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> Why are certain things getting so much more expensive?

I recently read Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs, and suspect the answer lies in there. The examples Patrick lists are all service industries driven by labour costs. This probably influences the following two questions too (project delays and GDP).

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In the construction industry there are no bullshit jobs. Zero.

However only 50% of the house price comes from the construction industry, I have another comment suggesting part of why here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18040633

I'm not sure what aspect of construction you are in, but there is an amazing amount of inefficiency. For example, a friend of mine was working on the Tappan Zee bridge project several years ago. Union job, very good salary, benefits. He was working the night shift, making an added bonus night differential. However, there was a noise regulation in place where no work could be done after a certain hour, so for 6 hours a night this extremely well paid union construction crew was sitting around collecting very good money + night differential for doing absolutely nothing. Now his job is very real, and it requires skill, but for the purposes of argument, this was a "bullshit job" that went on for weeks and weeks and added literally millions of dollars to the cost of the job in which absolutely no work was done.

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