Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by sethg 4959 days ago
Do the actual statistics bear out the theory that inflation is significantly higher for the things that low-income groups purchase? See, for example, this graph:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?id=CPIAUCSL,CWSR...,

1 comments

From an non-scientific back-of-the-envelope thought process, it would seem that at least the "perception" would be higher.

At lower income levels, a much higher percentage of one's total income is spent for life's basics (i.e., food and fuel being the big two). Therefore any increase in food or fuel costs (both of which have risen rather much the last few years) takes an ever bigger bite out of an already small income pie. Therefore making low income individuals very sensitive to price changes in these basics. Potentially leading to a perception of a higher overall inflation than what is actually happening in the market as as whole.