_Inflation is higher for the things they purchase_ I don't agree with this. The Consumer Price Index is how we Americans typically measure "inflation" which m

_Inflation is higher for the things they purchase_ I don't agree with this. The Consumer Price Index is how we Americans typically measure "inflation" which measures the change in retail prices of a "market basket" of goods from period to period. The Bureau of Labor Statistics goes to great lengths to determine this market basket. You are essentially saying that the BLS is favoring a higher income basket over a lower income basket and if they focused on the latter, CPI would report much higher inflation. I don't think this is true. CPI is far from perfect, especially if you introduce Austrian definitions of inflation, but I think they do a good, consistent job. Here is a BLS description of market baskets. http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpifaq.htm#Question_6 http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpifaq.htm#Question_6 I agree with others who replied to your comment that hypothesize this dynamic is the result of a disproportionate impact to a low income household's bottom line from price inflation. This essentially the concept of operating leverage applied to households. Assume a typical family needs to spend $40K a year to pay for the basics. A $50K household will have $10K left over and a $100K household will have $60K left over. If prices increase by 5% on the $40K, that's now $42K. The $50K household has $8K left over, a 20% reduction from $10K previously. The $100K household has $58K left over, a 3.3% reduction from the $60K previously.