4 ms·

Less than zero. Car prices are dropping relative to other goods, though they've been mostly flat (in the sense of "inflating at the general rate") since 2010 o

• bigbadfeline 1y ago
  > Car prices are dropping relative to other goods That's the salesman's way of saying that other goods (like gas and now electricity) have been getting more expensive faster than cars. If you put 2 and 2 together, driving is getting considerably more expensive driven by more expensive cars and fuel, which one is rising faster is immaterial, inflation is the original problem but a used car salesman will find a way to use it to prove it doesn't exist.
  • ajross 1y ago
    > driving is getting considerably more expensive driven by more expensive cars and fuel I'm at a loss. I literally showed you a graph showing that cars were getting cheaper over time. Do you not believe it, or maybe misunderstand what inflation is? You can chart new car price vs. median income too, it shows the same shape. Fuel's a little more complicated. It's gone up in the last decade, but was going down in the 60's through 90's (not least because cars were getting more efficient). There was a trough in the late 90's.
    • bigbadfeline 1y ago
      > I literally showed you a graph showing that cars were getting cheaper over time. You're literally wrong. The graph shows only that cars are getting more expensive over time just not as mush as gas. > You can chart new car price vs. median income too, it shows the same shape. Shape? Median? Not good enough. I want to see the price piloted against each decile of income. > Do you not believe it, or maybe misunderstand what inflation is? Inflation is a tax imposed by one group on another. Maybe you misunderstand what it is?
      • ajross 1y ago
        > The graph shows only that cars are getting more expensive over time just not as mush as gas. Gas isn't on the chart. It's showing the ratio between the auto segment of CPI (how expensive "a car" is) to the broader CPI metric (how expensive everything else is, on average). And it's going down. I strongly suggest you think harder on the subject and study the chart (and FRED more generally) a bit. > Inflation is a tax imposed by one group on another. Yikes. Cite for that definition?
        • actionfromafar 1y ago
          As for inflation being a tax, I always thought it obvious? You have person A - who cannot set inflation and with severely limited opportunity to invest anywhere. You have person B - who can invest in anything and also happens to influence the level of inflation. Guess who is going to get ahead here.
          • ajross 1y ago
            Does person A have a home? Then A, 100%. Regular citizens can get non-inflation-indexed, heavily-government-subsidized loans at leverage ratios[1] institutional investors could never dream of. And that's a better inflation hedge than almost anything. The home value inflates but your mortgage payments stay the same for decades. The inability of people, even otherwise smart HN commenters, to reason about how inflation works has been really shocking to me. [1] Literally 5x their net worth, or "20% down" in the local jargon
            • actionfromafar 1y ago
              You probably meant own a home.
              • ajross 1y ago
                I do, yes. A quick google shows 65% of US households are occupant-owned (with most of those being mortgaged, though I'm too lazy to do a full accounting). I think the point about "regular" people and inflation is apt and I stand by it. I have a strong suspicion that you aren't actually making an economic point.