Full Cart, Empty Future

It’s 1985, and someone walks into Service Merchandise, opens the catalog, and sees a new television. The price tag reads $500 (about $1,700 in today’s dollars) They hesitate, knowing it is a big purchase, something they will have to save for. Now, fast forward to today. That same person, if they were still around, could walk into a store and grab a far better television for $74 without a second thought. That seems like a win. Technology gets cheaper. Progress makes life easier.

But then they decide to buy a house. In 1980, the median price of a home was $47,000. Adjusted for inflation, that would be about $164,500 today. That is still a huge gap from the $419,200 people are actually paying now. Homes have gotten bigger, but not enough to explain the difference. Wages have not kept up, and the person who once needed steady work and a plan now faces a market where homeownership feels out of reach.

The cost of the things people need to build a stable life, like education and healthcare, have gone in the opposite direction. A year of college tuition at a public university was about $2,600 in 1980. Inflation-adjusted, that would be about $9,100 now. Instead, students today face an average of $21,000 per year. Healthcare followed the same pattern. A typical person spent around $1,100 on medical costs annually in 1980, which would be about $3,850 today. The reality is that people now pay closer to $12,000 a year.

That does something to a person’s sense of stability. It changes what people expect, what they hope for, and what they fear. It makes it harder to trust that needs will be met. And yet, the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:25-26 stand in sharp contrast to that anxiety.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

It is not about pretending money does not matter. It does. Prices rise and fall, and people feel the weight of that. But the idea of provision, of enough, is something deeper. Proverbs 30:8-9 captures that tension well. “Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.” The wisdom here is not about chasing wealth or rejecting it, but about knowing that a full table today is enough.

At the same time, there is no avoiding the reality that some are struggling more than ever. The warnings in Isaiah 10:1-2 come to mind. “Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!” Inflation, wage stagnation, and rising costs are not just economic issues. They are deeply human ones, affecting real lives in ways that should not be ignored.

So what can be done? There is no quick fix and no simple answer. But maybe the first step is seeing things clearly. If life feels harder in some ways, it is not just in your head. If people seem more anxious about their future, there is a reason. The church in Acts 2:44-45 gives one answer. 

“And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.” 

Prices shift, markets change, and financial systems rise and fall, but people can still choose to live with open hands. Some things get cheaper while others slip further away, but the things that truly hold people together: community, generosity, and trust, should never feel out of reach.

~PW 🌮🛶

1. Service Merchandise was a catalog showroom retailer that offered various products, including electronics, jewelry, and home goods. Customers selected items from catalogs or showroom displays and retrieved their purchases from an in-store merchandise pickup area. It is now back an online only retailer.
2. Median housing costs per square foot in the U.S. have significantly increased, rising from approximately $39.93 per square foot in 1980 to about $185.42 per square foot in 2024, driven by factors such as growing demand, constrained housing inventory, and increased construction expenses.