When they changed the CPI from a cost of goods index (COGI) To a cost of living index (COLI) it opened the doors to gaming the system and severely underreport the actual inflation rates.
Allowing/claiming ‘substitutions’ where buyers would allegedly just buy cheaper/off-brand good as prices rise lets reporting steadily claim discounts that aren’t actually there for many applications, especially when the reality is many consumers are already buying those same discounted versions of goods which are also rising in prices.
A COGI system on a specific fixed basket of goods shows the true increase in prices over time for those items, which is often a more accurate representation.
Another driver for them to use a COLI system is that the reported inflation rate also drives changes to social security payments, which translates to less funds for their crony capitalism.
I really couldn’t find a COGI list anywhere either. Was hoping to see if could find one for the last 25 years or so. This made me interested in seeing if I could set up a webscraper and pull the data for the top 50 name brand products most purchased from popular stores (milk, eggs, bread, toilet paper, deodorant, sugar, flour etc), and save them daily to a database. I assume the user agents and proxies to make the requests look like they are coming from different people so they don’t get blocked would be the hardest part, but maybe I’ll see if I can set one up throughout the week.
“Inflation may pass 3%”
Statements like that I am always wondering what products they are using to measure it.
When they changed the CPI from a cost of goods index (COGI) To a cost of living index (COLI) it opened the doors to gaming the system and severely underreport the actual inflation rates.
Allowing/claiming ‘substitutions’ where buyers would allegedly just buy cheaper/off-brand good as prices rise lets reporting steadily claim discounts that aren’t actually there for many applications, especially when the reality is many consumers are already buying those same discounted versions of goods which are also rising in prices.
A COGI system on a specific fixed basket of goods shows the true increase in prices over time for those items, which is often a more accurate representation.
Another driver for them to use a COLI system is that the reported inflation rate also drives changes to social security payments, which translates to less funds for their crony capitalism.
I really couldn’t find a COGI list anywhere either. Was hoping to see if could find one for the last 25 years or so. This made me interested in seeing if I could set up a webscraper and pull the data for the top 50 name brand products most purchased from popular stores (milk, eggs, bread, toilet paper, deodorant, sugar, flour etc), and save them daily to a database. I assume the user agents and proxies to make the requests look like they are coming from different people so they don’t get blocked would be the hardest part, but maybe I’ll see if I can set one up throughout the week.
I’m ready for spectacular failure of course.
Shit, how would I do clothes…
Solid gold toilet seats, probably