I tend to find that the only things that go up in price, these days, are usually government or regulation related type things. Here we are talking about property taxes, healthcare, electricity, etc.

The things that are more unregulated by the various governments, tend to hold their prices pretty good. Quite a few o these even go down in price. This situation pretty much began in the 80s as the world became more of a global marketplace.

That's true. Most tools are certainly cheaper now than they were back then. (not necessarily better though.)