The Next Big Idea Daily

Why Your Haircut Costs More Every Year (And Your TV Set Costs Less)

10 snips
May 11, 2026
Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, journalist and author who investigates tax havens and hidden jurisdictions. Alex Mayyasi, Planet Money reporter who explains economic puzzles. They discuss why durable goods get cheaper while services like haircuts rise in price. They unpack how technology reshapes tasks and how secretive zones and special legal spaces reshape global wealth and power.
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INSIGHT

Price Tags Are Tiny Newspapers

  • Prices condense vast, messy information into a single signal that guides decisions across the economy.
  • Alex Mayyasi compares a gas price sign to a tiny newspaper that synthesizes supply, demand, and geopolitical shocks.
INSIGHT

Automation Replaces Tasks Not Entire Jobs

  • Technology typically replaces tasks within jobs rather than eliminating whole occupations overnight.
  • Alex Mayyasi uses ATMs and bank tellers to show automation shifted teller tasks toward sales and expanded bank branches.
INSIGHT

Goods Fall In Price While Services Rise

  • Manufactured goods get cheaper over time while labor-intensive services become pricier as incomes rise.
  • Alex Mayyasi contrasts early 1900s live-in servants with modern childcare costing about $11,000 per year in the U.S.
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