The Real Price of Everything 1980–2024 · real, inflation-adjusted

Everything costs more than it used to.

The Real Price of Everything

A stamp. A gallon of gas. A dozen eggs. The numbers only ever go up.

A first-class stamp15¢→68¢
A gallon of gas$1.25→$3.45
A dozen eggs$0.84→$3.17

Scroll ↓ and watch the single story come apart.

What follows is an inflation-adjusted price chart that transforms as you scroll, indexed to 100 in 1980. First it teaches the idea on a single first-class stamp: its price climbed in dollars, but once you subtract inflation the stamp barely moved. Then it applies that lens to nine everyday things at once, and they split in two. The things you can choose fall below the inflation line or hold near it: televisions and clothing drop steeply, gas and eggs swing but land near or below where they began, and a stamp holds. The things you cannot opt out of rise far above it: college tuition climbs the most, then healthcare, then childcare, then rent.

kept pace with inflation −100% TV −62% Clothing −27% Gas −1% Eggs +19% Stamp +36% Rent +55% Childcare +98% Healthcare +248% College

A first-class stamp cost 15¢ in 1980.

In dollars it climbed to 68¢ — like everything did. That rise is inflation. The shared tide.

Drain the inflation back out and the stamp barely moved. It didn't get pricier — your dollar got smaller.

Now do it to everything at once.

Every everyday price rides the same tide up. Looks like one story.

Play the years back and drain the inflation, and the one story splits in two.

Nine things, one at a time.

Same lens, nine verdicts, ranked from the best real bargain today to the one that ran away.

nine specimens · 1980–2024 · each % is today's real price measured against its own 1980 price

  1. 01 / 09 · real price today

    TV

    −100%

    Off the bottom

    A television falls clean off the bottom. The same money buys vastly more TV — a 2024 4K set against a 1960 console.

  2. 02 / 09 · real price today

    Clothing

    −62%

    Quietly cheaper

    Clothing gets quietly cheaper, decade after decade, on a constant-quality basket.

  3. 03 / 09 · real price today

    Gas

    −27%

    Cheaper than 1980

    Gas swings with every crisis and boom — but in real terms a gallon costs less than it did in 1980.

  4. 04 / 09 · real price today

    Eggs

    −1%

    Right where it began

    Eggs are the noisy one — bird-flu spikes and all — but land about where they began.

  5. 05 / 09 · real price today

    Stamp

    +19%

    Your dollar shrank

    A first-class stamp barely moved in real terms. It never got pricier; your dollar got smaller.

  6. 06 / 09 · real price today

    Rent

    +36%

    Can't opt out

    Rent is the one you can’t opt out of. It rises across the whole window — the price of a roof.

  7. 07 / 09 · real price today

    Childcare

    +55%

    Climbs the fastest

    Childcare arrives late, around 1990, and climbs the fastest of anything here.

  8. 08 / 09 · real price today

    Healthcare

    +98%

    A steepening slope

    Medical care never stops rising. Not a spike — a slope that steepens.

  9. 09 / 09 · real price today

    College

    +248%

    Never stops climbing

    College tuition climbs, and keeps climbing — up about 248% in real terms since 1980.

Dustin ColeData