I don't want to belabor this, and I'm sure that your intentions here are good. I'm very aware of various technical definitions of inflation, and I understand where you're coming from.
I will leave you with this — do you think there might be a reason why the conventionally promoted inflation definitions and measures allow rapid increase in cost of living on fixed income to be called "not inflation"? Do you think that's a good definition, if it means someone with a fixed future cash flow can now buy a smaller stream of future goods? What/who is served by sticking to these (IMO gerrymandered) definitions of "value of money"?
We've gone deep enough and I will leave my contribution at that (though obviously feel free to reply). I too was educated on these technical definitions of inflation and I have become extremely skeptical of them as I have seen the mismatch with lived reality.
Edit: I won't make any more points, but I will say that I consider the implications in the response below here uncharitable and unresponsive to the points above.
No, I don't believe that conventional measures of inflation are a conspiracy by the rich and powerful to keep the working man down.
I do understand that there are others with this point of view including, apparently, you.
I have tended to notice that people who believe these things don't tend to defend them on technical merits but tend to retreat into accusations against the rich and powerful instead, because of course that group of people must be pulling a fast one on everyone else. I do not find these sorts of arguments persuasive.
I will leave you with this — do you think there might be a reason why the conventionally promoted inflation definitions and measures allow rapid increase in cost of living on fixed income to be called "not inflation"? Do you think that's a good definition, if it means someone with a fixed future cash flow can now buy a smaller stream of future goods? What/who is served by sticking to these (IMO gerrymandered) definitions of "value of money"?
We've gone deep enough and I will leave my contribution at that (though obviously feel free to reply). I too was educated on these technical definitions of inflation and I have become extremely skeptical of them as I have seen the mismatch with lived reality.
Edit: I won't make any more points, but I will say that I consider the implications in the response below here uncharitable and unresponsive to the points above.