Re:Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes
by evrydayhustling on Tuesday March 09, 2021 @10:08AM
(#26399479)
yeah, i don't love my discretionary/essential breakdown there.
it's more about the combo of essential + non-exchangeability -- you need a car but there are a lot of options, but when you need a hospital there's usually one best place. (and education is non-exchangeable due to competitiveness).
the other big correlate is just goods vs services (even textbooks are service-like due to editions). I am not an economist but I'm really curious whether rapid depreciation caused by planned obsolescence of e.g. consumer electronics is causing a poor measurement of price trends in that area. Today's iPhone will cost much less next year, but the cost of maintaining a cutting-edge smart phone keeps going up.
To be fair, three out of the seven categories that are under inflation can also be considered "essential". Imagine the outrage if cars (or more generally, transport) and clothing increased 2x over inflation, or if cellphone/internet access became less and less affordable (remember all the "internet should be an essential service" headlines at the start of the pandemic?).