Lots of things have definitely gone up way more than 15% since 2020. My grocery bills are way more than 15% higher, for one. I'd say the 50% estimate's closer, there, despite our downgrading a lot of things we're buying, and once you factor in the awful shrinkflation in many products over that span. Housing (thank god we got locked in well before that) and healthcare costs (for us) are up way more than 15% since 2020.
Jan. 1st 2020 was more than three years ago. Prices are absolutely not up only 15% vs. 2020, which was the claim I was responding to. That's so wildly wrong it's in piss-on-my-leg-and-tell-me-it's-raining territory.
> only butter/margarine, eggs
But those are cooking staples... sure, you can reduce use to save money, but you can also switch to an all rice and beans diet to save money. It's not like if specifically pork, say, had gone up—sub beef, sub chicken, whatever, cool, not a big deal. Butter and eggs, though?
>Jan. 1st 2020 was more than three years ago.
January 1st 2020 was 3 years, 1 month, and 2 days ago. Apologies for rounding. However, that really just pushes (albeit insignificantly) further against the claim that we have experienced 50% inflation over 2-3 years.
>Prices are absolutely not up only 15% vs. 2020, which was the claim I was responding to. That's so wildly wrong it's in piss-on-my-leg-and-tell-me-it's-raining territory.
On average (across America and across many different goods), they are. Prices may be different in your area or for what you buy (e.g. specific brands, stores, etc.).
>But those are cooking staples... sure, you can reduce use to save money, but you can also switch to an all rice and beans diet to save money. It's not like if specifically pork, say, had gone up—sub beef, sub chicken, whatever, cool, not a big deal. Butter and eggs, though?
The overall inflation across the average basket of food that American consumers buy over one year was 10%. That figure accounts for the fact that people buy staple goods more than other goods. It also assumes zero substitution (e.g. no change in number of eggs bought).
Inflation simply cannot fully explain an 18.5% increase in CC debt for the average American.
Perhaps it explains it for you/would explain it for you if you had increased CC debt. But, in that case, you are not representative of the average American.
10% is the one year category inflation for food, 15% since 2020 is the overall CPI inflation. These are different numbers because the first only looks at the food that Americans buy while the second looks everything people spend their money on.
The intent of my response was to explain why saying "my grocery bill has gone up 50%" does not negate the fact that there has been 15% inflation since 2020. This is because food inflation and overall inflation are not the same, and because you are experiencing an above-average increase in your grocery bill.
Perhaps food inflation since 2020 would be the more relevant number. That is 21.9%: https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/food-inflati... (you can calculate this by multiplying the food inflation numbers for 2020, 2021, and 2022, 1.104x1.063x1.039)
Inflation is a highly politicized topic. The means of calculating it is frequently under revision.
The US federal government is massively in debt in $USD terms, so inflation is good for them. On the flip side, they need to convince the world that inflation is under control or they may lose the status of being the world's reserve currency issuer. How can you accomplish both goals? Continue to debase the currency while you fudge the numbers.
> The means of calculating it is frequently under revision.
BLS frequently makes changes to how it calculates inflation. However, none of these changes make that big of a difference. I have never seen an economist arguing that inflation is actually 10+ percentage points higher than BLS is reporting.
If anything, many economists think BLS overestimates inflation because they do not account for substitution (e.g. people buying fewer eggs when the price goes up).
Your local Raleys jacking up prices locally is not inflation. I've seen people in this forum complain that inflation is bad because their personal choice of cereal doubled in price, but that is not the general case, and that is not inflation.
But sure, mediocre TVs are still cheap as hell.