Hedonic quality adjustments are necessary though. If people start buying smartphones instead of dumb flip phones, it's not a sign that there is massive inflatio

Hedonic quality adjustments are necessary though. If people start buying smartphones instead of dumb flip phones, it's not a sign that there is massive inflation in telecom sector, it's a sign that they're getting a lot of value. The BLS's own example uses TVs [1]. When you went from a $200 20" CRT to a $1000 dollar 42 inch plasma, that 5x increase in price is not because your money was less valuable, it's because you're spending 5x the money and getting 5x the goods. 1: https://www.bls.gov/cpi/quality-adjustment/questions-and-answers.htm https://www.bls.gov/cpi/quality-adjustment/questions-and-ans...