What Inflation Means to You: Inside the Consumer Price Index

cdcaveman said:
Inflation is theft
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Yep, that's why we need gold-standard again :)
Whenever I hear about inflation, I feel sorry for European settlers in Zimbabwe.
They brought wealth to the country but their uneducated politicians ruined the country - they know nothing about basic economics.
 
What does inflation mean to you, the powers that be are sending you a bill for something.

The stats are nonsense, anyone with any intelligence can see they are 'smoothing' the data. You don't get a near 30% increase for the wealthiest compared to the poorest 3.5bn people in 2yrs without someone 'adjusting' the data.

It's very simple to hide inflation, just use sub-standard materials for the same products, but leave the price the same, aka pyramiding.
 
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Anyone know the answers to these specific questions?

How have the weights changed over the years? With college tuition and medical expenses rising, you would expect them to be of higher importance in 2016 than in 2000. I couldn't find data to answer this question adequately. I was able to find weights for 2014 and 2015: medical is clearly weighted more in 2015 while tuition is weighted slightly less.

Does the government account for changes in company-provided health insurance? Many companies have been shifting costs to employees via high-deductible plans. Undoubtedly more difficult to measure than the underlying physician's charges.

Where do child care expenses fall? In my home state, these expenses are increasing at 4%+ per year and are a major expense for two-income households. I don't see where this fits into any of the listed categories (including "Other goods and services").
 
Thanks for the links. Just to report back, here's a summary of my findings:

Weight changes from 2001 to 2014:

Medical care went from 6.0 to 7.7 %
Tuition went from 1.2 to 1.8
Childcare went from .96 to .725

Regarding insurance, it appears it doesn't fully catch the shift to high deductible plans. For example: "the medical care index will not be affected by changes in policy characteristics, such as modifications to policy benefits and utilization changes" and "[Drug prices] includes both patient and insurance payments to the pharmacy".
 
inflation tends to redistribute value to the first receivers of the new money.. at the expense of the last receivers , IE wage earners, and fixed income
 
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