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Comment by nocommentguy | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if the “there is no inflation” shills will show up with their usual ad hominems and “trust the experts”

I really dislike it when people describe other people they disagree with as “shills”. It turns it from “I disagree with this person” to “this person is implicitly pushing a narrative for nefarious reasons”, which makes the conversation less productive and more toxic.

I'm curious to hear your approach for when people _are_ pushing a narrative for nefarious reasons.

In my experience, people who are quick to accuse others of shilling are usually actual shills themselves, or arguing for a position for which there are many obvious shill accounts.

Inflation is common and normal in a modern economy. This kind of quantity adjustment has been going on for decades. I think you are worried about high inflation and it will be interesting to see what the next few months bring.

But this paper towel example is not outside the bounds of normal inflation.

It's a 14% decrease in purchasing power... is that normal?

Depends over what time frame. If it's over a 5-10 year period, that corresponds to a 1-3% annual decrease in the purchasing power of the dollar, which is considered pretty normal. If it's happening much more frequently than that (to the same product), though, it could indicate worrying inflation.

Also note that "prices of consumer goods are rising by less than 2% per year" is not proof that the purchasing power of the dollar is roughly stable -- it's possible for consumer goods to get relatively cheaper than assets and positional goods such as e.g. stocks and bonds, housing, healthcare, and education such that it takes many more dollars to buy a certain lifestyle than it used to despite minimal rises in CPI.

The no inflation shills realize when inflation happens and when it doesn't. The inflation shills always say there is high inflation no matter what reality says.

I've never seen anybody argue that inflation doesn't exist.

Nobody argues it doesn’t exist, the take is always “there is a normal amount of inflation right now and it is good for the economy anyway”

I guess you've never seen a Fed chairperson speak.

Even if we have slightly elevated inflation in the coming few years (e.g. 3-4% YOY instead of 2% or less), it's basically a nothingburger and is healthy for the US economy.

Can’t tell if satire. Have you been to the grocery store lately?

Everyone's got a hot take on why CPI is wrong, but the official rate of inflation for food is 3.5%. Personally, I spend a lot more on groceries than pre-covid, but thats because I now eat out once or twice a month instead of several times a week.

How does the official 3.5% figure compare to your personal experience of the actual difference in price for a given item from last year?

Milk and oJ still relatively normal, considering gas is up nearly 30% in my hood

My water bill went up noticibly this year.

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