4 ms·

Trimmed inflation is a better measure than non-trimmed for goods with substitutes. Bacon going up 1000% in price is not as bad as all food going up 5% in price

Trimmed inflation is a better measure than non-trimmed for goods with substitutes. Bacon going up 1000% in price is not as bad as all food going up 5% in price because you can just stop eating bacon, but you can't just stop eating.

Gareth321 4y ago
Yes but now you don't get to eat bacon and you're eating tofu bacon instead. You're still alive, but are you really living? More seriously, that quality of life decrease is now completely ignored. I think it's worth acknowledging that it's happening.
- thrashh 4y ago
  Yeah but so much of happiness is relative and pure mindset. If you never knew about bacon or forgot about it, you would be just as happy. And at the end of the day, it’s more important to be happy
  - inawarminister 4y ago
    You will own nothing. And you will be happy. - a popular quote in the internet
collegeburner 4y ago
wrong, it's a shitty metric. consumers care about inflation bc it represe ts their quality of life getting more expensive. trimming is the equivalent of saying "lol just downgrade" which is not a good answer. you can't watch people switch their crab and milk for krab and powdered milk then be like "oh we'll just trim that out of inflation lmao". inflation is not supposed to measure change in average cost of necessities, it's supposed to measure change in a basket of basic goods.
- ghaff 4y ago
  And that basket naturally shifts over time as certain goods which have reasonable substitutes rise sharply in price, as technology changes, as tastes change, etc. It would obviously be silly to compare against the same basket of goods as was used in 1970.
  - s1artibartfast 4y ago
    There is some truth to it if you want to think about purchasing power and quality of life. A TV today is not the same as a TV in 1970. The groceries a family buys today are not the same Goods or quality as someone would have bought in 1920
- anotheracctfo 4y ago
  Its supposed to measure the effects of inflation on the wealthy, which is why substitutes are important, because it impacts their grocery stocks. You can starve.

Gareth321 4y ago

Yes but now you don't get to eat bacon and you're eating tofu bacon instead. You're still alive, but are you really living? More seriously, that quality of life decrease is now completely ignored. I think it's worth acknowledging that it's happening.

thrashh 4y ago
Yeah but so much of happiness is relative and pure mindset. If you never knew about bacon or forgot about it, you would be just as happy. And at the end of the day, it’s more important to be happy
- inawarminister 4y ago
  You will own nothing. And you will be happy. - a popular quote in the internet

collegeburner 4y ago

wrong, it's a shitty metric. consumers care about inflation bc it represe ts their quality of life getting more expensive. trimming is the equivalent of saying "lol just downgrade" which is not a good answer. you can't watch people switch their crab and milk for krab and powdered milk then be like "oh we'll just trim that out of inflation lmao". inflation is not supposed to measure change in average cost of necessities, it's supposed to measure change in a basket of basic goods.

ghaff 4y ago
And that basket naturally shifts over time as certain goods which have reasonable substitutes rise sharply in price, as technology changes, as tastes change, etc. It would obviously be silly to compare against the same basket of goods as was used in 1970.
- s1artibartfast 4y ago
  There is some truth to it if you want to think about purchasing power and quality of life. A TV today is not the same as a TV in 1970. The groceries a family buys today are not the same Goods or quality as someone would have bought in 1920
anotheracctfo 4y ago
Its supposed to measure the effects of inflation on the wealthy, which is why substitutes are important, because it impacts their grocery stocks. You can starve.