Raven Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 I would like to get a conclusive list of the things posters on here would like to be in the official measure of inflation. This was started on another thread but I thought I'd bring it to the attention of everyone... Basically we want all things we have to spend our wages on/should measure the increases in. This is the list so far.... Petrol House Prices/Rent Electricity/Gas/Water Council Tax Travel Fares Car Tax Entertainment (DVD's CD's Cinema tickets) Bear/Wine Any others.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OzzMosiz Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 Insurance Television License (Rip off) Car Maintenance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkG Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 The last thing I'd want to see is house prices included in inflation just when they're about to fall by 10% or more a year... you can't ignore 20% annual inflation for years and then reintroduce it to the inflation figures when houses are overvalued by at least 100%. There are times when deflation is required to bring prices back to sane levels. Also, the prime measure of inflation should be monetary growth, with prices as a secondary measure. If you're printing 10% more money every year, then interest rates are too damn low. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest magnoliawalls Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 I think it would be interesting to do as another poster suggested and work out the inflation in non-discretionary expenditure which really hurts the least well off. Buying DVDs, CDs, cinema tickets etc is a luxury of sorts and the existing measures are often criticised because reductions in the price of DVD players and other luxury electronic goods can make it seem like inflation is low. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raven Posted January 23, 2006 Author Share Posted January 23, 2006 The last thing I'd want to see is house prices included in inflation just when they're about to fall by 10% or more a year... you can't ignore 20% annual inflation for years and then reintroduce it to the inflation figures when houses are overvalued by at least 100%. There are times when deflation is required to bring prices back to sane levels. Also, the prime measure of inflation should be monetary growth, with prices as a secondary measure. If you're printing 10% more money every year, then interest rates are too damn low. Yeah, I understand but I was thinking of the future, trying to stop this sort of thing happening again. Maybe get a fair and stable economy instead of have=ing our money pinched by stealth taxes and not getting fair returns on savings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sisyphus Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 Parking Tickets Congestion charging part of everyday life in London. I suppose should be included in road tax. I think it boils down to items in a given basket may not increase massively, but the basket is a lot bigger. CPI +2% Cost of living +50%. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mushroom Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 Bear/Wine Bull Wine. Sorry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pakard Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 Basic food basket (meat, eggs, bread, milk, fruit and vegetables, tea, coffee, water …etc) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AteMoose Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 everything you (or sample of people) bought/spent money on in the past year... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casual Observer Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 everything you (or sample of people) bought/spent money on in the past year... IMO, the CPI covers more items than many people think, including many posters on this forum: It includes: FOOD AND BEVERAGES (breakfast cereal, milk, coffee, chicken, wine, service meals and snacks) HOUSING (rent of primary residence, owners' equivalent rent, fuel oil, bedroom furniture) APPAREL (men's shirts and sweaters, women's dresses, jewelry) TRANSPORTATION (new vehicles, airline fares, gasoline, motor vehicle insurance) MEDICAL CARE (prescription drugs and medical supplies, physicians' services, eyeglasses and eye care, hospital services) RECREATION (televisions, pets and pet products, sports equipment, admissions); EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION (college tuition, postage, telephone services, computer software and accessories); OTHER GOODS AND SERVICES (tobacco and smoking products, haircuts and other personal services, funeral expenses). Also included within these major groups are various government-charged user fees, such as water and sewerage charges, auto registration fees, and vehicle tolls. In addition, the CPI includes taxes (such as sales and excise taxes) that are directly associated with the prices of specific goods and services. However, the CPI excludes taxes (such as income and Social Security taxes) not directly associated with the purchase of consumer goods and services. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooter Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 (edited) I would like to get a conclusive list of the things posters on here would like to be in the official measure of inflation. This was started on another thread but I thought I'd bring it to the attention of everyone... Basically we want all things we have to spend our wages on/should measure the increases in. This is the list so far.... Petrol House Prices/Rent Electricity/Gas/Water Council Tax Travel Fares Car Tax Entertainment (DVD's CD's Cinema tickets) Bear/Wine Any others.... Have you seen the price of bear today? Disgusting. (sorry, I realise it is a typo) Edited January 23, 2006 by Scooter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DTMark Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 I think it would be interesting to do as another poster suggested and work out the inflation in non-discretionary expenditure which really hurts the least well off. Buying DVDs, CDs, cinema tickets etc is a luxury of sorts and the existing measures are often criticised because reductions in the price of DVD players and other luxury electronic goods can make it seem like inflation is low. Quite so: I don't know how much the cost of a decent DVD player has gone down over the last few years. However I don't think they have gone down by very much - we need a new one, so I'd guess we'd be looking at between £300 and £500 for a decent one. What has happened is that a glut of new entry level models have come in at prices like £29. But instead of just buying one, and consumerate with our throwaway culture, you can buy a new one every other month when the buttons fall off or it packs up. Fair enough you might get lucky and if you use it rarely you might get longer before it gives in. We borrowed two when our one broke and they're also both broken now (the eject button fell off of one of them) Cost to consumer stays the same, but it looks good in the inflation data. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AteMoose Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 IMO, the CPI covers more items than many people think, including many posters on this forum: It includes: FOOD AND BEVERAGES (breakfast cereal, milk, coffee, chicken, wine, service meals and snacks) HOUSING (rent of primary residence, owners' equivalent rent, fuel oil, bedroom furniture) APPAREL (men's shirts and sweaters, women's dresses, jewelry) TRANSPORTATION (new vehicles, airline fares, gasoline, motor vehicle insurance) MEDICAL CARE (prescription drugs and medical supplies, physicians' services, eyeglasses and eye care, hospital services) RECREATION (televisions, pets and pet products, sports equipment, admissions); EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION (college tuition, postage, telephone services, computer software and accessories); OTHER GOODS AND SERVICES (tobacco and smoking products, haircuts and other personal services, funeral expenses). Also included within these major groups are various government-charged user fees, such as water and sewerage charges, auto registration fees, and vehicle tolls. In addition, the CPI includes taxes (such as sales and excise taxes) that are directly associated with the prices of specific goods and services. However, the CPI excludes taxes (such as income and Social Security taxes) not directly associated with the purchase of consumer goods and services. Ive seen the list on the national statistics website ;p but are they weighted correctly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FreeFall Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 TRANSPORTATION (new vehicles, airline fares, gasoline, motor vehicle insurance) Yeah, but how about bus fares etc? A single bus fare in London has gone from 70p to £1.50 in the last 3 or 4 years Reducing air fares and new car prices effectively have cancelled out the increases in fule prices and insurance. The CPI is only a fair measure if the majority of people take foreign holidays and buy new cars every year...??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
torko Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 Actual CPI data is available here: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/tsdd...le=drsinavi.zip The program you need to view the data can be downloaded here: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/soft...vidatasetup.exe Have fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raven Posted January 23, 2006 Author Share Posted January 23, 2006 Have you seen the price of bear today? Disgusting. (sorry, I realise it is a typo) It's not a typo, I drink hofmiester, follow the bear, sorry beer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casual Observer Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 (edited) Ive seen the list on the national statistics website ;p but are they weighted correctly? Well, that's something that we could argue about for ever. Here's a bit more info: Sorry - that was a US link! Edited January 23, 2006 by Casual Observer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sisyphus Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 Decent fresh food. Not the watery, tastless, "ripen at home" never-ripen rubbish that ends up in the bin. Their passing off normal food as Finest or Taste the Difference now. That's what you need to put in your CPI basket if you want to compare like with like. Rant over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mushroom Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 It's rather a nightmare though isn't it? Surely we all spend different proportions on different things so any measure is somewhat vague in reality? I agree it's the non discretionary spending that should definitely be part of the figure. Then, as others have said, inflation variably affects different income groups. Just to take food, we are organic eating vegetarians so probably have a different food purchase basket to many. We rarely eat out and certainly no takeaways. Cars, 2 new ones every 10 years and I do the maintenance and servicing. Oh just contrarians then! I do agree the "headline" figure seems to be contrived not reflecting the real situation. We don't even have a DVD player so have missed out on the "benefit" of price falls there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raven Posted January 23, 2006 Author Share Posted January 23, 2006 Actual CPI data is available here: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/tsdd...le=drsinavi.zip The program you need to view the data can be downloaded here: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/soft...vidatasetup.exe Have fun! Thanks, I'm sure I will. I just wanted to know what people here though should be measured and how. Surely there are better ( and definately smarter ) than me who can think of a fair measure of inflation, not some twisted self serving measurment that helps the government of the day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theChuz Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 Quite so: I don't know how much the cost of a decent DVD player has gone down over the last few years. However I don't think they have gone down by very much - we need a new one, so I'd guess we'd be looking at between £300 and £500 for a decent one. What has happened is that a glut of new entry level models have come in at prices like £29. But instead of just buying one, and consumerate with our throwaway culture, you can buy a new one every other month when the buttons fall off or it packs up. Fair enough you might get lucky and if you use it rarely you might get longer before it gives in. We borrowed two when our one broke and they're also both broken now (the eject button fell off of one of them) Cost to consumer stays the same, but it looks good in the inflation data. The £30 players seem to last as long as any other, plus they tend to play copied discs better. IMHO the £30 dvd player is just as good if not better. Expensive ones and cheap ones both seem to come with a 12 month warrenty. To even contemplate spending upto £500 on a DVD player would keep me chuckling away to myself for atleast a day, i would spend about £150 tops on a dvd recorder, it might not have a little Sony badge but i bet it still records and would look good. Mind you , you seem to be prepared to pay just under what i paid for my car so maybe im just cheap If i am cheap then so be it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
torko Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 January CPI will fall due the ONS fiddling with the weightings yet again. We already spend more money in restaurants than on food so I look forward to seeing what they come up with for this year...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acidrob Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 Just wondering if an inflation figure could be assessed somehow by calculating the % rise in VAT tax the government recieves (or indeed the total of all taxes). Wouldnt this give a pretty accurate figure? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sisyphus Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 Just wondering if an inflation figure could be assessed somehow by calculating the % rise in VAT tax the government recieves (or indeed the total of all taxes). Wouldnt this give a pretty accurate figure? nice try, but that would just show that we are spending more, possibly due to greater disposable income. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrashIsUnderWay Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 And for all those desperate BTL landlords (TTRTR for example) who think rents are rising, this bit of it:- HOUSING (rent of primary residence, owners' equivalent rent) reveals the truth. House prices have trebled since 1996, yet inflation has allegedly been much lower. This is because RENTS haven't moved sugnificantly, and are unlikely to do so in the future, seeing as Gordenron Brown has first claim over everyone's disposable income. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.