Hacker News Reader

Comment by cbhl | Hacker News Reader

The more I stare at this the more I think that using official inflation numbers / using the official CPI is wrong -- these baskets combine recreation and technology being nearly -50% (TVs can be had today for $300, whereas they used to cost $500 in 1995 dollars), assume you only buy new cars (only up ~25% since 2000, but used cars are now almost as expensive as new whereas they used to be available for half the price or less), and underweight housing (basically doubled since 2000, worse if you need to move to a HCOL major urban center for employment).

If you are a healthy person living frugally then I think the inflation in your personal basket of goods is actually higher than the fed numbers would dictate (esp for rent and housing).

View on HN

>these baskets combine recreation and technology being nearly -50% (TVs can be had today for $300, whereas they used to cost $500 in 1995 dollars),

The entire "Recreation commodities" category (which includes other stuff like "Sporting goods" and "Pets and pet products") is only weighed at 2%, compared to 13% for food and 37% for shelter. Even if it's down 50% the impact on the overall CPI is negligible.

>assume you only buy new cars (only up ~25% since 2000, but used cars are now almost as expensive as new whereas they used to be available for half the price or less),

???

There's clearly a "Used cars and trucks" category.

>and underweight housing (basically doubled since 2000, worse if you need to move to a HCOL major urban center for employment).

The index is called "Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers", not "Consumer Price Index for Young Urban Professionals". Not everyone is a recent graduate who recently moved into a high COL city and paying for a market rate apartment. For every person fitting that criteria, there's probably also a retiree who owns their house and/or lives in a rent controlled apartment.

> The index is called "Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers", not "Consumer Price Index for Young Urban Professionals". Not everyone is a recent graduate who recently moved into a high COL city and paying for a market rate apartment.

The discussion here is about the cost of living difference for tech workers who I assume are clustered around NYC.

$45K in NYC in 2005 is not equivalent to $73K today for most such people. It is likely closer to $100K today, as the above poster said.

that's a pretty localized in time issue re: used cars. There's still covid supply issues being felt in the downstream used market as a result of underproduction for 2+ years.

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/spotlight-new-york-citys...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com