A full set of nails used to cost $25—$15 if you were a student.
I regularly see them priced from $80 – $125 now and feel like I missed some major shift in the nail art world.
How did this happen? Inflation is one thing but this is … a lot.
Are nail brushes now made of ethically-sourced unicorn eyelashes? Is there a nail-art-world equivalent of the whole blackest black v. pinkest pink thing? Is there a nail-art villain behind this price hike?
Reddit user MKSteamy asked:
“What used to be cheap, but is ridiculously expensive now?”
You know my answer, but Reddit has so much more to say about it.
Let’s Start With The Obvious
“Everything.”
“The cost of living has gone up 1,544% since 1940. And that number was from an article written in 2012.”
– dixie5oh
“Being alive.”
– InsomniusEyes
Real Estate Went Real Bad
“Houses.”
“Sad time to be buying in the UK, but congratulations to all those who bought a house for like 3 grand 50 years ago, especially in London lol”
– whysomaditonlygame
“It’s actually pretty evil what is happening. They’re being bought by corporations with deep pockets who don’t care how much over asking they need to pay.”
“Partly greed, partly trying to destabilize foreign economies, partly investment strategies… it’s modern warfare.”
“If you made a rule that only citizens can buy property and there is a 2 property limit per person… housing prices wouldn’t be in the millions for sub-standard homes.”
– visionsofcry
“Used to be like $20k for a 2 story, 4 bedroom home with 2 bathrooms, 2000 sq. ft. and a 2 car garage… now you’d be lucky to find a house with those stats for under $500k.”
– ELPwork
This Is Literally Killing People
“Insulin.”
– rpjut5ha
“This needs to be more widely known.”
“The inventor gave the formula away to save lives, but now companies are pricing it so high that diabetics can’t afford it.”
“There’s a reason it’s so expensive and their greed is literally killing people.”
– Evening_Rose_619
Taking The Bus Used To Be The Cheap Option
“Bus fare.”
“I had to get a bus from the city centre to the train centre less than five minutes up a big hill and it cost me £2.60!”
“When I first started secondary school it cost less than half that for a thirty minute trip.”
– ValenciaHadley
“Same.”
“I live in a small village in Romania close to a pretty big city. Like ‘hop on the bus and travel 6 minutes’ kind of close.”
“It used to be affordable, but fares basically tripled once the company that connects that route ensured itself to be the only one serving that line.”
– XauMankib
Ocean Roaches
“Seafood was for the poor.”
– Renoir_Trident
“They used to feed lobster to prisoners because they were considered the cockroaches of the ocean.”
– ELPwork
“People hear this fact now and think ‘oh man I’d love to eat lobster every day!’ but what you’re missing is the context of how it was prepared.”
“They would grind the entire lobster up into a slurry paste, shell and all, and feed them that. We’re not talking about grilled with butter and lemon.”
“Some places had to pass laws declaring the lobster slurry ‘cruel’ to feed to prisoners more than once or twice a week.”
– [Reddit]
Til Hipsters Discovered BBQ
“Brisket was cheap until hipsters discovered BBQ.”
– valeyard89
“In a similar vein, the ‘trash’ cuts of meat.”
“Osso Bucco, Lamb’s Fry (liver), ox tail, and lamb shanks, for example.”
“They became trendy at some point and the prices sky rocketed.”
– orcwordlaugh
“Same with chicken wings, thighs and drumsticks.”
“Used to be that wings were cheap bar food, drumsticks and thighs were for frying. But then people discovered that they are awesome, and now are priced at a premium.”
– squats_and_sugars
“I noticed this with marrow bones in the last few years. About a decade ago they would basically be given away, and I’d grab some to give to my dogs as a treat. Now they are like $10 a pound.”
– Throwaway47321
Custom Computer Crunch
“Computer parts.”
“Around 10 years ago custom purpose built computers were exploding in popularity. The technology was advancing fast and it was getting cheaper.”
“It made a lot of sense that if you didn’t need a portable computer and you needed a specialized machine for work or entertainment, it was actually better to build one yourself and upgrade it every few years.”
“It would still come out cheaper than getting a laptop or a tablet which were only getting more expensive and upgrading meant total replacement.”
“But we all know how that’s been going the past few years. I myself have not upgraded my computer in 6 years despite wanting to.”
“The costs are ridiculous across the board for computer parts, laptops, cellphones etc; which doesn’t make sense but it doesn’t have to make sense because it’s being done on purpose.”
“Functional obsolescence makes you buy more stuff. Also, all this expensive tech is less and less reliable.”
– PckMan
Everyone’s Favorite Addiction
“Long time ago there was a coffee shortage. Prices went through the roof.”
“A cup of coffee at a diner went from 10 cents to a dollar and ground coffee tripled or more in price.”
“Everyone suspected it was not real, just the coffee industry trying to jack up the price.”
“People stopped buying ground coffee and the price quickly went back to normal, but diner coffee stayed at a dollar and never went back down.”
– JackNuner
An Expensive Habit
“In the UK its gotta be cigarettes.”
“Back when I started you could get a 10 pack for £2 now its like £11 for 20 and you cant get 10 packs.”
“It went from a 10£ a week habit to a £77 a week habit real quick.”
“I still smoke, but I buy pouches of Tobacco and roll what we call ‘Rollies’ in the UK.”
“50g cost about £25 and last me 8/9 days. Still a £75 quid a month habit but a lot cheaper than £11 a day.”
– stevemate
“In Australia a pack of 40 costs $65+ now. If you’re in a pub or an airport they can be $80.”
“It’s all legislated tax increases, the actual price for the manufacturers hasn’t changed nearly that much.”
“It’s a weird situation now, because the extreme and endlessly increasing taxes were passed on the basis of all smoking revenue being directed straight to healthcare to offset the burdens caused by smokers.”
“However, they’ve hit a point where they’re so expensive that now they’ve gone past offsetting costs and ended up in a place where they are a net profit for the government. This sucks because I believe the original plan was to eventually ban them outright, and now they’re a moneymaker so they never will.”
“Meanwhile, smokers being statistically more likely to be from lower socio-economic areas means that the government is effectively milking the poorer end of town for a metric f*ck-tonne of money whilst doing nothing to actually force people to quit – whilst claiming that what they’re doing is the best way to help.”
– ohimjustagirl
“I remember having co-workers who kept saying they would quite smoking if cigarettes ever went up to a dollar a pack.”
“They never did quit.”
– JackNuner
Now that you’ve heard what Reddit has to say, take a look at your world. What used to be affordable that now seems astronomical?
Let us know.