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Originally Posted by Jody
John, put yourself on a fixed income and you'll see that the chart is not accurate. I have no idea how or where the numbers came from, but I'm not buying it. My friend is very structured and actually started tracking food costs over a year ago. Identical items have risen WAY more than 2-3% that the chart indicates.
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I don't understand what a fixed income has to do with any of this. The inflation rates on the chart I referenced are the official government numbers: they come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They aren't some sort of private made-up thing:
The Consumer Price Index is a comprehensive report on prices in the United States. It contains national, regional, and local data broken down into population subgroups. Prices are collected from 87 urban areas from 23,000 retail and service establishments. Rent data are collected from approximately 50,000 landlords or tenants. The Consumer Price Index is the most widely used measure of inflation.
I'm sure your friend means well and believes what he's telling you. But I doubt he's sampled from 23000 retail establishments from 87 urban areas. I think most reasonable people would go with the BLS on this one.