As long as the PCI excludes energy, shelter and food it will miss what the average person experiences on a daily basis. So the reported numbers don't align with what people see and become another reason that government statistics are so widely disbelieved.
I suspect the other thing driving inflation concerns is the compounding effects over time. As a Gen X'er, I have participated in the economy since I was 12 and had a paper route. Candy bars were 40 cents, a paperback was 2.99 to 3.99, etc. These now cost 3x what they did then, even though the price change may have been roughly 2% per year. Add in that 2% more on 100 is 2, but 2% more on 300 is 6, the absolute magnitude of the yearly increases grows each year, leading to the uneasiness of feeling like the ground is eroding under your feet.
What about "lived experience" (to use a terrible phrase)? There is a difference between inflation calculated by some statistician and the inflation that I see in my grocery cart and gas station. "Real inflation" is what I see and experience and harms my family (or helps). The national inflation rate, while true, is not an inflation rate that anyone personally experiences. Their personal real inflation rate is either higher or lower. It is the real personal inflation rate that affects people real personal decisions. When you are asking people about inflation, you are asking them about their "lived experience" not some economist's calculation.
Economists can shout all they’d like but as long as the price of goods and services are difficult to obtain or out of reach because of price, people will be unhappy. Po-ta-to, po-tah-to.
I'm shocked that Democrat economists and political wonks are trying to make their party and president look better by telling everyone that high prices are fine, actually. And if you dont like the high prices, you are wrong.
idk man i just wish we had honest people on all sides, but we dont, so we get this garbage
Ignorance about inflation is universal. Lenin said it: There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency.
Interestingly enough, I just came across a good chart from Chartr, can't upload it but results are pretty much what's stated here but since 2020 Auto insurance up 46%, Gasoline and Energy both up 34%, Used cars and trucks? down from 2022 but still up 29%. Food away from home up 25% and shelter up 23%. all items up 21% so if you are not making more than 21% above your income in 2020; you are suffering from inflation.
Remember, when you're neighbor loses their job it's a recession; when you lose yours it's a depression.
My pet peeve is when liberals say that inflation is going down! No, you imbeciles, the growth rate of inflation is going down. You know, in general. When Biden says he has brought inflation down, i want to scream! He has done nothing. Absolutely nothing! Only the feckless Fed,who flooded the economy with billions of dollars a month at a time we had limited supplies of goods, has used the blunt tool of raising rates. This economic destruction was completely avoidable!
Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, numbers, definitions, balmy abstractions from life, until weariness strikes bone. Our systems have become both too efficient at transferring wealth upwards and at obfuscating and massaging this fact.
"Over a longer period." Thank you for finally pointing out this super obvious relevant point! When you have experienced super high inflation, which causes a disproportional amount of pain on the poor and working class, you need super low inflation for a few years to alleviate that pain. All the Economist Snobs purposely ignore this point, which is just another way of pretending their crap does not stink because they supported the policies that got us here. Inflation at 2.6% after the horribly high inflation is like pouring a little salt in the gaping wounds of the poor and working class, and then saying, 'Jeez, what's with these people complaining about a little salt'.
Perhaps. But what I hear informally id people complaining about a leve, not a rate of change. I might be worthwhile for polls to be more precise in the way they ask about "inflation."
Inflation is responsible for prices being significantly higher now than when Biden took office. Sustained rising prices over a long period of time come from there being too much money chasing too few goods. There was a time when the parlance included "transitory", as if the money supply would contract after being circulated. But there was no plan for that, just talking points. I am tired of democrats trying to rewrite history, as if our memory is so short when we go to the grocery store or try to buy a car, or even fill it with gas. Prices are up more than wages over that time period, and certainly devastating for those on fixed income, like retirees. That spike in inflation in 2022 is all Biden, all democrats, all inflationary and all NOT transitory.
$8.75 for a hotdog at Five Guys, $8.50/lb chicken breasts, $3.39 for gas, Whopper $6.39 at Burger King, $5.49 for cereal that was $2.99 - 3yrs ago, etc.
Have any of you been in a food store? restaurant? You don't need a government employee to tell you about inflation, when you live it everyday.
As long as the PCI excludes energy, shelter and food it will miss what the average person experiences on a daily basis. So the reported numbers don't align with what people see and become another reason that government statistics are so widely disbelieved.
What is the PCI? Write what you know.
I don’t care what the definition is…
Housing and rent is to expensive.
Food has tripled in price.
Gas can’t make up its mind.
And all all this has happened in the last 4 years.
I suspect the other thing driving inflation concerns is the compounding effects over time. As a Gen X'er, I have participated in the economy since I was 12 and had a paper route. Candy bars were 40 cents, a paperback was 2.99 to 3.99, etc. These now cost 3x what they did then, even though the price change may have been roughly 2% per year. Add in that 2% more on 100 is 2, but 2% more on 300 is 6, the absolute magnitude of the yearly increases grows each year, leading to the uneasiness of feeling like the ground is eroding under your feet.
What about "lived experience" (to use a terrible phrase)? There is a difference between inflation calculated by some statistician and the inflation that I see in my grocery cart and gas station. "Real inflation" is what I see and experience and harms my family (or helps). The national inflation rate, while true, is not an inflation rate that anyone personally experiences. Their personal real inflation rate is either higher or lower. It is the real personal inflation rate that affects people real personal decisions. When you are asking people about inflation, you are asking them about their "lived experience" not some economist's calculation.
Economists can shout all they’d like but as long as the price of goods and services are difficult to obtain or out of reach because of price, people will be unhappy. Po-ta-to, po-tah-to.
I'm shocked that Democrat economists and political wonks are trying to make their party and president look better by telling everyone that high prices are fine, actually. And if you dont like the high prices, you are wrong.
idk man i just wish we had honest people on all sides, but we dont, so we get this garbage
"None of this is to deny public ignorance about inflation exists.".
You could add "journalistic ignorance" to that sentence as well.
Ignorance about inflation is universal. Lenin said it: There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency.
What JB87 said. PCI doesn't count food and gas which is what everyone needs
Interestingly enough, I just came across a good chart from Chartr, can't upload it but results are pretty much what's stated here but since 2020 Auto insurance up 46%, Gasoline and Energy both up 34%, Used cars and trucks? down from 2022 but still up 29%. Food away from home up 25% and shelter up 23%. all items up 21% so if you are not making more than 21% above your income in 2020; you are suffering from inflation.
Remember, when you're neighbor loses their job it's a recession; when you lose yours it's a depression.
My pet peeve is when liberals say that inflation is going down! No, you imbeciles, the growth rate of inflation is going down. You know, in general. When Biden says he has brought inflation down, i want to scream! He has done nothing. Absolutely nothing! Only the feckless Fed,who flooded the economy with billions of dollars a month at a time we had limited supplies of goods, has used the blunt tool of raising rates. This economic destruction was completely avoidable!
Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, numbers, definitions, balmy abstractions from life, until weariness strikes bone. Our systems have become both too efficient at transferring wealth upwards and at obfuscating and massaging this fact.
"Over a longer period." Thank you for finally pointing out this super obvious relevant point! When you have experienced super high inflation, which causes a disproportional amount of pain on the poor and working class, you need super low inflation for a few years to alleviate that pain. All the Economist Snobs purposely ignore this point, which is just another way of pretending their crap does not stink because they supported the policies that got us here. Inflation at 2.6% after the horribly high inflation is like pouring a little salt in the gaping wounds of the poor and working class, and then saying, 'Jeez, what's with these people complaining about a little salt'.
And higher prices, indeed inflation, will persist as long as the gov continues spending monopoly money
Perhaps. But what I hear informally id people complaining about a leve, not a rate of change. I might be worthwhile for polls to be more precise in the way they ask about "inflation."
Inflation is responsible for prices being significantly higher now than when Biden took office. Sustained rising prices over a long period of time come from there being too much money chasing too few goods. There was a time when the parlance included "transitory", as if the money supply would contract after being circulated. But there was no plan for that, just talking points. I am tired of democrats trying to rewrite history, as if our memory is so short when we go to the grocery store or try to buy a car, or even fill it with gas. Prices are up more than wages over that time period, and certainly devastating for those on fixed income, like retirees. That spike in inflation in 2022 is all Biden, all democrats, all inflationary and all NOT transitory.
$8.75 for a hotdog at Five Guys, $8.50/lb chicken breasts, $3.39 for gas, Whopper $6.39 at Burger King, $5.49 for cereal that was $2.99 - 3yrs ago, etc.
Have any of you been in a food store? restaurant? You don't need a government employee to tell you about inflation, when you live it everyday.