Upgrade to enjoy this feature!
Vital MX fantasy is free to play, but paid users have great benefits. Paid member benefits:
- View and download rider stats
- Pick trends
- Create a private league
- And more!
Only $10 for all 2024 SX, MX, and SMX series (regularly $30).
America is the New Japan. So far you're 4 years into the lost decade, but they haven't come out of theirs yet and it's longer than a decade.
The only thing that can help is to pay down the national debt, but you guys can't even balance a budget.
The Shop
The F150 I bought in 2004 was $32,000. The same truck today is in the mid to upper 50's. Yet there was no inflation.
Gasoline has doubled in price in the last 3 years. Yet there was no inflation.
Beef has quadrupled in price in the last 10 years. Yet there was no inflation.
The fact is, it's changed because purchasing patterns change. Nobody takes it lightly - it's a determining factor in Social Security payments, raises given by companies, even personal service contracts by individuals.
If gasoline goes up but people use less gasoline, it's a smaller factor. If trucks cost more but people buy them less often, it's a smaller factor. Everyone can find something to bitch about. I don't buy more than $40/month worth of gasoline for personal use, so I don't really care if it goes to $15/gallon. On the other hand, college tuition has gone through the roof and I have a son to send to college, so that matters to me. That's why there's a formula to calculate it, and the formula has to change from time to time (the last time it was changed by a Republican congress and a Democratic president).
Nobody is just making these numbers up. There's input data and output data, it all comes from certain sources, and the output just is what it is. People who think there's a conspiracy to manipulate the final number are like people who think the government was behind 911 - they're not thinking about it very deeply.
What ever formula they are using doesn't work. The cost of food has gone through the roof, and everyone buys food products.
Everyone's costs aren't the same. My mom buys food, gasoline, insurance and various odds and ends - lots of her costs have gone up well over 2%, although clothing and lots of retail items have gone down. I don't spend that much on food, almost nothing on gasoline, my mortgage cost has gone down because I refinanced, my elecricity has gone from 14c to 11c - I have lots of costs that have gone down. Whether your particular costs have gone up or down depends on what you buy. But first off, most people notice costs that go up but ignore the ones that go down; second, anyone who thinks these numbers come from some kind of political calculation doesn't realize that the formula is mandated by Congress and has been the same for over a decade. And they HAVE to change - if they never changed, the cost of oats would be a big factor in inflation because most people used to travel by horse. How much sense would that make?
Whatever. If people want to think it's another conspiracy, let them. It's just one more thing that people who want to be angry can use to...be angry. If they want to waste their lives going from one temper tantrum to the next, it's their lives.
One of the factors in the cost of living is the cost of a vehicle; the other is cost of upkeep and the length of time you own it. By those standards, I'll bet that a vehicle is cheaper today than it ever has been, in constant dollars terms.
But please feel free to whine about this until you find something new to whine about.
The reality is, inflation can damage the dollar, and our economy is on life support. So thinking that their could be some fuzzy numbers to determine the rate of inflation doesn't sound unrealistic or conspiratorial at all. In fact, it sounds very logical.
What goods and services does the CPI cover?
The CPI represents all goods and services purchased for consumption by the reference population (U or W) BLS has classified all expenditure items into more than 200 categories, arranged into eight major groups. Major groups and examples of categories in each are as follows:
FOOD AND BEVERAGES (breakfast cereal, milk, coffee, chicken, wine, full service meals, snacks)
HOUSING (rent of primary residence, owners' equivalent rent, fuel oil, bedroom furniture)
APPAREL (men's shirts and sweaters, women's dresses, jewelry)
TRANSPORTATION (new vehicles, airline fares, gasoline, motor vehicle insurance)
MEDICAL CARE (prescription drugs and medical supplies, physicians' services, eyeglasses and eye care, hospital services)
RECREATION (televisions, toys, pets and pet products, sports equipment, admissions);
EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION (college tuition, postage, telephone services, computer software and accessories);
OTHER GOODS AND SERVICES (tobacco and smoking products, haircuts and other personal services, funeral expenses).
Also included within these major groups are various government-charged user fees, such as water and sewerage charges, auto registration fees, and vehicle tolls. In addition, the CPI includes taxes (such as sales and excise taxes) that are directly associated with the prices of specific goods and services. However, the CPI excludes taxes (such as income and Social Security taxes) not directly associated with the purchase of consumer goods and services.
The CPI does not include investment items, such as stocks, bonds, real estate, and life insurance. (These items relate to savings and not to day-to-day consumption expenses.)
For each of the more than 200 item categories, using scientific statistical procedures, the Bureau has chosen samples of several hundred specific items within selected business establishments frequented by consumers to represent the thousands of varieties available in the marketplace. For example, in a given supermarket, the Bureau may choose a plastic bag of golden delicious apples, U.S. extra fancy grade, weighing 4.4 pounds to represent the Apples category.
How are CPI prices collected and reviewed?
Each month, BLS data collectors called economic assistants visit or call thousands of retail stores, service establishments, rental units, and doctors' offices, all over the United States, to obtain information on the prices of the thousands of items used to track and measure price changes in the CPI. These economic assistants record the prices of about 80,000 items each month, representing a scientifically selected sample of the prices paid by consumers for goods and services purchased.
During each call or visit, the economic assistant collects price data on a specific good or service that was precisely defined during an earlier visit. If the selected item is available, the economic assistant records its price. If the selected item is no longer available, or if there have been changes in the quality or quantity (for example, eggs sold in packages of ten when they previously were sold by the dozen) of the good or service since the last time prices were collected, the economic assistant selects a new item or records the quality change in the current item.
The recorded information is sent to the national office of BLS, where commodity specialists who have detailed knowledge about the particular goods or services priced review the data. These specialists check the data for accuracy and consistency and make any necessary corrections or adjustments, which can range from an adjustment for a change in the size or quantity of a packaged item to more complex adjustments based upon statistical analysis of the value of an item's features or quality. Thus, commodity specialists strive to prevent changes in the quality of items from affecting the CPI's measurement of price change.
As far as the products they use, and how they acquire the information? It reads with a lot of grey.
It reads like collecting information for a poll. Depending on how you ask the question (or the product you ask the price of) determines the outcome.
You of all people should know that this data has a lot to do with the true condition of the markets, and the value of the dollar. I don't understand why you would think that this would all be on the level.
Pit Row
And, steal!
"During each call or visit, the economic assistant collects price data on a specific good or service that was precisely defined during an earlier visit. If the selected item is available, the economic assistant records its price. If the selected item is no longer available, or if there have been changes in the quality or quantity (for example, eggs sold in packages of ten when they previously were sold by the dozen) of the good or service since the last time prices were collected, the economic assistant selects a new item or records the quality change in the current item."
This is the work of statisticians. That's how they do things. It's not only "on the level", it's a purely arithmetic statistical exercise.
Look at it like this - let's say I spend about 8% of my gross income on food. If food goes up 20%, a huge amount, I'll probably notice it because I go to the grocery store, but that's only a 1.6% net increase in my cost of living. And if the rest of my expenditures go down only 2% overall, that means my cost of living in that category decreases 1.8%, more than offsetting the cost of food.
But let's say my mom spends 50% of her gross income on food and it goes up 20%. That's a huge increase for her. And that's why Congress gave a cost of living increase to Social Security folks two years ago despite the fact that the CPI actually went down - Congress was aware that the particular things older people bought went up disproportionally.
That seals the deal for me Sam. These guy's are professionals, and are paid by those who need the correct answer's.
Please don't take this as being disrespectful. I really think you are a very bright guy, and value your opinion. But I don't agree with you on this topic.
Likewise my cable internet has gone up as well.
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/inflation_fears.php
I keep a close eye on our grocery bill and it has gone up maybe 15% per month, and 15% of $350 isn't much. But, the fact we will save maybe $150,000 on the price of a house along with a
Post a reply to: Inflation reality