Episode 586: How Stuff Gets Cheaper

Enlarge this image toggle caption aleighn/Flickr aleighn/Flickr

Note: This episode originally ran in 2014.

We tend to get obsessed with things that get more expensive over time — college tuition, say, or health care. But lots of things have actually gotten cheaper in real terms. Things made by machines. Things like consumer electronics.

Planet Money #586: How Stuff Gets Cheaper How Stuff Gets Cheaper Listen · 14:49 14:49

Some new gadget comes out with a $1,000 price tag. Two years later it costs $500. There's no law of nature that says this must be so. And yet it happens year after year.

Today on the show, we visit a company called Monoprice. And we go into a room where people sit all day and try to make stuff get cheaper.

Music: "Amber Lights" and "Slide by Slide." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook.

Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts or PocketCast.