Cartoon explaining weighted CPI

[BlueStreak]

57. And that "Senior's market basket" just doesn't have many even substitutions

I'll accept the chicken for beef argument as a theoretical example, although in practice, it is not common that one goes up at the same time the other goes down. Nonetheless, if heating oil goes up, you can't substitute suntan oil. If heart medicine goes up, you can't substitute Preparation-H. There is very little you can substitute without it actually being a downgrade in lifestyle.

And let us understand one huge flaw in ALL of the CPI calculations. The market basket has always misrepresented inflation because a significant part of the market basket is food items that are artificially SUBSIDIZED and subject to price controls.

If you want to look at real inflation, don't talk to me about milk or corn, which are price controlled / subsidized commodities -- you know, that socialism thing. Explain to me how an Arby's roast beef sandwich more than doubles in 5 years when we are supposed to have 1% inflation.

And the real elephant in the room is that all of this is opaque. You can barely find out about the traditional CPI calculations. Once chained CPI is the law of the land -- and it will be because Obama has already given that away -- this is a license to steal, and good luck every getting any transparency into those calculations.