True, airfares have recently undergone pricing scheme shenanigans that make it difficult to do comparisons, but some of that is economics and a lot of it has to do with taxation being directly passed on straight to the consumer and labeled as such. The fees for luggage, pillows and food goodies is just some silliness that airlines have come up with to confuse the consumer. Some of it is also due to our demand for air travel at cheaper prices and the natural regression toward decreased services to meet that expectation. When you expect to fly for Greyhound prices, you can expect a Greyhound experience.
I think that technology has not only brought prices down in terms of hours of labor needed to purchase good and services, but has dramatically increased what we get for the money. Remember when there were actual seasons for most of the produce in the grocery store? If it wasn't grape season, you weren't getting any grapes. Now, I can buy grapes year round because technology has improved harvesting, processing and transportation so that I can access markets in places like Chile and find grapes in the produce section practically year round. Shrimp? Who cares if there is a season, because I can access farm raised shrimp, or shrimp imported from Vietnam.
Taxes present an interesting question, and the first thing that leapt into my mind is what capabilities are we expecting and receiving for our tax money as compared to 30 years ago. And how has technology improved what we get?
I remember 30 years ago having a training officer who was obsessed with finding stolen cars driving down the road. He had a special way of folding the daily "hot-sheet" (list of recently stolen cars by license plate) and held it in his hand the entire shift while constantly reading license plates. We never found one in the 30-days I rode with him. Within 10-years most police cars had data terminals that allowed him to check well-beyond the limitations of the hot-sheet and even expanded his abilities to check for wanted cars, suspicious cars, and wanted persons associated with certain cars.
Now, 30-years later, look at the capabilities he would have (he's retired now)- 1,500 license plates checked per
minute:
YouTube - Va State Police Use License Plate Reader to Stop Car Thieves
EDIT: As a result of improvements brought by technology that make cars harder to steal and easier to recovery, auto theft rates are at a 20-year low.