That's all fine and dandy if you think the BLS CPI isn't gamed. I happen to think that they change it enough that it's nearly meaningless to talk about "growth

That's all fine and dandy if you think the BLS CPI isn't gamed. I happen to think that they change it enough that it's nearly meaningless to talk about "growth" for the last 20-40 years. When the inflation rate and the growth rate as as close to one another as they are all you need is a small error calculating CPI and suddenly mild increase turns into mild decrease.