[pocksuppet]

Are you aware that the government manipulates numbers to make itself look better? It's been vastly understating inflation, for example, by insisting that cheaper TV inches and RAM gigabytes cancel out more expensive houses and food.

[slibhb]

I'm aware that depressed people think everything is worse for no objective reason. And they're quick to jump to conspiracy theories to explain why the data seems to confirm that everything is not, in fact, worse.

[pocksuppet]

That's why I'm asking you for data, not for the government's own opinion of itself. For example, you could provide a trend line of non-imputed nominal rent.

I'm not the only one to notice the existence of hidden inflation: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47850079

[slibhb]

The post you're linking to is making a simple error. Consumers wants cheap, temporary clothes...so they can buy clothes more often. That's a legitimate preference (though not one I share).

As far as rent goes, it has gone up in real terms over the past 20 years. You can verify that by looking at government data. However, that doesn't tell us anything about the likely impact of AI. It's generally agreed that housing costs have gone up due to overregulation.

[pocksuppet]

If the average wage buys less things, it means real purchasing power has decreased.