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> Now take this idea and average it across a large number of different items and you arrive at inflation statistics If only it was as simple: you will need to

> Now take this idea and average it across a large number of different items and you arrive at inflation statistics If only it was as simple: you will need to introduce weights between different items, and account to the change of those weights too. Also gold isn't just commodity, it's monetary commodity. If you use official inflation dollars you get 1$ 1940 ~= 23$ 2025. You can see how magnitude wrong it is for housing or cars in the example above. Here's food prices from 1940 diner: > A 25-cent platter, 5-cent hotdog, and 10-cent hamburger. Also doesn't really work with official inflation dollars either. And again works much better with gold prices.

kemotep 1y ago
Median household income in the 1940’s seems to be something like $2,600. Using your inflation figure that is ~$59800 in today’s dollars. 2024 there seems to be an estimated ~$75,000 median household income. Housing and cars are also apples and oranges seeing that the average family size and sq footage for even 50’s homes is completely different than today. Today fewer people are living in significantly larger spaces than was normal back then.
- b112 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - tstrimple 1y ago
    This is what passes for "intellectual contributions" for Hackernews. Notice there is zero dang's preaching about the values of HN to posts like these. He reserves his warnings for things that are popular but also goes against his fascist administration. This site is chock full of outright bigotry but it's acceptable as long as you present it politely.
    - b112 1y ago
      Outside of the humour involved, what is your precise complaint? You do realise that, especially in the US, almost everyone is fat, yes? That there is an epidemic of this? And that it is getting worse. As a general rule, many people considered lean today, would be considered fat 100 years ago. This is the joke, and also the truth. And amusingly if you visit these smaller, older houses, you will actually find narrower internal doors, stairs and halls in many of them. Even bedrooms are smaller, and were meant for smaller beds. Thus humorous thought then lends to the idea, is the lair's size and dimensions a contributor to size? We know environment can cause genetic expression, after all. The comment is what you make of it. You've taken offence for some reason. Why?
      - computerthings 1y ago
        [dead]
- boroboro4 1y ago
  Good points. For houses I think I expect to get better product for same “real” dollars, like with cars or TV. But given somewhat limited supply of houses this can be wrong assumption. As for income tbh I read it more like real income fell a lot, rather than a proof that inflated dollars reflect reality well. I.e i think if income inequality didn’t grow as much as it did 2024 median household income would have been much higher which would have increased different between inflation figure from real one further.

kemotep 1y ago

Median household income in the 1940’s seems to be something like $2,600. Using your inflation figure that is ~$59800 in today’s dollars. 2024 there seems to be an estimated ~$75,000 median household income. Housing and cars are also apples and oranges seeing that the average family size and sq footage for even 50’s homes is completely different than today. Today fewer people are living in significantly larger spaces than was normal back then.

b112 1y ago
[flagged]
- tstrimple 1y ago
  This is what passes for "intellectual contributions" for Hackernews. Notice there is zero dang's preaching about the values of HN to posts like these. He reserves his warnings for things that are popular but also goes against his fascist administration. This site is chock full of outright bigotry but it's acceptable as long as you present it politely.
  - b112 1y ago
    Outside of the humour involved, what is your precise complaint? You do realise that, especially in the US, almost everyone is fat, yes? That there is an epidemic of this? And that it is getting worse. As a general rule, many people considered lean today, would be considered fat 100 years ago. This is the joke, and also the truth. And amusingly if you visit these smaller, older houses, you will actually find narrower internal doors, stairs and halls in many of them. Even bedrooms are smaller, and were meant for smaller beds. Thus humorous thought then lends to the idea, is the lair's size and dimensions a contributor to size? We know environment can cause genetic expression, after all. The comment is what you make of it. You've taken offence for some reason. Why?
    - computerthings 1y ago
      [dead]
boroboro4 1y ago
Good points. For houses I think I expect to get better product for same “real” dollars, like with cars or TV. But given somewhat limited supply of houses this can be wrong assumption. As for income tbh I read it more like real income fell a lot, rather than a proof that inflated dollars reflect reality well. I.e i think if income inequality didn’t grow as much as it did 2024 median household income would have been much higher which would have increased different between inflation figure from real one further.