Cars, for example, have become hugely expensive (even on the low end) relative to what people can afford
A 1964 Malibu SS, brand new, cost $3290 sticker price.
I know because I bought one for that.
The average income for 1964 was $4576. So the car cost 72% of a year’s wages.
Average income in 2015 was $55,775. The average car price in April 2015, per Kelley Blue Book, was $33,560. That’s 60% of annual income.
The average car today is 17% cheaper to buy than in 1964. The article starts out, then, with a lot of hooey.
If the author is wrong in his opening statements, there’s not much point in assigning veracity to anything else in the article.
We need a “People’s Wagon” (the original Volkswagon) that had high quality and austere, but adequate features.