Quote from: Eric Emerson on March 30, 2023, 19:06:22This article is misleading.  The motherboards I bought in 2020 are the same price in 2023.  My main computer I built in 2020 for $1,300 could be replaced for less than $1,000 today.  That's deflation, which hasn't changed in decades.

Some components are really getting cheaper due to progress, for example, SSDs (although it must be borne in mind that they are rapidly degrading in quality, because 3D TLC, and even more so QLC, do not store data as reliably for a long time as MLC, and even more so the first SLC - i.e. one must also take into account the quality of a product similar in class), but a significant part has risen in price very much.

For example, I bought a pre-top HD4850 in July 2008 (at that time only the HD4870 was higher) for $225, now this level costs $899 (RX 7900 XT). Where is the deflation in your words? For 15 years, the dollar has depreciated by about 2 times (at best, for savers by 1.8 times), and the price of similar AMD video cards has grown by 4 times, i.e. the net increase in the price of a card equal to the HD4850 in class (they were even released as a pair with the 7900 XTX, just like the 4850/4870 in June 2008) minus the devaluation of the dollar, amounted to 2 times! This is a monstrous inflation in the purchasing power of the dollar, judging by the video cards. Is not it?

But have salaries grown 4 times over 15 years, nominally, in the US and the EU and other developed countries? If not, it turns out everyone was robbed by their employers. But of course, in reality, everything is much more complicated (inflation is calculated based on a huge base of goods and services, and not just video cards), which I wrote about above, although I can describe it all in much more detail, but then it will be a whole article on many pages.

Quote from: Eric Emerson on March 30, 2023, 19:06:22This article is misleading.  The motherboards I bought in 2020 are the same price in 2023.  My main computer I built in 2020 for $1,300 could be replaced for less than $1,000 today.  That's deflation, which hasn't changed in decades.

A computer from 2020 in 2020 is obviously not comparable to a computer from 2020 in 2023 - in the same way that a loaf of bread from 2020 in 2020 is obviously not comparable to a loaf of bread from 2020 in 2023.

The CPI tracks the value of comparably valued goods. Depreciation of purchased goods has nothing to do with it.

Quote from: t4n0n on March 31, 2023, 14:40:31The CPI tracks the value of comparably valued goods. Depreciation of purchased goods has nothing to do with it.

All inflation indices are calculated on the basis of the same basket of goods and services. With the calculation of price changes for them exactly for a year. Somewhere it is more difficult to do for statisticians - for example, to track the same class of goods, somewhere easier. In general, this is a non-trivial task, in fact, practically not amenable to automation. With some period, the basket is changed when new classes of goods and services appear. So the CPI is a very relative and nebulous value anyway, like all stock indices (where Wall Street crooks are constantly shuffling the stock base to calculate - so the 1975 SP500 and 2023 SP500 have nothing in common, but the less the chart is drawn as as if it is based on the same stock pool base - pure fraud)

For example, chicken eggs cannot be faked, right? But even here you can feed the chickens with different foods and this will greatly affect the quality of the eggs. For example, the CPI will write that there have been no changes in the price for the year, and the quality has fallen from the point of view of buyers. And what is there to do?

Now imagine that goods are orders of magnitude more complicated than chicken eggs, where quality assessments are so complex that even the formalization of these characteristics is a whole science?

Well, this site, with varying success, is trying to formalize the assessment of the quality of laptops. Do you think they 100% coped with the task or not? ;)

The CPI is a rather stupid thing that does not take into account the degradation of the quality of goods and services, although formally they are of the same class. And the devaluation of the quality of goods on the planet is obvious to everyone who has lived long enough. The youth, the children, are just too naive and incompetent. They do not have significant historical consumer experience. They simply do not know how it was before and what quality it was before. They have nothing to compare with.

Therefore, all estimates of the devaluation of fiat currencies and inflation indices are essentially an anti-scientific profanation of the masses in order to control and manipulate the opinion of the population and its complaisance in fulfilling the desires of those in power and nothing more. Most of the population is easily controlled. Those in power (in "democratic" countries, especially) need that it has always been an overwhelming majority. And then you can spit on a smart and competent minority and its opinion - after all, under "democracy" the majority and its nominees have power, right? The control loop is closed...