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They may factor those things in, but that doesn't mean they factor them in correctly or that their calculation ends up matching the realities of many middle-cla

They may factor those things in, but that doesn't mean they factor them in correctly or that their calculation ends up matching the realities of many middle-class people these days. From medical-illness-caused bankruptcies to crippling student loan debt to declining home ownership (by equity and age of first purchase), there are common realities that don't mesh with the CPI statistics that are calculated/released. You can argue that the CPI deals with averages and for every horror story of un-repayable student loan, savings-zapping cancer or hot housing market that makes purchasing a pipe dream for the majority of residents there are people who graduate college, get a job that pays well enough to repay their loans in time to save up and buy a home before starting a family and avoiding serious illnesses, but then is that statistic really useful in the face of so many people struggling? At a certain point, enough individual incedences of a problem becomes far more than isolated incidents and graduates to a problem for society.

EADGBE 8y ago
This brings up a great point that many people overlook: Inflation is hyper-specific to the consumer. If the price of bread (and only the price of bread) went up 10x in price, then only consumers of bread would really be affected by it. You could argue all the hands that "touch" the bread, yes, but in the end the person paying $40 for a loaf of bread is actually affected by the inflation of it; for them to consider "inflation" in the large sense to have screwed them over. Similarly, people without student loan debt (or over-burdening student loan debt) couldn't really give two shits about the inflation of SLD. For me, guitars are a big deal. And I bring that up because there's a regulation now that effectively bans a type of wood used for guitars for centuries. If I were to want to buy a guitar with this type of wood that already exists, the price of it would be super inflated as the remaining safe-to-buy stock are grabbed up. This certainly only affects guitarists who favor a certain kind of tonewood; but is akin to my bread example above in demand/price.

EADGBE 8y ago

This brings up a great point that many people overlook: Inflation is hyper-specific to the consumer. If the price of bread (and only the price of bread) went up 10x in price, then only consumers of bread would really be affected by it. You could argue all the hands that "touch" the bread, yes, but in the end the person paying $40 for a loaf of bread is actually affected by the inflation of it; for them to consider "inflation" in the large sense to have screwed them over. Similarly, people without student loan debt (or over-burdening student loan debt) couldn't really give two shits about the inflation of SLD. For me, guitars are a big deal. And I bring that up because there's a regulation now that effectively bans a type of wood used for guitars for centuries. If I were to want to buy a guitar with this type of wood that already exists, the price of it would be super inflated as the remaining safe-to-buy stock are grabbed up. This certainly only affects guitarists who favor a certain kind of tonewood; but is akin to my bread example above in demand/price.