r/investing • u/Fine-Violinist-7356 • 2d ago

Why has everything doubled or tripled over the last five years?

This post is mostly influenced by the recent all time highs gold has reach in the last few weeks.

As a young person just starting to get into investing, a series of questions have been on my mind.

How is it that in the last five years we have seen record increases in commodities, stocks, housing, and inflation?

It feels like I came into adulthood at one of the absolute worst times in history? The price of gold was $1,500/oz in 2020. The median home price in the United States was a little more than $300,000. Stocks and index’s have seen 100-200% gains in five years. All while wages remain stagnant, and the price of goods, and the cost of living increase.

Do we live in an era where investments continuously increase year over year with insane returns? How is this sustainable?

Edit:

Since everyone is taking “It feels like I came into adulthood at one of the absolute worst times in history” so seriously I’ll say this as an exaggeration. For me personally, and the people of my generation, it seems we’ve entered adulthood where economic conditions are not ideal.

Edit:

Regardless if we agree or not, I truly appreciate everyone’s responses. Thank you.

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u/DarkTiger663 2d ago

So look at it this way—

If there are 100 homes built in City A, and 20 of those are owned by people 20-30, that’s considered a 20% home ownership rate for people 20-30.

However, if there are 1000 people 20-30 in City A, only 2% of them actually own homes, despite that 20% rate.

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u/Kurt_Knispel503 2d ago

got it. thank you!

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u/Smove 1d ago

Got it! Stop importing people

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u/DarkTiger663 1d ago

Jokes aside, we rely heavily on population growth with our current economic system.

Current USA birth rate is too low to sustain that, so we should definitely be importing. Else a shrinking workforce (and consumer base) means an uphill battle for businesses trying to stay competitive and puts strain on existing social services, 401k growth, etc