Largely I see inflation measurements as a model that degrades with time. Inflation of one year vs the last couple of years? Not too bad of a measure, things are

Largely I see inflation measurements as a model that degrades with time. Inflation of one year vs the last couple of years? Not too bad of a measure, things are similar enough. Inflation of this year's dollars vs dollars 50 years ago, much less useful as the things being purchased are radically different. Inflation comparing today's dollars to dollars 100-200 years ago. Largely worthless too many goods are either completely different or don't exist