Don't really have numbers behind it, other than things like a 12-pack of craft beer almost doubling over the past decade.
Don't really have numbers behind it, other than things like a 12-pack of craft beer almost doubling over the past decade.
That's the thing about inflation, you need to look at a large basket of goods to estimate it. Different people feel price increases differently depending on what they buy. It's the aggregate number that matters at the end of the day.
In fact the government's refusal to incorporate housing costs into conventional CPI calculations has been widely criticized as under-estimating inflation. As current official inflation metrics indicate that median incomes have stagnated over the past couple decades, this would suggest that they have in fact fallen. That's why life seems tougher now even though things like food and cheap plastic toys are cheaper than ever
However, a decent counterargument is that since rents are already incorporated into CPI, adding housing prices would be a confounding variable more susceptible to different macroeconomic trends such as equity market inflations. Still, since a sizable percentage of people own houses and an even greater percentage want to own one in the future, I think it's a reasonable metric to add
(If you pay $1500 a month to buy a house where you could rent the equivalent for $1200, is the extra $300 really a cost of living in that area?)
When will the American hipsters craving hoppy IPAs ever think about the economist's productivity statistics?!
In the Midwest craft beer prices went up moderately (but availability of 12 packs is kind of a new thing). Anyway, six packs were $8 and now they are $9, or something like that.
Edit: added [core]
a 15s google search says no: https://www.cnbc.com/id/43769766
>The CPI measures costs in these areas, according to the BLS:
> Food and Beverages (breakfast cereal, milk, coffee, chicken, wine, full service meals, snacks)