4 ms·

This squares with my belief that prices are currently way too high, for just about everything. Do any mainstream economists believe this?

tomrod 8y ago
Economist here. With non- zero probability, though the nuance is that inflation is under-reported when housing and energy are excluded from CPI. There is also a claim that hedonic substitution pushes down inflation measures, but that is more of a philosophical argument than a numeric argument.
donclark 8y ago
High for everything, or are you talking about cars and real estate? Please provide an example. The products I see on Amazon are fairly cheap unless you are comparing it to products from CHINA.
- mjevans 8y ago
  The the parent posts' user, but... I think /mostly/ the 'big ticket' items; anything with a cost over 1000 USD. However the price of many other items are also quite high, particularly for infinitely replicate-able information (entertainment). I'd argue that the price of many other things under about 10 USD is largely a land ownership or transportation cost; as a society we've become so effective at producing (even grown things) that the biggest issue is the price of energy and labor associated with managing those products to end users.
  - flukus 8y ago
    > I'd argue that the price of many other things under about 10 USD is largely a land ownership or transportation cost; as a society we've become so effective at producing (even grown things) that the biggest issue is the price of energy and labor associated with managing those products to end users. This explains some of the discrepancy but I think it's only a tiny fraction of the total. There is just an ever increasing amount of things that are sold for what they can get away with rather than any inherent value. The generic brand stuff has the same transport and labor costs as the fancy brands yet are much cheaper, which rules that out. I just went shopping so a fresh example is my instant coffee. The one I buy is almost permanently on sale for half price (not today unfortunately), so it seems pretty logical to assume that they make a profit on this sale price and everything else is just a nice fat margin on people that don't "bargain" hunt. I went half way and only got the small jar, but there are a dozen other things in my shopping bag I don't track the price of. I know there are plenty of other things we pay much more for than we should, if the rest of the world had to pay what I just did for rice (generic brand) then several billion people would starve this year. It seems we have more cartels than competition.
- brandonmenc 8y ago
  Specifically, consumer goods and services. Not land or real estate.

tomrod 8y ago

Economist here. With non- zero probability, though the nuance is that inflation is under-reported when housing and energy are excluded from CPI. There is also a claim that hedonic substitution pushes down inflation measures, but that is more of a philosophical argument than a numeric argument.

donclark 8y ago

High for everything, or are you talking about cars and real estate? Please provide an example. The products I see on Amazon are fairly cheap unless you are comparing it to products from CHINA.

mjevans 8y ago
The the parent posts' user, but... I think /mostly/ the 'big ticket' items; anything with a cost over 1000 USD. However the price of many other items are also quite high, particularly for infinitely replicate-able information (entertainment). I'd argue that the price of many other things under about 10 USD is largely a land ownership or transportation cost; as a society we've become so effective at producing (even grown things) that the biggest issue is the price of energy and labor associated with managing those products to end users.
- flukus 8y ago
  > I'd argue that the price of many other things under about 10 USD is largely a land ownership or transportation cost; as a society we've become so effective at producing (even grown things) that the biggest issue is the price of energy and labor associated with managing those products to end users. This explains some of the discrepancy but I think it's only a tiny fraction of the total. There is just an ever increasing amount of things that are sold for what they can get away with rather than any inherent value. The generic brand stuff has the same transport and labor costs as the fancy brands yet are much cheaper, which rules that out. I just went shopping so a fresh example is my instant coffee. The one I buy is almost permanently on sale for half price (not today unfortunately), so it seems pretty logical to assume that they make a profit on this sale price and everything else is just a nice fat margin on people that don't "bargain" hunt. I went half way and only got the small jar, but there are a dozen other things in my shopping bag I don't track the price of. I know there are plenty of other things we pay much more for than we should, if the rest of the world had to pay what I just did for rice (generic brand) then several billion people would starve this year. It seems we have more cartels than competition.
brandonmenc 8y ago
Specifically, consumer goods and services. Not land or real estate.