Is the right word inequality? There aren't less college places, houses in NY/the Bay, etc in the world than there were in the 80s. By extension, the problem is not enough new wealth creation rather than inequality.
Yes, the right word to describe this bifurcation is inequality. It's correct to note that the absolute number of available housing and students going to university are up, but relatively compared, people are finding harder to do both because the number of available spots has grown slower than population growth.
At first glance, this may seem like an issue with not enough wealth creation: why are there not more houses and universities being built? But when you look at productivity versus income [1], the issue is with the unequal capture of wealth not with its creation.
Yes, the right word to describe this bifurcation is inequality. It's correct to note that the absolute number of available housing and students going to university are up, but relatively compared, people are finding harder to do both because the number of available spots has grown slower than population growth.
At first glance, this may seem like an issue with not enough wealth creation: why are there not more houses and universities being built? But when you look at productivity versus income [1], the issue is with the unequal capture of wealth not with its creation.
[1] https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/