One aspect I'm fascinated with is the way that consumer goods are continually dropping in price offsets the increase in necessities. We get a supercomputer in our pocket for $40 a month, but rent has ballooned. We can have hundreds of video games for free but we'll never own a home. And so on. We all get wikipedia for free, but a college degree is painfully expensive in a world that doesn't let you apply for jobs on the strengths of self-education.
As someone on here said years ago, "I love my iphone but I worry about health insurance."
What good is cheap frivolities if the necessary building blocks of life are skyrocketing.