Considerations on Cost Disease

Costs in education, health care, college, infrastructure and housing have risen far faster than measurable gains in quality, a pattern known as cost disease. Per-student school spending rose about 2.5-fold over forty years after inflation adjustment, while high school reading scores rose only from 285 in 1971 to 287 today. Inflation-adjusted college costs rose from about $2,000 a year in 1980 to nearly $20,000, and health care costs have roughly quintupled since 1970. Vox notes that a new New York subway line costs about $2.2 billion per kilometer, versus $40 million per kilometer in Seoul.