An interesting idea from the economist Henry CK Liu: this notion of “hedonic Inflation” . Similar to the notion of “hedonic adaptation” except more nuanced and also from an interesting economist’s perspective:

Why do our hedonic desires (related to base pleasures) continue to inflate while our income and money earning potential remains stagnant?

For example our income hasn’t really changed yet we have seen prices of almost everything creep up so much! For example our salary and income remains steady yet how we got $220+ sneakers, we got $1000+ smartphones and the prices of cars don’t seem to really be going down anytime soon. And certainly rent isn’t getting cheaper. So this makes me wonder:

How can we cut costs moving forward into the future in a meaningful and substantive way?

Also is the problem is that our hedonic expectations are simply getting higher or is it that from an economics perspective everything is just getting more expensive? Because while the truth of the matter is now that $1000 smartphones exist, you can still buy a brand new iPhone SE for only $400!!! You can buy a brand new iPad for only $330!!! You can buy sneakers on Amazon for only $20!!! But is it that we are simply getting too greedy for fashion, external social affirmation or something else?