alt Hacker NewsThis is an issue with all kinds of products and services, from residential university education to cars to restaurant food.
Expensive options with lots of extras that not everybody wants—and some may actively dislike—replace broadly affordable options with fewer bells and whistles. Everyone is catering to the whales and, thanks in part to our robust lending industries, trying to convince the minnows that they can be a whale too.
It's an issue with inflation calculation too. Sure, product X (house, car, whatever) is twice as big, but now it also costs twice as much - can we really say that doesn't represent inflation when the smaller, cheaper version is no longer being made?