of importance as a staple food in Sweden)
NanderK , Kent Wang / flickr Report
Lego
Archivin , Arianna / flickr Report
Medical surgical care. Prescription medication.
Dan-68 , Anna Shvets / pexels Report
College education
devmapper , Gül Işık / pexels Report
Owning a dog!
luvtolag , Pixabay / pexels Report
Organic or specialty foods that were once more affordable have become increasingly expensive compared to processed or unhealthy alternatives, making access to healthy food more difficult for lower-income individuals.
Neekol2356 , Engin Akyurt / pexels Report
A ski trip. It was still expensive but now it’s just crazy thanks to large corporations decreasing competition by buying all the resorts.
jeanjellybean13 , Javier Árribas / pexels Report
1960’s Gibson or Fender guitars. The dentists/surgeons and “collectors” have wrecked the market for the common musician.
makeitpap , Mats Peterson / flickr Report
l_ally , Liesl / flickr Report
Eggs
Financial_Resort6631 , Monserrat Soldú / pexels Report
Time with your Senator or Congressperson (most of them). My mom participated in a program to for youth/young adults to speak with their US Federal representatives and actually went to meetings with them to express the youth’s desires for the future. She even became pen pals with one and ended up being gifted a US flag from his office for her efforts. Today that s**t costs thousands of dollars a plate dinner, donations, and possible offers of board and executive positions to just get in the door to speak with them.
Kiyohara , Laura Musikanski / pexels Report
In the old days the poor had horses the rich had cars now everyone has cars and the rich have the horses Race/Polo/EquestrianHorses
biztravellerUK , Bartosz Bartkowiak / pexels Report
A new comic book from 50 years ago.
PoignantPoint22 , Jamie / flickr Report
Rolex watches. One British guy bought a new Rolex 1966 for 69 pounds which is equivalent to £2334 now. New rolexes are starting from £7000 nowadays.
TibiEtIgni , paramsach / flickr Report
Beef brisket
NavChiefRetired Report
2-3 kids and a wife on a single income
Derrickmb , Harrison Haines / pexels Report
Slide Film I miss when it wasn’t $30 a roll of Fuji Velvia
coffeeshopslut , Sam Fentress / Wikipedia Report
Hope
f411guy Report
Eel in Norway. Endangered specie, illegal to catch without special pemission. Used to be cheap food, now one kilo is no less than 100€. Same for Atlantic tuna, used as dog food in the 60’s, now even the less finer cut are above 40€/kg when available. Interesting fact: No well known Norwegian dishes with tuna as hardly no-one is familiar how to use this in Norway. Fresh tuna were off the marked for 50 years in Norway. Whale used to be extremely cheap, but has become rarely eaten, Gen Z just won’t, to an extend that to sell the meat available the sellers had to dump prices to abt 20€/kg.
RexRonny , Charles Haynes / flickr Report
General Aviation
Pretend_College_8446 Report
For a real answer, instead of people just moaning about the cost of living: caviar. Caviar used to be affordable when wild caught was allowed but overfishing starting in the late 1800s reduced the populations of wild sturgeon to almost nothing. Now all caviar is farmed which is very time and labor intensive because it can take decades for a sturgeon to be ready to harvest. I’ve heard stories from around the Black Sea of it just being an everyday food but now it’s hundreds of dollars or more for a tin of the good stuff.
poillord , Nadin Sh / pexels Report
Big Macs
SuddenlyThirsty Report
Stay at home wife
InterviewLeast882 Report
Single engine airplanes
ItsyBitsySPYderman Report
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