Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to afford a one-bedroom (cont)

Re:Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to affo... by gruez on Thursday August 12, 2021 @08:06PM (#28163494)

>But… that is inflation

did I say it wasn't? The BLS freely admits that inflation is higher than usual at 5.4% YOY. What's being disputed is whether it's 5.4% as the BLS claims or 20% as GGP claims.

>Is this effect global? Who knows, it’s anecdata

The problem is that listing a bunch of things that's gone up by 20% doesn't mean the overall CPI went up 20%. CPI is a weighted measure, so the things you listed only contribute 1% to it, then it can go up 2000% and the CPI wouldn't be anywhere close to the claimed 20%.

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Re:Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to affo... by tomc1985 on Thursday August 12, 2021 @08:09PM (#28163522)

I read the gp comments as questioning the relevance of the CPI. From my experience it understates the very real price increases I am seeing where I am

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Re:Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to affo... by gruez on Thursday August 12, 2021 @08:20PM (#28163628)

>From my experience it understates the very real price increases I am seeing where I am

the "very real price increases" you're seeing is clouded by the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_heuristic. The CPI uses a fixed basket to weigh the different price increases. Meanwhile in your head, your brain weighs price increases based on the shock factor. That lyft ride that got 2x more expensive? That's going to have much more mental weight than your rent that stayed about the same, even though the rent makes up 40% of your monthly spend and your lyft rides makes up 5%.

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Re:Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to affo... by notJim on Thursday August 12, 2021 @09:09PM (#28164067)

Also good old fashioned confirmation bias. If someone thinks inflation must be through the roof and the government is lying about it, then they're going to notice things that get more expensive, while ignoring things that get cheaper or stay the same.

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Re:Nearly half of American workers don’t earn enough to affo... by whimsicalism on Friday August 13, 2021 @09:48AM (#28168771)

The prices faced by the average tech worker are very different. Restaurant prices in SF have one of the highest increasing prices indices in the country, you can look it up.

Ubers have also increased in price.

Groceries.. have not.

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