According to the January issue of "Wired" magazine luxury items are more affordable than ever. They picked several items and adjusted their prices for inflation and found that in inflation adjusted dollars many luxury items cost less than the did 10 or 25 years ago. How can that be? According to "Wired" the price to charter a plane for an  hour was $3,016 in 1980 but was only $1,850 in 2004, a decrease of 39% over 24 years. A BMW series 3 was $40,945 in 1995 and is $30,840 now a decrease of 25% over 10 years.  Other prices they compared were Dinner at the 21 club $114.66 in 1987 and $87.50 in 2004 for a 23%  decrease over 17 years. LaPavoni espresso machine $1,242 in 1975 and $550 … [Read more...]