marmorset t1_ja8wpf7 wrote
The government has changed the way a lot of things are calculated now, the new numbers aren't comparable. Food and energy, which often rise the most, sometimes aren't figured into the inflation rate.
The unemployment rate isn't trustworthy either. It used to estimate the unemployed, but now sometimes they exclude people who are unemployed but aren't collecting unemployment anymore. If you lose your job and collect unemployment, you count, but if after you lose your benefits and are still unemployed, you don't count.
I used to buy chicken breast at $1.79 a pound, now I pay $2.99 a pound. Milk was $2.45 a gallon, now it's $3.75 a gallon. That's just two years ago, and they're both over 50% more expensive, a far cry from the 10% the government claims.
Limp_Distribution t1_ja909pf wrote
I wish more people understood this point. The government has changed how it calculates the CPI and I believe things like rent are not on the list. So, if I’m right, rents going up does nothing to inflation. That’s fucked
labtec901 t1_jaag6et wrote
You are not right. CPI includes housing costs/rent.
BernankesBeard t1_jabq5ad wrote
Rent of Primary Residence is 7.5% of the CPI. Shelter, more broadly, is ~34%.
AgentElman t1_ja9s7xe wrote
The government does not claim that every item went up less than the rate of inflation. It claims that the average increase of everything is the rate of inflation.
The price of houses has gone down. Should the government be declaring that there is negative inflation?
wyle_e2 t1_jabprfw wrote
Technically the government uses "rental equivalent" when calculating how much housing costs have gone up. During their surveys they as people how much they feel it would cost for them to rent their house. The massive spike in housing costs what never added into inflation numbers. I personally feel inflation has been understated because of this and other "adjustments" because the government has a vested interest in understating inflation.
[deleted] t1_jaaiz37 wrote
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marmorset t1_jabm0az wrote
I'm a real estate agent, housing sales have slowed down, but prices have not dropped at all. They're not as high as the rate of inflation, but they're rising. Demand has dropped because mortgage interest rates have gone up, but supply is down since construction slowed/stopped during the pandemic and that's kept the cost up.
No, the government should not be declaring that housing prices are deflating because that's not at all true.
Glancing-Thought t1_jae8cpo wrote
Different countries also calculate differently which can make international comparisons difficult.
marmorset t1_jaeik51 wrote
And some countries have orange or pink money, that's not even real.
Glancing-Thought t1_jaej3dj wrote
Mine does. It's also in different sizes so that blind people can tell what's what.
marmorset t1_jaess7c wrote
Although some US bills are embossed, the government provides a free electronic device called a bill reader to blind people upon request. It's a foolish system. Bills stay in circulation less than ten years and the twenty is always being redesigned. If the treasury had started embossing the numerals when the issue was first brought up all the money would be fixed, but they're still just holding meetings. The US worries about BS and ignores actual problems. All the touch card or phone apps must be of incredible benefit to blind people.
When I was in China they had paper money for fractions of a yuan. There were coins for amounts under a yuan, but also tiny, little paper bill for cents. I seem to remember that all the regular bills had Mao on them, regardless of denomination, but the tiny bills had allegorical figures.
BernankesBeard t1_jabpuuf wrote
>Food and energy, which often rise the most, sometimes aren't figured into the inflation rate.
Headline CPI and CPI Core are two entirely different metrics. Food and energy often fall the most too. They're highly volatile and add a ton of noise to the measure. In the long run, they're effectively the same and since CPI Core is less noisy and a better predictor of future headline CPI than current headline CPI itself, policymakers generally prefer to look at it.
>The unemployment rate isn't trustworthy either. It used to estimate the unemployed, but now sometimes they exclude people who are unemployed but aren't collecting unemployment anymore.
Yeah this is just absolute bullshit. Here's the BLS:
> Classification as unemployed in no way depends upon a person's eligibility for, or receipt of, unemployment insurance benefits. There is no requirement or question relating to unemployment insurance benefits in the monthly Current Population Survey.
> I used to buy chicken breast at $1.79 a pound, now I pay $2.99 a pound. Milk was $2.45 a gallon, now it's $3.75 a gallon. That's just two years ago, and they're both over 50% more expensive, a far cry from the 10% the government claims.
It's almost as, and bear with me here, American consumers have more than just Chicken and Milk in their consumption basket.
ninjabell t1_ja942jq wrote
>Milk was $2.45 a gallon, now it's $3.75 a gallon....
>
>over 50% more expensive
🤔
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