Health care costs have risen
utility bills have risen
college tuitions have risen
gasoline has risen
food has risen
commodities are rising like crazy, gold and silver hitting multi-decade highs.
Maybe you just haven't noticed it.
Health care costs have risen
utility bills have risen
college tuitions have risen
gasoline has risen
food has risen
commodities are rising like crazy, gold and silver hitting multi-decade highs.
Maybe you just haven't noticed it.
Puppycow
Penultimate Amazing
And other things have gotten cheaper. The end result is average inflation near zero. Gold is a bubble that will burst eventually.UWdude said:
So when you ignore everything that has gotten cheaper, prices have risen?
Maybe I haven't noticed it because it wasn't there.
Name a couple of things, you have noticed, in your life, that have gotten cheaper. Three of them.
Well, in the past year, I've noticed that loans have gotten cheaper, houses have gotten cheaper, cars have gotten cheaper, clothing has gotten cheaper, consumer electronics have gotten cheaper, books have gotten cheaper, and food at restaurants has gotten cheaper.
If you want a more detailed list, check out the BLS.gov web site.
loans?
you bought a house?
you bought a car?
I am asking you to name things you have bought, that have got cheaper.
And BTW, all these things are discretionary spending items. If necessities are rising in prices, then it is likely luxury goods will fall in price, creating an illusion of low inflation, and indeed, perhaps even technically low inflation.
However, the reason why inflation is so terrible and hated by people who understand it on the real world level, is because it ALWAYS hits the poor first, and hardest.
12 Tortillas are still $2, on sale. 9 years ago they were regularly 99 cents. Milk is always no less than $2, on sale. 9 years ago you could find it for $1. That's a good 5 or 6% inflation. Gasoline is running at about triple what it cost 10 years ago.
So hurray for your BMW's and McMansions falling in price. In the real world, the little guy is getting stiffed.
So rich folks are buying extra large LCD's at prices they never imagined, while poor old folks are deciding between medications or milk.
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Why does it matter if I personally have bought them, when we're discussing inflation?
There's a reason that the CPI has a standardized basket of goods.
So, by your own admission,.... I'm right, and you're wrong.
Thanks.
Yes, I know it is an *OVERALL* statistic. There lies the problem.
When you guys look at statistics, you just see numbers. You aren't breaking it down into real life consequences.
As I said, technically, if the price of Lamborghini and lear jest plummet, while the price of tortillas and rice skyrockets, technically you could see a "modest" 2% inflation.
And those who defend inflation as good would just keep saying "let them eat cake"
I mean, the poor mother of four is trying to figure out how to feed her family and afford her commute to work, but on the bright side, she could buy a Lamborghini for $40,000 less.
puppycow said:
Not going to happen.
Also... only thing?
Cotton has doubled, in fact, all commodities are up. That is why the Australian dollar is now on/near parity with the US dollar.
Yes, you are technically right. In the world of numbers and charts and statistics, you are right.dr kitten said:
In the world of the working class, the fixed incomes, and the poor, you are wrong.
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... which might be relevant if we weren't discussing inflation over the past year.
Yes. The problem is that you have no idea how statistics actually apply to the real world.
Nope. I'm still right, and you're still wrong, even there. There's a reason that there's no COLA raise for Social Security this year. Because the cost of living did not go up.
I'm talking about over the past ten years or so. (Which incidentally, would be around when something in the money supply started to happen... can you name it kids?)
Well, then you're not only a poor reader, but rude to boot.
Laughable. Ask any senior citizen living on SS and retirement if their cost of living fell this year. *any* *single* *one* *of* *them*
90% of them will say it went up. Then you will have to sit through an hour of complaining about how everything is so damn expensive now.
Guarantee it.
But, say what you will. We are in the "nuh uh, I'm right, you're wrong" phase, which bores me.
Actually, ten years ago inflation continued to drop over what it had been during the previous decade.
There's a good chart here that shows what the overall inflation trend line has been since 1990. Look at the blue line specifically.
So I guess once again you're "technically" wrong.
Of course. People like to complain.
That doesn't mean that they're right.
Yes. The difference is that you're saying "I'm right" and my published charts and figures say that "you're wrong."
timhau
NWO Litter Technician
... because people not only like to complain but also have selective memories.
Puppycow
Penultimate Amazing
Maybe that's why the government doesn't measure inflation by going out and asking people what they think.
Like timhau said, this is just confirmation bias, a known psychological phenomenon.
pgwenthold
Penultimate Amazing
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2001
- Messages
- 21,821
I agree. It is actually been my experience that every single old person I have talked to ALWAYS complains about high prices these days. Shoot, I would call that the one common feature.
Ask any old person about the biggest difference between now and the old days, they always mention that things cost so much more now. They will probably even say that even before they get to the universality of computer technology (which is by far the biggest change from even when I was a kid, much less for people born before 1940)
OK, so you've established that old people complain about high prices of things these days. So what does that have to do with inflation?
HA!
Read it and WEEP! Weep for your country and its little lies that mean nothing to the people living in it.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/No-In...9.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=1&asset=&ccode=
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