Eh, I also included periods during the Gold Standard in the previous post: 1917 12.5 15.4 14.3 18.9 19.6 20.4 18.5 19.3 19.8 19.5 17.4 18.1 17.4 1918 19.7 17.

Eh, I also included periods during the Gold Standard in the previous post: 1917 12.5 15.4 14.3 18.9 19.6 20.4 18.5 19.3 19.8 19.5 17.4 18.1 17.4 1918 19.7 17.5 16.7 12.7 13.3 13.1 18.0 18.5 18.0 18.5 20.7 20.4 18.0 1919 17.9 14.9 17.1 17.6 16.6 15.0 15.2 14.9 13.4 13.1 13.5 14.5 14.6 See those inflation #s? We just aren't going to agree. Because I'm of the opinion the CPI isn't perfect ... but compared to other CPI data points, its relatively accurate. The problem with the "perfect, ideal" idea is the fact that, frankly, no one ever tried to build it and graph it over time. Those that pretend they want that are just pushing an ideological agenda and drop large portions of the basket completely. The problem with the CPI is the qualitative analysis, by its nature, fundamentally imperfect. It is an opinion. That said, you can't just drop categories and claim to be anything except a joke. > So instead I will step back from this tangent. We got into CPI over disagreement on how much inflation there is, and I was arguing that there's a lot of inflation because we went off the gold standard, and so that's why factory jobs don't pay $30/h anymore. You argued that I have it backwards and that everything was good in the 70s. You said it worsened in the 80s and asked me to explain how and I justified it by saying that's when Neoliberal policies took over. What part of this do you disagree with? It seems roughly right for what was said. The reason factory jobs don't pay $30/h is because of globalization [cheaper to produce goods in other countries], tax burden shifting from capital to labor [ http://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-tax-rates?op=1 http://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-tax-rates?op=1 ], etc. That isn't really a "Neoliberal" issue but more simply technological progress has allowed us to outsource more to cheaper labor countries. I don't care too much as long as people have a living wage [which is at least $10/hr] and the poor aren't taxed heavily compared to historic norms.