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I don't think CPI is rubbish, but I think it is misleading in some ways. It doesn't track dilution of product and product quality in a way applicable to the consumer in overall total value cost. They make quality adjustments and use Hedonic model adjustments to break down into constituent components and apply some "measure of pleasure" component, but they don't take in the quality per unit for unit cost (please correct me if I am wrong) as that is how manufacturers increase their marginal unit profit, by either diluting the quality of said product or shrinking the volume and charging same price to increase velocity and make P&L statements look better.
I would contend it is much like how the Investment community conveniently disregards "survivorship bias" in its tracking of the overall markets by picking / choosing new portfolio of stocks in its basket to track the market. They don't factor in full life cycle of publicly traded companies as they 'fail'. Hey, things always look better if we don't factor in our losers!
Most of the basic "basket" of items I buy on regular basis (food, consumable products, durable goods, etc) show greater inflation. And you need to be a Ninja consumer to try to counter this constant 'erosion/dilution' of quality across a spectrum of products by knowing where/when to buy to optimize bang for buck.
Combine this with forced migration efforts by corporations on tech related products and the bleeding of tech into most products. I don't believe CPI provides measure of "total life cycle" nor "total cost of ownership" calculations for Durable Goods into the things that may comprise their current "basket". Some manufacturers place info on their products but does this data get verified? Does it get factored into CPI?
Here's an example. If a company makes a product with more features- many of which consumers do not want, but charges more for them, yet Econ whizzes think all consumers are getting more pleasure, I call hogwash. Then, sometimes corporations with government "persuasion/collusion" (i.e. lobbying, payoffs, regulations) require consumers to now buy products (forced migration) they may not feel they need, but alas, the consumption/velocity of goods train must move onward, so you get (IMO) higher inflation than what is reported.
Does planned obsolescence / shrinkage and scrappage (survivorship bias) get factored in across different realms within the CPI "basket"?
An ancillary rant on food and beverage in particular: the purposeful obfuscation of companies (of all types) in the way they react to truth in ingredient labeling/ marketing / advertising. They already put a label on products, so simply having them be clearer and true in reporting contents they then "claim" it will cost them so much more. Yet, they constantly change merchandise / branding design themselves to help "market" many of the same products, so they are being disingenuous about having to provide 'clearer/ true' labeling of contents. Also, since the EU already has stricter requirements any international company has the content already created.
The irony to all of this is many of these companies use "responsibility" "environmentally" conscious language and "environmental concerns" as reasons for their so-called improvements. YET, if the survival of the planet was the driver, then LONG Life cycle durable reusable products with low velocity would be much better than high velocity, planned obsolescence, diluted products.
A classic movie people may be interested in watching is the Man In The White Suit with Alec Guinness (1951). It points out the dilemma of truly making a better product. Satire at it's finest.
which was changed for many positive reasons as much of the old calculations did not give as accurate picture as the refinements.
the cpi is not anyone’s cost of living index . it’s a standardized thermometer for looking just at price chances in the 1500 mini economies that make this country up .
it’s a price change index .
to be a cost of living index representative of you it would need to not only track only what you utilize but how many times you utilize it as well as some quality measure .
higher end goods tend to see bigger price increases but last longer
which was changed for many positive reasons as much of the old calculations did not give as accurate picture as the refinements.
the cpi is not anyone’s cost of living index . it’s a standardized thermometer for looking just at price chances in the 1500 mini economies that make this country up .
it’s a price change index .
to be a cost of living index representative of you it would need to not only track only what you utilize but how many times you utilize it as well as some quality measure .
higher end goods tend to see bigger price increases but last longer
Well, it is called the consumer price index. Which, to many of us, implies that it is a gauge of our cost of living. But the core CPI that is most cited excludes certain things that have volatile pricing (like gasoline). I can see why you'd want to smooth out the data to see long term trends but the real world we all live in is volatile.
regardless of what they call it , it does not reflect anyone of us personally since we don’t use all those goods and services and we all buy what we do different amounts of times
According to the gov, consumer price inflation has been 3.7% in the last 12 months. Most people whom you ask “how much has your cost of living gone up in the past 12 months?” will answer somewhere between 10% and 20%. Now granted that’s a “seat of the pants” number as most people don’t crunch numbers to the degree that would be needed, but still, when confronted with “3.7%” pretty much everybody will tell you to GTFO. For many people homeowner’s insurance has gone through the roof. Same with car insurance. Same with homes (or rent) and cars. Same with food. Same with health insurance and medical bills. Same with many other things we need to buy. So why isn’t there an alternative source of price inflation? I mean, this is information that is easy to gather, and you don’t need a proton collider to process it, just a spreadsheet. I’m only aware of shadowstats as an alternative CPI but for whatever reason it seems to get a lot of criticism from “pundits”. I remember years ago I think it was google that was sponsoring something called the “million price project” or something like that, where they were gonna track prices, but I never heard about it again. Does every effort to track price inflation independently get squashed by government goons in black vans or what’s the deal here?
Sure. There's an alternative. Call it common sense or thinking for yourself. 3.7 percent is a little above average. What we're experiencing is A LOT ABOVE AVERAGE.
I don't think CPI is rubbish, but I think it is misleading in some ways. It doesn't track dilution of product and product quality in a way applicable to the consumer in overall total value cost. They make quality adjustments and use Hedonic model adjustments to break down into constituent components and apply some "measure of pleasure" component, but they don't take in the quality per unit for unit cost (please correct me if I am wrong) as that is how manufacturers increase their marginal unit profit, by either diluting the quality of said product or shrinking the volume and charging same price to increase velocity and make P&L statements look better.
I would contend it is much like how the Investment community conveniently disregards "survivorship bias" in its tracking of the overall markets by picking / choosing new portfolio of stocks in its basket to track the market. They don't factor in full life cycle of publicly traded companies as they 'fail'. Hey, things always look better if we don't factor in our losers!
Most of the basic "basket" of items I buy on regular basis (food, consumable products, durable goods, etc) show greater inflation. And you need to be a Ninja consumer to try to counter this constant 'erosion/dilution' of quality across a spectrum of products by knowing where/when to buy to optimize bang for buck.
Combine this with forced migration efforts by corporations on tech related products and the bleeding of tech into most products. I don't believe CPI provides measure of "total life cycle" nor "total cost of ownership" calculations for Durable Goods into the things that may comprise their current "basket". Some manufacturers place info on their products but does this data get verified? Does it get factored into CPI?
Here's an example. If a company makes a product with more features- many of which consumers do not want, but charges more for them, yet Econ whizzes think all consumers are getting more pleasure, I call hogwash. Then, sometimes corporations with government "persuasion/collusion" (i.e. lobbying, payoffs, regulations) require consumers to now buy products (forced migration) they may not feel they need, but alas, the consumption/velocity of goods train must move onward, so you get (IMO) higher inflation than what is reported.
Does planned obsolescence / shrinkage and scrappage (survivorship bias) get factored in across different realms within the CPI "basket"?
An ancillary rant on food and beverage in particular: the purposeful obfuscation of companies (of all types) in the way they react to truth in ingredient labeling/ marketing / advertising. They already put a label on products, so simply having them be clearer and true in reporting contents they then "claim" it will cost them so much more. Yet, they constantly change merchandise / branding design themselves to help "market" many of the same products, so they are being disingenuous about having to provide 'clearer/ true' labeling of contents. Also, since the EU already has stricter requirements any international company has the content already created.
The irony to all of this is many of these companies use "responsibility" "environmentally" conscious language and "environmental concerns" as reasons for their so-called improvements. YET, if the survival of the planet was the driver, then LONG Life cycle durable reusable products with low velocity would be much better than high velocity, planned obsolescence, diluted products.
A classic movie people may be interested in watching is the Man In The White Suit with Alec Guinness (1951). It points out the dilemma of truly making a better product. Satire at it's finest.
You make some good points and while many Americans rally around the notion of better quality/longer life cycles when given options Americans opt for lower upfront costs/shorter lifecycles most times.
We even have examples in which Americans pick more expensive options over less expensive and better quality options for perceived convenience/ease of use reasons.
Examples:
Shaving with a good quality DE razor (maybe a Rockwell or King Gillette), Feather DE blades (probably the best blades of their type made) plus a great Silverback badger hair brush and shave soap over time offers better shaving results and costs much, much less than cartridge + can foam shaving and yet most men chose the later...probably for perceived convenience reasons.
Coffee. Usually for less money anyone can brew pour-over coffee with a Chemex, Hario V-60* or French press coffee using a phone, a cheap precession kettle - no precision kettle needed for FP - filters when needed and a grinder that crushes the thin low flavor swill most people make using machines that can't heat the water enough and overground coffee. And yes I know a few companies like Technovorm make Gold Cup level machines most people are not going the cough up the dough for one.
*A plastic Hario V-60 costs like $11 or $12.
And then we have items that are simply better than in the past like autos........paint, rust protection, safety, tires, glass, fuel injection, AC, towing capacity, engine cooling systems etc.......all better than in the past. My light duty F-150 tows and carries more than a 3/4 ton F-250 from not too long ago.
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