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necro_owner t1_ivqctqc wrote

Is it adjusted for the fact that infrastructure are more expansive? I wouldn't want to be the one to point out, Bridge... and Power Line and you know any service infrastrusture... that cost billion to build and didn't exist in the 1900s

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Aqueilas t1_ivqmkpi wrote

Exactly my thought. There was no fiber cable infrastructure in the 80's

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1mazuko2 t1_ivrzojo wrote

Yep what he said…I was gonna say the same.

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maggiesyg t1_ivr1c0j wrote

I promise you, there were bridges and electric power lines and telephone lines in 1980 when this chart begins. Cable TV wires and cell phone towers are the only additions.

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hawklost t1_ivr7qd7 wrote

Yes, but would the same bridge being built in 1980 cost the same in 2022?

Unless this adjusts for items like More power lines, bridges, houses, towers and other items like that in an area. And then also adjusts the costs of the items for inflation, this chart is t actually useful to show anything other than humans build more the longer we are around and things get more expensive over the years.

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maggiesyg t1_ivrrls3 wrote

It is adjusted for inflation

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Miserly_Bastard t1_ivs3flt wrote

Standard metrics of inflation abysmally fail to capture the increase in the cost of repair and replacement of buildings and infrastructure over the span of decades. Moreover, rent is included in CPI but asset values relative to rents have ballooned into the stratosphere and are not included in CPI. When a tornado blows away a house, it destroys an asset.

It actually gets worse. The CPI is full of convolutions (just Google "hedonic adjustments") rendering it meaningless beyond the span of a few years.

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Bird767 t1_ivrsc1c wrote

Not unless you adjust for inflation

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funderpantz t1_ivr458q wrote

Read the first line under the legend

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floopy_loofa t1_ivrbfpz wrote

Yeah, we know. But a simple phone line can be spliced almost anywhere, repaired for cheap, and quick. Comparatively, a fiber line can't even be remotely fixed that fast or cheaply. Many times the line needs completely replaced which is insanely expensive and labor intensive. Infrastructure is just genuinely more expensive now than it was even in the 90's.

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