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Comment by majormajor | Hacker News Reader

The Whataburger I got way-too-frequently for just under $6 in 2001 is like $10 bucks now.

MSRP of a 99 M3 = 46k; 2023 stating at $74300.

Outside of housing and gas I'm hard-pressed to think of anything that's more than double the cost. GPUs, I suppose, but that's a weird hobby transition + a lot more industrial uses.

That said, housing+gas == huge parts of people's day to day lives, obviously.

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The big mac has more than doubled since 2000 according to the Big Mac Index: $2.24 -> $5.58. I think the issue is the high end didn't rise nearly as much as the low end. Your BMW is a good example..a 2000 Honda Civic: $10,750, 2023 Civic: $23,750.

Yeah, but the fast food example has a large price discrimination component. Only those not using the app pay the high prices. Last Big Mac I bought was $2.50 (earlier this year).

Civic is more interesting, since the 2023 base-model Civic has far more technology, far better safety features, automatic transmission, and is quite a big larger than the 2000 model. Wouldn’t be surprised if the 2000 base model Civic didn’t even have power windows. That being said, if all you want is basic transportation, then your choices are much more limited than they were in 2000.

College tuition and health insurance :)

Definitely not doubled

https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-college-by-year

https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Figure-1-12.p...

Good news! Health insurance has dropped by 37% in the last year, according to the CPI.

I tried to ask HN about this a day or so ago…

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37880185

It's an artifact of how the measurement is made, as it accounts for insurance profits. While a good proxy in normal times, corona sent this measure into a wild rollercoaster-ride. However, it is generally a good idea not to change the method of measuring because you do not like the measures in the short term. The most important measure is the headline number (and MoM is more informative than YoY in these times), as it is the basis for actual politics. The headline number absorbs a lot of craziness in the underlying measures.

It's included in CPI, though, right? If so, doesn't that mean this "artifact" has improperly affected the CPI making it look like inflation hasn't been as bad this year as it actually was?

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