[caymanjim]

Once your basic needs are taken care of, inflation at current levels is irrelevant. I'm by no means rich. By HN standards I have an average income. If not for the daily news stories about it, I wouldn't even know there was any inflation bubble right now. The top AI people at Meta make a substantial multiple of what I make. They might be leaving for more money, but it has absolutely nothing to do with inflation.

People at that salary level usually leave for other reasons, like not wanting to work for such a morally bankrupt company whose sole purpose is selling ads.

[throwawayboise]

Genuine question, when you shop for groceries do you not look at prices at all and just buy what you want and tap your phone at the checkout?

Because to me, it seems impossible to not notice the inflation in food prices over the past year. It hasn't really changed my life, but it's very noticable that prices are going up.

[caymanjim]

No, I almost never look at prices for food. If there were no prices printed on food, it wouldn't change my shopping habits one bit. I do sometimes notice deals that are prominently displayed, like "50% off!" or "2-for-1!" and take advantage of that. If I'm ordering online instead of in-person, the grocery store's UI helpfully points out when there are coupons, and I'll use that. If it's something where I don't care at all what brand I get, I'll buy the store brand knowing that it's cheaper. But I never intentionally look at prices for the purpose of saving money. I don't know what a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread costs.

I know this is "privilege", but it's emphasizing my point, which is that these top AI engineers making 3-10x as much as me certainly aren't worrying about inflation.

[BeetleB]

> Because to me, it seems impossible to not notice the inflation in food prices over the past year. It hasn't really changed my life, but it's very noticable that prices are going up.

I earn significantly less than a FAANG employee, and I agree with GP. From groceries alone, I'd never have known we had inflation. The only increase in prices that I did notice on my own is that eating out has gotten more expensive. And that's because many meals I would have for under $10 have magically hit $10+ - a notable boundary point, and the price point where I start thinking twice about "convenience" lunches.

[junipertea]

I make 6 figures. I honestly do not look at food prices when I shop. It's a negligible expense after rent, savings and mortgage.

[andreilys]

If you pay rent, then you should be aware of the inflation bubble.

[BeetleB]

Depends on the city you live in. Rent here has been going up for a long time - even when inflation was near zero. So for locals, the rent increase alone is not an indicator of inflation.

[treyfitty]

Rent is agreed upon in 1/2+ year leases. So, no. You can pay a fixed rate stipulated just before inflation.

[caymanjim]

When people refer to "inflation" without any additional modifiers, they're generally referring to the Consumer Price Index numbers released by the government. When the news reports that "inflation is at a 40 year high" or "inflation is at 6%", that is based on the CPI. The CPI does not include housing costs. The most visible single component of the CPI for most people is the cost of gasoline. That's the only thing that I've personally noticed costing more.

[ahahahahah]

That was stated surprisingly confidently. It's entirely wrong though, the CPI does include housing costs. I don't know why you would single out gasoline as "most visible", but I guess that gives you flexibility to claim that your real meaning is whatever you want. Gasoline prices actually (currently) impact CPI about half as much as food prices and one tenth as much as shelter costs.

You can see more here: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t01.htm

[throwawaygh]

It's not a money thing. It's a mindset thing.

I am fairly senior and make tons of money. The ratio of income to my annual grocery bill is stupid. Also, I eat mostly salads and meat is not my most common protein source. Groceries could go up 10x and fluctuation in my investments would still grossly dwarf .

But one of my earliest memories is my mother crying at the ATM because the checking account was over-drawn and there was no food at home (by the time I was in high school we were much better off than most, but the treatment effect stuck -- my younger sibling and I think about money in very different ways. Crazy what a $2K savings buffer can do). I then spent a good part of my early adult life stressing about affording food & choosing between rent and desired groceries.

I still stress over every single thing that goes in the grocery basket, for absolutely not rational reason. In particular, I don't stress about e.g. restaurant bills. Why? Because the times in my life when food was scarce do not overlap with times I was in restaurants as a patron.

The grocery store in particular is a source of psychological terror for many Americans at one point or another in their lives, and those memories are visceral.

[octoberfranklin]

Thank you for sharing this.

It's not on the level of food insecurity, but I see a ton of comments in this thread by people who obviously are too young to remember the dot-com bust of 2001.

I was just out of school in 1999 and can vividly recall one of the senior engineers warning me, with mortal seriousness in his eyes, "it isn't always like this". I also remember having absolutely no fucking clue what he was talking about, except on the most superficial level. He was then just about the age that I am now.

Winter is coming.