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This is exactly the first thing that occurred to me, but I'm far from an economist. It does seem that if literally everything was in a bubble, that would be equ

by psyc 9y ago

This is exactly the first thing that occurred to me, but I'm far from an economist. It does seem that if literally everything was in a bubble, that would be equivalent to the dollar having less value. It would be wildly out of line with CPI inflation, and I'm not sure what that means. Perhaps consumer goods have just become very cheap. Alternatively, maybe "everything bubble" means a very high amount of capital investment.

csomar 9y ago
I don't think consumer goods are getting cheaper. The iPhone is getting more and more expensive (even not counting the iPhone X price bump). But should consumer goods (food/small items) be small in developed economies? Things like Rent, Transport (Car/Travel), Health Care, etc... should weigh more. Wait, these are all getting expensive or am I wrong?
- majewsky 9y ago
  > I don't think consumer goods are getting cheaper. The iPhone is getting more and more expensive (even not counting the iPhone X price bump). Oh please. What about food? Fuel/energy? Insurance? Clothing? Any single one of these budgets is bigger for probably all of us than our smartphone budget. As for myself, all of the above budgets (except for fuel/energy maybe) have gotten slightly cheaper in recent years. (I live in Germany.) And that includes smartphones; the average smartphone is lasting longer and getting cheaper unless you're looking at the flagships whose price is driven entirely by market segmentation.
  - csomar 9y ago
    Interesting observation given that I had fuel/energy get cheaper while the rest not. So it certainly depends on location. But the point of measuring inflation is to have a specific thing/standard and match it with other years. It would not be fair to say phones got cheaper because you got your new Android-Samsung-Clone from China. When you say clothing got cheaper, is it the same brand/item/time of the season. Your insurance got cheaper? Is it because you didn't have accidents and you got upgraded?

by psyc 9y ago

csomar 9y ago

I don't think consumer goods are getting cheaper. The iPhone is getting more and more expensive (even not counting the iPhone X price bump). But should consumer goods (food/small items) be small in developed economies? Things like Rent, Transport (Car/Travel), Health Care, etc... should weigh more. Wait, these are all getting expensive or am I wrong?

majewsky 9y ago
> I don't think consumer goods are getting cheaper. The iPhone is getting more and more expensive (even not counting the iPhone X price bump). Oh please. What about food? Fuel/energy? Insurance? Clothing? Any single one of these budgets is bigger for probably all of us than our smartphone budget. As for myself, all of the above budgets (except for fuel/energy maybe) have gotten slightly cheaper in recent years. (I live in Germany.) And that includes smartphones; the average smartphone is lasting longer and getting cheaper unless you're looking at the flagships whose price is driven entirely by market segmentation.
- csomar 9y ago
  Interesting observation given that I had fuel/energy get cheaper while the rest not. So it certainly depends on location. But the point of measuring inflation is to have a specific thing/standard and match it with other years. It would not be fair to say phones got cheaper because you got your new Android-Samsung-Clone from China. When you say clothing got cheaper, is it the same brand/item/time of the season. Your insurance got cheaper? Is it because you didn't have accidents and you got upgraded?