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Comment by oivey | Hacker News Reader

> You are getting a multi-million dollar truck for $50k.

You’re not, though, because that truck never did and never could exist. A modern F-150 isn’t a 70s F1 car made cheap by new tech. This isn’t something you can wave away with an argument equivalent to “we put 1000 research points in the tech tree.”

When the US economy was working well, products got better and cheaper over time. Tech and increased labor productivity drove that. Now, tech and labor productivity has continued to increase, yet consumer prices have far outpaced inflation.

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"A modern F-150 isn’t a 70s F1 car made cheap by new tech. "

Yes, it pretty much is. You have to consider technology in cars is moving on two seperate/distinct paths.

1: improving manufacturing processes, materials, quality, which is lowering prices over time. Megacasting aluminum car parts is an example.

2: Adding totally new complex parts and systems that cars didn't have. This is things like airbags, antilock breaks, infotainment system, catalytic converters. This adds to the total cost.

#2 is far outpacing #1, which is why prices of cars are going up faster than inflation, wages, etc.

Again, the old car comparison is demonstrably untrue. To put the same example forward, computer modeling has wildly changed and accelerated car design in ways that were impossible for any sum of money in the 70s.

I think part of why this is hard to believe is that people strongly believe in the concept that time is money. On the margins for decisions like hiring someone to mow your lawn, it is true. For large scale things, you often cannot accelerate processes no matter how much money you dump into it. A good example of this is how long it has taken China to industrialize.

To be clear also, you have to prove your point that #2 is outpacing #1. The fact that the price keeps going up is not proof as there are other explanations. The poor quality of domestic manufacturers and their bad business practices, for example.

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