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by omalleyt 1876 days ago
That’s putting a lot of faith on the gov’t to correctly report CPI, when they have every incentive to underreport it.

In fact, they’ve changed the CPI methodology twice in order to report lower average inflation (under the premise that the old measures “overstated” inflation).
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throw0101a 1876 days ago
> the gov’t

Can you please define what/who you mean by "the government"? The CPI changed in the 1990s after a Senate Finance Committee report said it was over-estimated (i.e., too high):

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boskin_Commission

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Consumer_Price_I...

If you don't like how BLS (Executive Branch) reports the CPI, perhaps talk to the Senate (Legislative Branch)?

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gruez 1876 days ago
>In fact, they’ve changed the CPI methodology twice in order to report lower average inflation (under the premise that the old measures “overstated” inflation).

Source?

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omalleyt 1876 days ago
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/07/consumerpriceindex....
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gruez 1876 days ago
>Over the years, the methodology used to calculate the CPI has undergone numerous revisions. According to the BLS, the changes removed biases that caused the CPI to overstate the inflation rate. The new methodology takes into account changes in the quality of goods and substitution. Substitution, the change in purchases by consumers in response to price changes, changes the relative weighting of the goods in the basket.2 The overall result tends to be a lower CPI. However, critics view the methodological changes and the switch from a COGI to a COLI as a purposeful manipulation that allows the U.S. government to report a lower CPI.

But adjusting the basket totally makes sense from a reporting point of view. Consider the reverse. As countries have gotten richer/industrialized, so have their consumption of meats. If a country is undergoing development, should their CPI basket continue to assume that people eat meat once a week, even though most people eat meat multiple times per week?

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tylerjaywood 1876 days ago
There are numerous. Google search “hedonic adjustment CPI”
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gruez 1876 days ago
On the surface the adjustments seem pretty reasonable to me. As a thought experiment, would you want to live in the 70s just to earn 5x more? I wouldn't. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dL5G4QYEhc
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eloff 1876 days ago
As a software engineer, I think I'd take that deal.

It'd be nice to be able to afford a home in Vancouver.

Plus no smart phones, good riddance.

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