AEI.org has created a chart showing the USA price changes from 1996 to 2016 for selected consumer goods, of which, during that period of time the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 55%, but this increase of 55% was not uniform for all items, so that, things such as TVs, toys, software, and wireless services were appreciably cheaper and actually declined in price over that period of time, whereas items such as new cars, clothing, food and beverage, and housing, were almost in-line with the CPI, leaving only textbooks/college tuition and childcare/medical care as the outliers that far exceeded the corresponding CPI increase during that time span. In fact, college tuition was up an incredible 197% and medical care was up 105% during that time period.
The fact that college tuition has risen so fast in such a short period of time, basically makes no logical sense, as never has there been so many choices for students in regards to how they wish to receive their higher education, be it online, a hybrid of online and classes on campus, all on campus, and for profit or non-profit colleges. Further, never has there ever been so many students taking college curriculum, and never have there been so many colleges in existence, so economies of scale should also favor lower pricing or should help minimize any price increases. It would seem that with the growth of online colleges and the sophistication, bandwidth, and capability of online augmentation for classes that colleges should in absolute terms certainly not be getting appreciably more expensive, but rather they should be getting appreciably less expensive.
This increase in education cost has to be borne by someone, and that someone is the actual students being educated, in which, if not actually earning a diploma, especially a diploma of real merit, they are stuck with incredibly high student debt that cannot be discharged by personal bankruptcy, and can easily burden them for decades. This raw deal for students is conversely a great deal for said colleges, that somehow or another, have been able to increase their tuition tremendously, despite the fact that many of these higher educational institutions, are non-profit are State run. So too, this is a somewhat obvious reflection that most students have neither the maturity to recognize a poor financial deal when they enroll at a given college, or are financial inept at basic mathematics, or both. In any event, nonprofits and State run campuses have never had it so good, and the students, educated or not, are much poorer for it.
In regards to medical expenses, as well as to medical care, in general, the United States should lead the world in its efficiency of such care, because it has the best medical schools and the best medical facilities in the world, and while one could make the argument that the best of these things, should cost more, in America, it costs so much more than any other comparable country in the world, that American healthcare from a western nation perspective, is clearly an outlier, in addition to the very disappointing news, that those receiving such healthcare in America, do not fare better than patients in comparable western nations, and typically fare worse.
It is a major disappointment, that this near doubling in cost over the CPI over the last twenty years in medical care expenditures has not resulted in healthier and happier Americans, but instead, has meant that more savings and that more earnings of Americans are devoted to the behemoth healthcare industry, which, itself, benefits greatly, while Americans are left poorer and often sicker.