Putting aside for the moment that this article doesn't even mention Social Security: How much of a decrease to baseline CPI would constitute a "gutting"? It's

Putting aside for the moment that this article doesn't even mention Social Security: How much of a decrease to baseline CPI would constitute a "gutting"? It's not as if the current formula is engraved on stone tablets from the gods: Like any estimate, it could probably be improved over time, up and down. Anyway, if AEI has a motive in writing pieces like this, I think it's more to emphasize how incredible technological advancement has improved our buying power and consequently our lives. I run into a surprising number of folks on forums like this who are convinced that they'd much rather live in the golden "Mad Men" years of the 1960's, when you (a man) could raise a (typically white) family on one blue collar income, which came with a house, car, a wife with time to raise the kids, and a golden retirement in Key West. It's easy to lose track of just how much everyday "magic" you'd be giving up, even if you're not some poor minority who'd be really screwed trying to earn a living back then.