There's a reason costs continue to go up.

It's called inflation and it's the result, primarily, of a Fiat monetary system and centralized banking. When "money" isn't tied to real value like gold or silver, the supply of cash can be increased at will. This gives those who receive the money first (banks, oil purchases, military and other governmental contractors) a big chunk 'O fun and an unfair advantage as that money spreads out and hits those at the bottom of the pyramid as a hidden tax when it now takes $2 to buy a $1 loaf of bread. Rinse and repeat and you have wholesale inflation.

There's a reason the Fed doesn't publish the M3 anymore and reported inflation is pinned to all the wrong things. Real purchasing power has waned far more than we are led to believe and that has only accelerated. Now that the dollar's bottom is falling out and gold is skyrocketing, there's going to be real consequences the world over as our lenders pull out of holding what amounts to printed paper without value.