US consumers remain unimpressed with this progress, however, because they remember what they were paying for things pre-pandemic. Used car prices are 34% higher, food prices are 26% higher and rent prices are 22% higher than in January 2020, according to our calculations using PCE data.
While these are some of the more extreme examples of recent price increases, the average basket of goods and services that most Americans buy in any given month is 17% more expensive than four years ago.
Didn’t they just adjust the whole inflation index again to not count a bunch of significant things? It’s a joke.
Same with unemployment. It only counts “able individuals who are actively searching for a job”. A lot of people aren’t included in those numbers when they should be.
The inflation index is and has always been a metric for the rich.
The reason that most of the excluded things are not goods or services the wealthy use is so that those companies can profit more from the already economically burdened all while shaming those same burdened people by saying 'You can’t be struggling, inflation has ONLY been 6%!
Sure for yachts and luxury cars the prices have barely changed but generic meat and fresh vegetables have literally doubled in price in 4 years while the high end offerings have gone up less than 20%.