Wednesday, February 23, 2011

What Price Increases in the Education and Medical Rackets Look Like

Smarter folks than I could probably draw some inference from the extent of government backing of academia or BigMed and the way they raise prices, I prefer to look at pictures. From dShort comes a fascinating series of charts:

What Inflation Means to You: Inside the Consumer Price Index  
...The chart below shows the cumulative percent change in price for each of the eight categories since 2000.

Not surprisingly, Medical Care has been the fastest growing category. At the opposite end, Apparel has actually been deflating since 2000. Another unique feature of Apparel is the obvious seasonal volatility of the contour.... 
...The next chart will come as no surprise to families footing the bill for college tuition. Here I've separately plotted the College Tuition and Fees subcategory of the Education and Communication expenditure category. Note that the steady staircase in this cost matches the annual cost increases in late summer for each academic year.

MORE, including "The Ominous Shadow Category of Energy"