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U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

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Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#781

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Per the discussion, it only ends once sanctions are lifted, and that requires a willingness from "us" to make peace with Russia. If there is feelings of spitefulness for what they did the sanctions could continue even after Russia pulls out.

> and that requires a willingness from "us" to make peace with Russia This is false. It requires a willingness from Russia to stop invading Ukraine. What you're writing here is appeasement, and it it's a very bad idea both generally and specifically with regards to global economic stability.

> What you're writing here is appeasement

Yes, Russia can attempt appeasement by leaving Ukraine, but we have to accept that gesture for peace to be made. There is no reason why we have to lift sanctions just because they tried to appease us. We probably would for a number of reasons, but we don't have to make peace if we don't want to.

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#782

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, Putin has a nuclear umbrella and the wagner group. It seems unlikely he will be held accountable.

Accountability is a many-way street. Can't keep blaming the boogeymen when everything is a trick.

Well, you haven't named anything yourself. Please, enlighten us. But before you answer, remember that the UK didnt do any stimulative action like the US did and yet they have similar inflation problems. As does Europe.

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#783

Good news I guess. But my electricity price literally doubled. My house insurance is up 30%. My gas bill is up by a lot. Have you seen the price of oreos? The $5 box at Taco Bell is my splurge and I'm trying to cut back on everything I can.

I haven't been to fast foods in a handful of years but was in a hurry last week and stopped at BK. A large combo was a few coins short of $15! Whoa. This used to be about ~$6.

If that's the norm I don't see how fast food will survive. Instead I'll go to the authentic taqueria next door, which used to be about double the cost for lunch (so I didn't go so often) but now it is actually cheaper and much better.

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#784

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inflation is not a force that acts on prices. It is a weighted measurement of price increases. 8.5% CPI is perfectly possible even with 100% increases in the price of gasoline. "Wait, but this thing rose by more than 8.5%" is not a coherent argument. In fact, you can go look at the breakdown by price category and see the categories that have gone up by higher amounts.

You're making my point - it's a misleading metric.

In what way?

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#785

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gas went down since last month. But the point isn't specifics. The point is that the existence of some things that went up by more than 8.5% over last year is not meaningful evidence that the 8.5% number is a lie.

Gas is still up for the year and only went down after hitting it's record peak, and it's the first month to be down after that crazy near 2 year run up from $1.80~ Name one other thing that went down. Literally everything is 20% more expensive. - edit (post limit) - Not being pedantic and yes I know monthly inflation fluctuates, some things are seasonal. I'm mainly talking about yearly inflation. Name one thing that…

> Name one other thing that went down.

Christ. I didn't expect the third degree about an abstract statement. Surely you agree that sometimes there are things that go down in price, at least temporarily (since it apparently doesn't count as "going down in price when something goes up and then goes down but not as much as it went up). The entire point was that inflation is a weighted average, not a statement about the specific price change of any particular good.

> Literally everything is 20% more expensive.

If you are going to be so pedantic about my post, at least be pedantic about yours. It is absolutely not the case that everything is 20% more expensive.

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#786

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything I care about definitely seems to have gone up a lot more than the nominal inflation rate would suggest. Maybe not 50%, but... certainly more than 20% over the last two years. Then again that's been true since I started paying attention to this stuff almost 20 years ago. The reported inflation rate's never felt all that close to how much stuff I buy's actually going up in price (the reported rate's consiste…

Is the menu prices on the app less than you'd see at the drive through window?

Not sure. I know they push tons of deals through the apps. I know this second-hand, including from someone who routinely gets entire meals from Taco Bell, specifically, for a couple dollars—just as you used to be able to do off the normal menu. Sometimes he can get absurd amounts of food for less than a dollar—just as you used to be able to do couponing or deal-hunting. In short, what it looks like to me is the normal prices became "sale" prices, the former sale prices became super-duper-sale prices, and the new menu prices are a totally new massive-profit-margin category that didn't exist before.

This is actually pretty similar to what pizza chains have been doing far longer and to a greater degree than other fast-food joints used to—it's long been the case that you can get 30-50% off your chain pizza order with coupons, and that there are always a bunch of coupons available to suit many common orders, such that there's rarely a reason to order anything at full menu price from a major pizza chain unless you just can't be bothered to track down any of the deals (hence, it's price discrimination, with a side of psychological manipulation to make you think the "deals" are actually bargains when they are, rather, simply not rip-offs).

As for my own experience: we usually do Arby's when we want garbage food. We can easily drop $40 there at menu prices without going nuts—or we can get all of the exact same stuff for $15 or less, with coupons (the key: lots of their coupons list, in small print, a count of times you can apply it in the same visit, so you may be able to use a single coupon for, say, "$3 sandwich + fries" to buy five of those meals at once at the coupon price). Again, these places have long had coupons, but they didn't used to constantly have lots of coupons or other deals active at once, and the difference between coupon and menu prices didn't used to be so extreme. Actually, noticing that Arby's prices had damn near doubled over just a couple years (pre-pandemic) was what prompted me to take notice of this situation, which does appear to be playing out industry-wide.

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#787
post #783

Good news I guess. But my electricity price literally doubled. My house insurance is up 30%. My gas bill is up by a lot. Have you seen the price of oreos? The $5 box at Taco Bell is my splurge and I'm trying to cut back on everything I can.

I haven't been to fast foods in a handful of years but was in a hurry last week and stopped at BK. A large combo was a few coins short of $15! Whoa. This used to be about ~$6. If that's the norm I don't see how fast food will survive. Instead I'll go to the authentic taqueria next door, which used to be about double the cost for lunch (so I didn't go so often) but now it is actually cheaper and much better.

When I do fast food these days I almost always get off the bargain menu (inflation means it's not the dollar menu any more). I assume they made money from it but I doubt anyplace could survive if all the orders were that cheap.

It's plenty of food, if you skip the soda it's like $3 for a small burger and fries, or a taco and a bean burrito.

I see some BK combos are within striking distance of $15. Add sales tax, easily over $1 in many locations, and there you are.

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#788

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and that requires a willingness from "us" to make peace with Russia This is false. It requires a willingness from Russia to stop invading Ukraine. What you're writing here is appeasement, and it it's a very bad idea both generally and specifically with regards to global economic stability.

> What you're writing here is appeasement Yes, Russia can attempt appeasement by leaving Ukraine, but we have to accept that gesture for peace to be made. There is no reason why we have to lift sanctions just because they tried to appease us. We probably would for a number of reasons, but we don't have to make peace if we don't want to.

What? No, Ukraine and the Western world would be the ones participating in appeasement, not Russia.

In your mind, how justified is Russia in this conflict?

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#789

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ShadowStats claims ~8% inflation since 2000, i.e. a 5x cumulative increase in cost of living. I don't buy it.

I mean, you could buy a 3 bed / 1.5 bath house in the bay area for around $200k in 2000. 5x is roughly correct, easily.

Here's a chart from 1997 to 2018 with prices with and without inflation adjustment: https://www.vitalsigns.mtc.ca.gov/home-prices

Re: U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%

#790

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Natural consumption of meat is to eat meat sporadically, not 3 times per day. This is just an appeal to the way things were 70 years ago in the US. Much further back you had Native Americans absolutely eating tons of bison meat in the western US. Other tribes easily got fish for every meal. Others have been heavily vegetarian. There is no “natural consumption of meat”.

> There is no “natural consumption of meat”. Yes. As you point out the consumption of meat varies greatly across cultures.

Natural and cultural are not the same thing. Culture is made up, nature is not.

Overconsumption of meat can lead to bodily issues as does a lack of particular plant foods. Particular meats are processed/digested in different ways, and have different pros and cons on what it does to your body and health.

So there very much is a "natural" way to consume meat that is most compatible with the capabilities and constraints of our body.

What is recommended/natural is an entirely different concept from what people actually do, which was entirely my point.

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