• 𝔗𝚎𝚑 𝔅𝚊𝚖𝚜𝚔𝚒@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    2 months ago

    Firstly: Here’s the link to the chart. (US) Consumer Price Index https://www.bls.gov/cpi/

    Secondly: I have a strong distrust of the current US government heads and will take this with a boatload of salt until factual evidence is provided and vetted.

    Thirdly: This is showing the increase of inflation compared to the same point of time of last year, and not the cumulative inflation. Meaning the overall inflation that has been acumulated over the decades/century, leading to a percentage of less buying power per (US) dollar. So while the inflation rate might be 3%, that’s just looking at a short timeline and not the overall value the US dollar.

    I found this webpage to be very informative. https://smartasset.com/investing/inflation-calculator

    • spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      In my experience the only thing we buy regularly that hasn’t substantially increased in price in the last year is gasoline. Just about ever kind of food is substantially more, electricity has gone way up. Clothing prices are significantly more and as everyone who’s renting knows, rents have gone nuts. There is no way we’re spending 3% more than a year ago, it’s more like 8%.

      Bottom line, I don’t believe anything that’s coming out of a Trump controlled agency is remotely accurate. He is already claiming prices are down by 300%-3,000%. I’m just waiting for him to say, “There’s no inflation if we don’t count the prices that have gone up.”

  • verdi@feddit.orgEnglish
    3·
    2 months ago

    This is misleading because it ignores the compounded period since 2020 where prices have increased close to 10%, These were not accompanied by real wages which is why everything is stupid expensive now.

  • GodlessCommie@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    2 months ago

    They prefer keeping us focused on these small incremental numbers like 3% increase .7% decrease, et cetera. So we don’t step back and see that since the year 2000, inflation has increased 97%.

      • DomeGuy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        A small amount of predictable inflation is good for the economy. You get to pay your car loan back with dollars that are smaller than the ones the bank fronted in the first place, and the bank has money to load at all because it makes sense for everyone in town to deposit their extra dollars rather than just hiding them at home.

        It’d be nice to have some revaluing of physical currency though, since the spending power of a single dollar today is about what a nickel was a century ago. I wouldnt mind if tiny metal discs with Jefferson’s face said “one dollar”.

      • Perspectivist@feddit.ukEnglish
        01·
        2 months ago

        That claim is only controversial among people who don’t understand macroeconomics. Those are often the same people who think deflation is a good thing.