ok, for those of you over 30, lets take a quick survey of prices in your state/city
over the last ten years.
Please give me a 1996 and 2006 prices of
these things:
1) rent for a basic 2 br apartment, per month
2) gas, per gallon
3) liability insurance for a car, per year
4) food, at the supermarket and the restaurant
5) electricity, per KW
6) computer, typical of then and now
7) typical coast to coast airfare
8) long distance telephone rates
9) health insurance
i moved around, and dont live in US anymore, but my feeling is that except 2 and 9, most have not increased by much
and some 6,7 and 8 had fallen.
1) +30-40%
2) +120-150%
3) +20% ?? not sure
4) +10-20%
5) +30-40%
6) -50%
(used to cost around 2K, now 1K)
7) 0%
(i remember 300-400 then as is now)
8) -90%
9) dunno
official CPI says cumulative inflation between 1996 and 2006 was 27%,
to me it seems entirely consistent with what i see above. Note that the yearly rates should be calculated as a logarithm, so 27% in 10 years works out to about 2.3% per year.
Please let us know your numbers, but please dont add new items, unless they are part of regular expenditure of average person. so dont bring up college tuition, it is the market price of an investment, not of a consumer expenditure. otherwise next thing you know they will call the 100%+ increase in the price of stocks "inflation"
over the last ten years.
Please give me a 1996 and 2006 prices of
these things:
1) rent for a basic 2 br apartment, per month
2) gas, per gallon
3) liability insurance for a car, per year
4) food, at the supermarket and the restaurant
5) electricity, per KW
6) computer, typical of then and now
7) typical coast to coast airfare
8) long distance telephone rates
9) health insurance
i moved around, and dont live in US anymore, but my feeling is that except 2 and 9, most have not increased by much
and some 6,7 and 8 had fallen.
1) +30-40%
2) +120-150%
3) +20% ?? not sure
4) +10-20%
5) +30-40%
6) -50%
(used to cost around 2K, now 1K)
7) 0%
(i remember 300-400 then as is now)
8) -90%
9) dunno
official CPI says cumulative inflation between 1996 and 2006 was 27%,
to me it seems entirely consistent with what i see above. Note that the yearly rates should be calculated as a logarithm, so 27% in 10 years works out to about 2.3% per year.
Please let us know your numbers, but please dont add new items, unless they are part of regular expenditure of average person. so dont bring up college tuition, it is the market price of an investment, not of a consumer expenditure. otherwise next thing you know they will call the 100%+ increase in the price of stocks "inflation"
