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The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

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Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#191

Post by GoodJokes »

SoftTalker wrote: post #87
nostromo wrote: post #51

I’ve seen some people showing actual price increases they’ve seen in their local communities. For a lot of folks it’s much higher than is being reported. Here’s one from a person in Seattle: https://preview.redd.it/max54wqv9kb91.png?width=1112&format=...

Last year I could buy a whole chicken for roasting for about $10. Now they are $17 or so. 70% increase. Beef the same. Pork hasn't jumped as much for some reason. Ground turkey is about the most affordable meat I can find right now, but when you cook it you can see that it has a lot of water in it.

No post body was provided.

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#192

Post by bitshiftfaced »

godmode2019 wrote: post #136
nostromo wrote: post #51

I’ve seen some people showing actual price increases they’ve seen in their local communities. For a lot of folks it’s much higher than is being reported. Here’s one from a person in Seattle: https://preview.redd.it/max54wqv9kb91.png?width=1112&format=...

In Australia you would need to double those prices, to be on the low end of prices. Maybe we earn more money?

The median income in Australia is higher than in the US, yes.

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#193

Post by ravedave5 »

pengaru wrote: post #125

In 2021 this IKEA gateleg table [0] cost $199 [1]. In early 2022 it was $229 according to my records, but never in stock at any IKEAs near me. Presumably because of all the crazy supply chain/lumber problems, the IKEA shelves were largely empty. By the time it managed to get back in stock, the price was $259 [2]. Today it's $279 [0], a 40% increase over its 2021 price. I don't even know how low it was before 2020/pre…

Ha, I got that table, we had to stalk Ikea's store every day to catch it in stock and drive there immediately.

This is a tangential anecdote for inflation though, it's supply and demand here. They have a limited number so they are going to charge as much as they can for the limited stock they have.

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#194

Post by taylodl »

People have been complaining that the actual inflation is greater than the "officially reported" inflation for the past 30 years - ever since the Great Recession. The cost for energy was factored out, and even the cost of food was factored out to some extent - so long as you can replace item A with item B and the price of A > B then we'll take item B.

This had led to an "officially reported" inflation rate that is lower than the actual inflation people experience. Critics say it's to keep the cost of social security increases low, since they're based on the "officially reported" inflation rate.

Next up, another pet peeve of mine: the calculation of the unemployment rate..

Edit: replaced "Cynics" with "Critics"

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#195

Post by leereeves »

taylodl wrote: post #194

People have been complaining that the actual inflation is greater than the "officially reported" inflation for the past 30 years - ever since the Great Recession. The cost for energy was factored out, and even the cost of food was factored out to some extent - so long as you can replace item A with item B and the price of A > B then we'll take item B. This had led to an "officially reported" inflation rate that is lo…

> Cynics say it's to keep the cost of social security increases low, since they're based on the "officially reported" inflation rate.

Intentional or not, it certainly has had that effect. Social security payments haven't kept up with the cost of living.

My grandparents managed to live on social security alone. My father has social security and a state pension and still needs a part time job.

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#196

Post by pj_mukh »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #94
pj_mukh wrote: post #23

Generally, this really sucks for the restaurant and the town but, "the price of food, particularly meat, has risen more than the over-all consumer-price index" Unpopular opinion: But maybe this is fine? In fact after inflation is under control, maybe real meat needs a heavy carbon tax to keep the prices high. We can rebuild the supply chain around fake meats as we slowly switch away. I know this all seems implausible…

One day the economic reaper will come for the software developers: will be kinda fun even though I am one because the the roll out of bed and get $200k/y lifestyle and the entitlement to that will vapourize.

The climate reaper is already here and it’s the Texans featured in this article that will feel the heat first.

The 200k/yr developer will comfortably whisk themselves off up the hill.

Maybe this is more complicate than you think it is?

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#197

Post by leereeves »

konschubert wrote: post #118
once_inc wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The term "Inflation" is used in two forms interchangeably by most people, and this leads to miscommunication. Inflation is used for: (a) price inflation: increasing prices for individual goods. (b) monetary inflation: an increase in the amount of money used. Both types of inflation means you get less goods for the same amount of (in this instance) Dollars. Monetary inflation (b) is mostly created by central banks and…

Let me add to your list: 4. Russia artificially limiting the Gas supply to freak out the Europeans. 5. Russia preventing wheat and corn feed from being exported out of Ukraine, forcing it to rot.

I'd also like to add to the list:

6. Many industries have become oligopolies, so companies can increase the prices consumers pay even faster than their own costs increase, leading to record profits.

For example, Tyson Foods' profits nearly doubled:

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/07/tyson-foods-higher-meat-pric...

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#198

Post by themaninthedark »

tyingq wrote: post #72
gruez wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems massively susceptible to sampling bias. eg. are you really reporting all of your costs, or only the costs that you noticed going up? Meanwhile BLS provides regional CPI numbers[1], which puts "Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue WA" inflation at 10.1% between Jun 2021 and Jun 2022. https://www.bls.gov/regions/west/factsheet/consumer-price-in...

The CPI is well thought out, though it's possible that their choices on weighting don't match your own spend. Some detail here: https://www.bls.gov/cpi/tables/relative-importance/2021.htm

If the CPI does not match people's spending habits, then it does not matter if it well thought out or not because it is a bad metric.

Looking at the table, Energy(CPI-U 7.348%,CPI-W 9.029%) looks to be massively undervalued. Everything in our modern life, from food and clean water to our leisure activities require energy.

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#199

Post by UIUC_06 »

rob_c wrote: post #149
UIUC_06 wrote: post #86

The problem of inflation has been solved before. It is a monetary phenomenon, period. It was solved by Paul Volcker turning the screws, mercilessly, until it went away. I can understand the desire to treat it as brand-new, never been seen before. After all, maybe you weren't even around the last time this was a problem.

Yes, and we knew covid-19 was of the covid class of virus, people still treated it like it was an alien contageon asif it had never been documented and studied pre-2019 extremely well how this class of infection spreads and what the full risk profile looks like. The biggest problem here is the risk of "those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it" is cropping up in all forms of public, opinion driven politics…

The fool learns from experience. The wise person learns from other people's experience.

Re: The true costs of inflation in small-town Texas

#200

Post by richbell »

pengaru wrote: post #125

In 2021 this IKEA gateleg table [0] cost $199 [1]. In early 2022 it was $229 according to my records, but never in stock at any IKEAs near me. Presumably because of all the crazy supply chain/lumber problems, the IKEA shelves were largely empty. By the time it managed to get back in stock, the price was $259 [2]. Today it's $279 [0], a 40% increase over its 2021 price. I don't even know how low it was before 2020/pre…

Another furniture anecdote:

In late 2020, we purchased our couch for $400. By early 2021 the price had risen to ~$500, and it was completely out of stock. Now the price is $800 and it's regularly out of stock for months at a time.

https://www.structube.com/en_ca/falcon-3seater-sofa-46-19-68

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