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The article seems to have missed the correct conclusion: we calculate inflation wrong. If Toblerone gives you less chocolate for the same price, that doesn't m
by thinkloop 7y ago
The article seems to have missed the correct conclusion: we calculate inflation wrong.
If Toblerone gives you less chocolate for the same price, that doesn't mean some new thing called "shrinkflation" now exists, that means that chocolate became more expensive. But that new pricing doesn't seem to be properly hitting the inflation metrics.
- drchewbacca 7y agoI agree. I think also there's problems with how GDP is calculated. If everyone who used spotify was paying 79p per track you would see massive economic growth in the music sector. However because it's an all inclusive streaming service not a huge amount more money is moving through it. However as a consumer I am getting 1000x more music now than when I was 15yrs old. That doesn't seem to get recorded though. So much stuff on the internet (like stack overflow or github) has gargantuan economic value but doesn't figure in GDP stats because it's mostly free.
- thinkloop 7y ago> So much stuff on the internet (like stack overflow or github) has gargantuan economic value I'm not so sure about that. Yes they are conduits to massive value, but that value is coming from us, not them. If they were to close down, equally good replacements would be (are) available immediately.
- username90 7y agoThe value is still there though, today I have easier and better access to information, books, education, music, movies, games etc than the richest man alive 30 years ago. Back then people paid a lot of money to get information via physical media like huge encyclopedia sets, what we have today is both much better and much cheaper for everyone. But of course all of those books and cassettes were good for GDP while today's free services are not.