http://fortune.com/longform/shrinking-middle-class/
The article has a graphic showing the price increase from 1990 to 2018, compared to median earnings that increased +117%:
+19% New vehicle
+23% Used vehicle
+66% Airline fares
…
+189% Medical care
+352% Elementary/high school tuition
+374% College tuition
The results you list reflects Baumol’s law, which shows that the inflation rate of goods is lower than the inflation rate of the economy as a whole and the inflation rate of the economy of the whole is less than the inflation rate for services. Education and medical care are largely service businesses. Only when one can apply technology to a service to deliver productivity improvements in services (in the same way we have done for goods) do they have the potential to inflate more like a good than like a service.
The new car of 2018 has more safety features and more ‘bells and whistles’ than the new car of 1990. So buyers are getting more for the 19% increase in cost. The same cannot be said for the 374% increase in college tuition.
Colleges do come with more “bells and whistles” now compared to 1990. Whether you or anyone else thinks that they are a good value compared to the price increase is another matter.
Not surprising that medical care has outpaced earnings. Think of all the expensive tests, procedures, medications etc… that are now routine but didn’t exist in 1990.