> The same box of cereal increased from ~$3.75 to ~$6.59 and gone from 19oz to 17oz.

Your claim is that cereal has experienced 96% inflation? Over what time frame?

Since the beginning of 2020, yes. Even the delayed statistics appear to support my anecdotal evidence. However, thanks to Publix sending receipts to my email account I can provide a more concrete example.

Kellogg’s Fruit Loops “Family Size”

01/16/2020 21oz $4.79 ~$0.23/oz

Today 18.4oz $8.59 ~$0.47/oz

So yea, over a 100% increase…

Not sure if you are cherry picking that example, but I looked up that cereal in my local grocery store in a VHCOL area and it is $6.99/23oz ($0.30/oz).

You're both correct. Individual SKUs varying by $1-2 between two different metros isn't surprising or unrealistic. Stores also adjust pricing weekly, and items on offer tend to rotate as well, so comparing point-in-time prices could be volatile. None of this means the inflation didn't occur, just that one specific example may not be telling the full picture.

In my area, the Malt-O-Meal knockoff version ("Tootie Fruities") is $5.99/30oz ($0.20/oz).

I point this out because it always seems weird to me that discussing housing / utilities / healthcare / education costs somehow get boiled down to grocery store pricing disparities, when grocery stores allow you to comparison shop (and real estate / electricity / oil / etc don't).

Because this method of judging inflation by using “equivalent” substitutes completely ignores the change in quality of life.

Real inflation is what happens when my behavior doesn’t change at all, but my costs increase.

If I keep making adjustments to my behaviors then I’m just trying to counteract inflation, it doesn’t mean inflation isn’t happening.

That's actually a very fair point, thank you!

Ouch, Publix has the 18.4 oz Family sized and Kroger has a giant sized 23 oz for $7.53. I can’t see the price for Publix but they do have a buy one get one 17oz for $6.59. In my state you can buy a single bogo and get it for half price.

I’m diehard Publix but I may look elsewhere for boxed kids items.

We try to only shop BOGOs at Publix, but I was trying to pick one of my children’s favorite foods, something we always purchase, as an example.

There are many other examples though, goldfish crackers, nacho chips, tortillas, ground beef. All of it has increase between 20% and 90%.

If we only judge inflation and cost increases based off the necessities, or based off the cheapest variant of an item, then we ignore the quality of life aspect.

If you base inflations off a fixed set of items, then companies would avoid adjusting those fixed set of items to justify not increasing employee pay. Our government has already been doing this to avoid the truth of how bad inflation is by using “equivalent” substitutes for staple items.

I will point out that this example of inflation seems to be mostly just price gouging by the big brands.

I've seen a similar price increase in the branded cereals, so I am not disagreeing with you in that sense.

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However, the store brand cereals, which are cheaper, haven't really gone up at all. At this point the branded product is more than double the unit cost of the store/no-name brand version in my local stores.

This suggests to me that it's not an actual increase in the cost of producing the product. If it was driven by commodity/input/manufacturing cost prices we should be seeing price pressures coming through in the cheapest cereals.

> I will point out that this example of inflation seems to be mostly just price gouging by the big brands.

I think price gouging is a major part of all inflation we're seeing. Nothing "just" about it; it's the central problem. Corporate profits are at an all-time high, while prices rise and lots of people struggle to get by.

The only reason it's happening is because corporations think they can get away with it. There's not enough players on the market for someone to be willing to compete on price; it's all one giant cartel.

Agreed!

I believe price gouging is behind most of the inflation we’ve encountered the last couple years. Companies reduced the workforce, forced the remaining employees to maintain the same amount of production and increased prices. They then turned around and gushed to shareholders about their record profits.

> This suggests to me that it's not an actual increase in the cost of producing the product. If it was driven by commodity/input/manufacturing cost prices we should be seeing price pressures coming through in the cheapest cereals.

I don't know about cereal manufacturers specifically, but in general, it costs 25% more now compared to pre-Covid to produce food[0].

The amount Americans spend on food relative to their income has gone up in that same time period, but only from slightly under 10% to slightly under 12%[1], and is still well under historical levels as well as compared to other countries. Not bad for an economic system full of supposed "price gougers".

[0]: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCU311311

[1]: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/gallery...

Isn't this the entire point of capitalism and the privatization of critical services and infrastructure ?

All companies exist to make money, that is absolutely all there is to it. So they're making more money by jacking up prices as far as they can to make...more money. In the US, this will continue until it can't anymore...it will happen things like food, electricity, healthcare, education, infrastructure. The only thing that could stop is might be government intervention, but the politicians are bought too now, so maybe direct civil disobedience would be the only other thing that might bring on a change.

I think all economic and political systems have pros and cons. They all are subject to corruption and greed as well. The problem isn’t capitalism alone, but corruption and greed as well. We’ve reached the point where those at the top are blaming everything but their own greed for the problems the rest of the world is dealing with. Scurvy is going to make a comeback and the rich are going to blame it on laziness and a lack of hard work. History repeats itself.

Not disagreeing with your observations, but I'd like to add property taxes, and most specifically, the portion used to support public schools, to your list. Excluding the past year, this is where I've seen the greatest increases in my expenses.

And since it's government creating most of this, it's hard to imagine that there's any relief to be found by looking towards government for a solution.

Those damn public schools. Schools ought to be private so only the wealthy can afford them. That way the lessers know their place and can get their kids cleaning toilets and digging ditches sooner!

Are we not allowed to question any increase to taxation when its related to education?

Especially when the US public education system spends more per pupil than almost every other country on the planet[0], with appalling results. In fact, as spending increased 30% over the past decade, student achievements flatlined, then fell precipitously after Covid[1].

[0]: https://educationdata.org/public-education-spending-statisti...

[1]: https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=38

I think you may have missed that Florida passed a school choice act, and that tons of funds are now flowing into private religious schools. A ridiculous waste of money, especially considering a majority of said schools raised their tuition rates to just absorb the new funding. DeSantis policies at work.

I'm not religious myself, but I still think it's pretty ridiculous for you to assume that this mode of education has no value. Isn't our modern watch word supposed to be "tolerance", and not objecting to other members of our community following their values even when those are different from our own?

I'm fine subsidizing education of any form, as long as what I'm subsidizing meets all the same standards and burdens that the public option does for the same amount of funding. The idea that they can charge a tuition greater than the subsidized amount is tantamount to a handout.

If they want to incorporate religion and/or alternative education, it should be on top of the same requirement the public school systems follow. (i.e. They should be required to teach the standard classes without religious influence or bias. Let their religious teachings be separate classes. No student receiving a publicly funded education should be taught exclusively that the earth is only 6000 years old or supplied with publicly funded textbooks that outright reject evolution in all forms.)

> property taxes

Anywhere that has property taxes really needs to have a clause similar to what Oregon has that states that the assessed value of your property cannot increase by more than 3% per year for property tax calculation purposes.

It's pretty bonkers that people can very quickly, over the course of less than 5 years, get priced out of a place that they own, just because the market became white hot.

I bought my house in 2015 for $340K. It's currently estimated to be $600K. Yet I'm paying taxes assuming a $250K value.

Granted, I think the 3% limit is too low. I think 4-5% is more reasonable.

Maybe they could lock it to COLA used for SS benefits?

>And since it's government creating most of this, it's hard to imagine that there's any relief to be found by looking towards government for a solution.

Maybe not the government you're electing.

The NW had a case over the last several years, where there was really perverse behavior.

Except for Seattle / Portland, not many companies really invest in the NW. Except all the residential prices just rise and rise. ex: "66% (8331) of residential properties in Post Falls saw a property tax climb between 2019 and 2020. Yet only 6% (71) of commercial properties (6%) experienced an increase".

So when the pandemic was ramping up, all the property tax burden dropped right on top of the homeowners.

Annnnnd: If you don't pay your property taxes, it doesn't matter if you own your house. Title. Everything. Can take it away for a couple years of property taxes. In many states, they don't even have to pay you the sale price difference.