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I generally agree that CPI "feels" to be consistently lower compared to what actual people experience. But you can't have a meaningful discussion about it if y

by fleddr 4y ago

I generally agree that CPI "feels" to be consistently lower compared to what actual people experience. But you can't have a meaningful discussion about it if you do not list the weight of the price hike in your expense pattern. When gas for your car normally takes up 10% of your income, and this price doubles, your personal inflation is 10%, not 100% (assuming no other price hikes).

_-david-_ 4y ago
Just to be clear. The person did not say it his personal inflation is 100%. He said prices increased by 100-150%. If item X usually costs $3 and now it costs $6. The price of that item increased by 100%. Perhaps he is only spending 10% of his income, but it doesn't really matter for what he is talking about.
- anotherman554 4y ago
  He said the things he care about doubled in price. This is a remarkable claim. Even gas appears to have only gone up around 30% year over year: https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=emm_epm0_pte_nus_dpg&f=m https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=e...
  - _-david-_ 4y ago
    Gas prices doubled in my area (Southern California) for a short period of time a few months ago. Some of our gas stations were just a few cents short of $7. They have now down a bit (in the $5 - $6 range), but at one point it did get to double. I don't have any receipts to give you the exact dates and prices though. I would say that you can't just look at average prices for the US. Look at the California version of that chart [1]. July 2021 to July 2022 is an increase of about 38%. If you look at June to June it is 50%. While not double, it is quite a bit more than 30%. Depending on the area the person quite possibly did recently experience double the price like I did. [1] https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=EMM_EPM0_PTE_SCA_DPG&f=M https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=E...
- fleddr 4y ago
  What he implied with the term "conspiracy theory" in relation to inflation is that there's a vast mismatch between reported CPI and experienced CPI, hence the reported CPI is a conspiracy theory or corrupted. Typically statements like "this increased 100-150%" are used to support the theory. The only thing I'm saying is that individual price hikes are meaningless without any information about the total expense breakdown. That said, I do agree that CPI is typically slightly optimistic.

by fleddr 4y ago

_-david-_ 4y ago

Just to be clear. The person did not say it his personal inflation is 100%. He said prices increased by 100-150%. If item X usually costs $3 and now it costs $6. The price of that item increased by 100%. Perhaps he is only spending 10% of his income, but it doesn't really matter for what he is talking about.

anotherman554 4y ago
He said the things he care about doubled in price. This is a remarkable claim. Even gas appears to have only gone up around 30% year over year: https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=emm_epm0_pte_nus_dpg&f=m https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=e...
- _-david-_ 4y ago
  Gas prices doubled in my area (Southern California) for a short period of time a few months ago. Some of our gas stations were just a few cents short of $7. They have now down a bit (in the $5 - $6 range), but at one point it did get to double. I don't have any receipts to give you the exact dates and prices though. I would say that you can't just look at average prices for the US. Look at the California version of that chart [1]. July 2021 to July 2022 is an increase of about 38%. If you look at June to June it is 50%. While not double, it is quite a bit more than 30%. Depending on the area the person quite possibly did recently experience double the price like I did. [1] https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=EMM_EPM0_PTE_SCA_DPG&f=M https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=E...
fleddr 4y ago
What he implied with the term "conspiracy theory" in relation to inflation is that there's a vast mismatch between reported CPI and experienced CPI, hence the reported CPI is a conspiracy theory or corrupted. Typically statements like "this increased 100-150%" are used to support the theory. The only thing I'm saying is that individual price hikes are meaningless without any information about the total expense breakdown. That said, I do agree that CPI is typically slightly optimistic.