Current Events > Overall inflation is a piss-poor metric for tracking how prices have changed

(+) Yeah! (+)

Here's a better one.


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Depressing that people defend this
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oh
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working with textbooks makes me feel bad
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hospital services literally off the charts.

try to justify $500 for a bag of saline
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Nobody can afford diabetes anymore
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recommended reading:

An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back by Elisabeth Rosenthal
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SSJCAT posted...

hospital services literally off the charts.

try to justify $500 for a bag of saline

Thanks doctors and hospital administrators!
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the beauty,,, of the free market,,
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Well thats eye opening
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P4wn4g3 posted...

Nobody can afford diabetes anymore

It is pretty hard.
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I think it is important to keep this in sight when we discuss anything about what it is like to be poor or working class in 2018.

The poor have luxuries. They have them because luxuries got stupid cheap, especially last-generation luxuries.

Whether they have them or not, they still can't afford critical needs.

I also think the mass availability of those luxuries makes it very easy for us to forget/neglect those critical needs, because many of them are only visibly critical after being neglected for a while.
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posting useless diatribes about the free market when there's a stranglehold on competition in healthcare won't help the poor afford critical needs
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Prudclad as usual doesn't understand
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I like how video-games have gotten "cheaper" as time goes on, yet people complain devs are trying to make up this with DLC.
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"We don't need to raise the minimum wage because then stuff'll cost moar"

stuff already costs more

"Commie!!"
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PiOverlord posted...

I like how video-games have gotten "cheaper" as time goes on, yet people complain devs are trying to make up this with DLC.

theyve been about the same price for decades despite inflation
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Gotta still put this next to average wages and minimum wage charts over the years

Oh wait, the latter is virtually or literally unchanged in many states since the 70s

One quick question: that says wages have stayed above inflation? Its 58% more expensive, as in it has 58% less spending power since 1997? Either way this graph puts all this shit into perspective. Id just like to be interpreting it correctly before I share it.
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supply and demand
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P4wn4g3 posted...

Nobody can afford diabetes anymore

and no one can afford lifestyle modifications either

America is a rather sad, and ill, society.
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an american gets into an accident: "welp, i guess i'll die"

asagi_mode_gone posted...

average wages and minimum wage charts over the years

the former is on the chart.
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LeseuIdieu_ posted...

an american gets into an accident: "welp, i guess i'll die"

Remember that person who had their leg stuck between a train and the platform and had to beg people not to call an ambulance because she couldnt afford it? Thanks, America.
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I thought wages were stagnant or in decline. That's what I've been hearing.
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I don't believe toys got cheaper tbqh
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Funny how all the free market items stayed the same or got WAY cheaper, while all the government controlled shit goes through the roof. Guess we better throw more money at the government.

Annihilated posted...

Funny how all the free market items stayed the same or got WAY cheaper, while all the government controlled shit goes through the roof. Guess we better throw more money at the government.

It's not quite that simplistic, there are items on there that are fairly subject to regulation but still went down. Similarly if we look at a country like Canada there probably wouldn't be the same outsize increase in price in healthcare even though it's government controlled
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InYourWalls1 posted...

It's not quite that simplistic, there are items on there that are fairly subject to regulation but still went down. Similarly if we look at a country like Canada there probably wouldn't be the same outsize increase in price in healthcare even though it's government controlled

worth noting that none of these items are price controlled in the US, so calling them 'government controlled' is inherently dishonest

rather, some of them are subsidized. it makes a strong argument that subsidies are only efficient if combined with price controls.
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the most government involved, regulated, services are the ones with the highest rise in prices

what a shock /s
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Darkman124 posted...

rather, some of them are subsidized. it makes a strong argument that subsidies are only efficient if combined with price controls

Yeah that was my takeaway as well

Would be interesting to see examples of how the latter tracked on this graph
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