(October 25, 2014 at 9:39 pm)Heywood Wrote:(October 25, 2014 at 9:30 pm)Chas Wrote: Only some things. Not houses, for instance - unless you want to live in Detroit.
I bet your average house built 30 years ago is smaller and not as nice as your average home built today. I don't know if the amount of labor hours necessary to buy a square foot of a typical home has decreased....but I suspect it has. I just think your claim that houses cost more is wrong.
For the middle class in my area, my experience suggests they are.
The house I grew up in, 4 bedroom on an acre+ lot, cost about 1.5 my father's annual salary. Twenty years later, my first house, 2 bedroom on 5 acres, cost about twice my annual salary. This is for middle-class homes and middle-class salaries.
Houses today typically cost more like 3 - 5 times annual salary for comparable situations.
Skepticism is not a position; it is an approach to claims.
Science is not a subject, but a method.
Science is not a subject, but a method.
