The squeeze turned out to be more acute in expenditures that are harder to avoid. I think rent, healthcare and tuition have likely met, if not exceeded, the predicted increase percentage.
this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2025
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Rent CPI in Jul 1995: 157.9
Rent CPI in Jul 2025: 435.39
30 year inflation: 276%
Toyota Camry cost in 1995 (MSRP): $16,128
Toyota Camry cost in 2025 (MSRP): $28,400
30 year inflation: 176%
So rent is well ahead.
There's also the Camry just being normal in 1995 while now you're seen as a poor, cheapskate or weirdo for driving a car-car and not a tank-car.
now you're seen as a poor, cheapskate or weirdo for driving a car-car and not a tank-car
this is 100% in your head
No this is very much real in wealthier whiter towns.
Feelin like a poor, a cheapskate, and a weirdo for wrapping my BMW i7 around a telephone pole
Not to mention a Camry in 1995 is about the size of a Corolla today, so you are physically getting more car (meaning the real estate inflation is even greater in real terms).
School debt reach over 1.7 trillion is crazy
nonsensical nostalgia here
Man, i fucking loved magazine ads from back in the day, they really felt like they made an effort to grab your attention. Internet ads are the worst, most of this is realizing what’s been lost over the years. But there’s this sense that control over you hasnt been realized, so everything took an effort and it sucks that it used to be down to the smallest thing tried to make it worth your time to notice. It felt a little more respectful.
But if they knew this would happen, why’d they let it?
People used to actually put thought and effort into the art and text of an ad. Now it seems like it's all designed from a base psychological perspective of like, flashing lights and bright colors.
I recently got my hand on every copy of National Geographic from 1972 to 2010. Old magazine ads, especially for 'classy' magazines were really something else. There was a small amount of artistry there. Its still an ad, but you can tell some amount of skill and effort was put in
I have strange fondness for luxury watch ads in like skymall type magazines. haven't bought a watch in decades, but it was fun to read all the smooth words and phrases companies would use to try convey the idea of elegance about what is essentially the same product in different colors.
Its like an old timey Pitch Man, they at least knew you could just turn the page and weren't fucking stuck there until it ended so they had to make you wanna read that bullshit.
I will still take those over all the fake influencer/tictok style ads. The ones where it's a single person talking into a cell phone camera about how much they love whatever random product or service that they are shilling for.
Difference in quantity becomes a difference in quality. The people who were and are most able to do anything about it are also the least likely to even notice that the prices went up
The food bit is most accurate, but for slightly higher end fare. idk how to even spend 12.5k on a vacation. and I think a basic car is more like $30k new, if not less?
idk how to even spend 12.5k
round trip first class international flights?
I would have to imagine a family (4+) at a resort otherwise it would just be crazy excessive
Cruises (a traditionally cheap way to have a "resort" experience and "international" travel) seem to cost $1100-$2000/person for a week. That doesn't include alcohol or anything you do on island, so you can probably add at least another $1000 if a family wants to "live it up", that makes a family of 4 cost $5500-$9000. The hotel at the beach closest to my hometown that we used to visit in the summer is $175 a night now, so assuming two rooms, $200 food budget per day, and another $500 for entertainment that gives $4350. Both of these are going to be cheaper than Disney vacations or Euro-trips. Obviously these vacations were never affordable for majority of the working class, except maybe once in a childhood, but just wanted to provide a few anchor points.
Damn, that's like a wildly different life to me. I'm planning a holiday and its getting a lift with someone else, packing a few cans of soup and some beer, and its maybe 3 days of camping.
An out of state trip for a family of 4 to Disney can reach that pretty quickly over a week.
The cheapest new cars are about $30k (Corolla). If you're talking midgrade like a Rav4, you're closing in on 50k
godamm
A week in Disney World for a family of 4 is absolutely close to $10-$12k. 30 years ago that same trip was probably $2000
12k on a vacation still seems insane tbh, maybe i do vacation wrong but even turning "weekend motel rental in a distant place" into a month idk how i could spend that much. caviar? closing the bars every night?
6 people traveling international first class to Asia + stay at the Ritz over New Year’s
Lol, for 6 people? The cheapest First Class ticket to Seoul from the US is +16k, the average is over 20k for a round trip for 1 person.
I mean, “first class” on an American airline to, e.g. Hong Kong, can get to about $6k round trip for one person. The types of people wealthy enough to fly first class long-haul international but not wealthy enough to fly private are almost always using their miles and points and status they earn on their work trips to score upgrades for themselves and relatives. In fact, if you have the highest status level with the airline and are flying on certain routes, particularly the China flights (where you are likely the only person on the flight to have that status), you are basically guaranteed an upgrade, no points or miles needed. They hold 1, sometimes 2 seats for these types of passengers until a day before departure before releasing them. Almost nobody sitting in first class has actually paid face value for that seat
Of course you’re going to have to drop the average person’s yearly salary if you want to fly in a first class suite on Singapore Airlines
You also have to ask who this is advertising to. It's TIAA-CREF, so their target audience is wealthier than any of us. So yeah, their idea of a "basic" car is at least $65k, a burger at an upscale restaurant is $16, and their family vacation to Disney World or Hawaii for a month probably costs $12k. Yeah, I'd say this is spot on.
TIAA is the retirement non-profit management fund only available to educators in the US. so while im sure "1995 public school teacher who is on the fence about opting into the managed retirement account" has a better material situation than many, its not exactly a cohort looking to buy a fully loaded Mercedes G Wagon.
Well damn, I didn't realize that. I thought they were like a generic wealth fund.
Ive seen this a bunch and would like to know how the lady from the picture is doing now
Doesn't seem accurate at all.
Burger and fries is like $7 from in n out.
New Camry is 30k.
I have never really gone on a vacation that wasn't just like camping or staying in shitty motels/hostels, but you can get flights from the US to any major city in Europe for under 1k and even decent hotels aren't more than a few hundred a night, so even on the high end with food and everything it couldn't be more than 5k unless you're just being ridiculous.
In my town the local burger joints are that price, I actually just walked by a sign downtown today for a place advertising their sepcial which was a chicken bacon ranch sandwich for $17. Granted the major chain stuff is cheaper but their food is trash, all that is in town is Jack in the Box, Wendy's and McDonald's. Last time I ate McDonald's I felt nauseous. Although my town is a popular tourist destination so the inflated prices might be more than other places. But from what I heard in bigger towns in the state that $15-ish for a burger and fries is pretty normal, at least at independently owned places as opposed to the corporate chains.
Yeah that's wild. Even in a major west coast city I can find burgers under $10 at a bunch of local places. One place does a burger, fries, AND a beer for like $8 during certain times. I'm not saying you can't find burgers for $15 or even $25, but I probably just don't go to those places and have no idea.
In my experience, the bigger the city the lower the prices for food if you know where to look. Touristy areas and chains will usually be very expensive, but the dive bar in the middle of a random neighborhood is half the price.
Yeah, the bars usually have lower priced fare if you go there. And there is a lot more options in bigger cities. I feel like about ~$10 is the average usually.
basic car is more like $30k (which is still outrageous)