The consumer price index (CPI) is untrustworthy. It incorporates adjustments into things like technology that don't actually reflect utility. For example, if yo

The consumer price index (CPI) is untrustworthy. It incorporates adjustments into things like technology that don't actually reflect utility. For example, if you look at the section on "Computers, peripherals, and smart home assistants" you'll note a nearly 300-fold decrease in the consumer price of computers from 1997 to 2022. How the heck does that work? Computers today are cheaper than in 1997 but surely not 300 times cheaper. It turns out that they use a "quality adjustment" that takes into account the relative performance of a modern computer compared to previous years. The bulk of the 300-fold decrease in price is due to the fact that modern computers are many times faster than those made in the 1990's. But there's a problem with that: a consumer doesn't get hundreds of times more utility out of a computer. You can't have a hundred people in your house sit there and work on the same computer and achieve the productivity scaling which would warrant this adjustment. In reality, you're paying for one computer an amount which is nominally within an order of magnitude of what you would have paid in 1997. So this adjustment has the effect of drastically skewing the CPI statistic in this sector. Furthermore, computers have only grown in importance. What was a luxury in 1997 has become a necessity today. Families often have multiple computers. Parents may work from home and use their personal computer for paying bills, applying for jobs, doing taxes, budgeting, or applying for government services, while children may use their computers for doing schoolwork, research, playing games. Everyone uses their computers and devices for communications. However, none of these tasks (besides playing games) has markedly improved or been made more efficient by the technological advances in the computers themselves.