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Inflation is a measurement of the change in prices of goods and services, if demand changes prices it affects inflation.
You're confusing your personal rate of inflation with CPI. Nobody should expect their personal rate of inflation to be exactly the same as the average.
Conspiracy theories exist regardless of facts, as you've demonstrated.
This is yet another example of when regurgitating ivory tower knowledge doesn't answer a real-world question. Making statements about CPI doesn't answer OP's question.
Bringing us back full circle to my original comment, we are trying to answer why the steep price increase in price at a restaurant occurred, above inflation.
many of us do not stay in the same job position or even job year after year for life . we tend to move up the ladder ,switch jobs or move to other job functions all of which can increase pay .
so these wage growth studies assume one stays a burger flipper or picker packer forever. not very accurate across the board from what goes on in real life where many of us increase pay by increasing our value to the company or other companies . many lower end jobs are being replaced by kiosks and robots making those jobs even less valuable to the market place .
the industry i left has seen crazy wage inflation as demand for skilled employees or sales people with a following has reached a level where the employees are in the drivers seat and employers are offering way more today because they have to .
to get a best of breed employee here can cost a whole lot more . i am retired and got a call right after from wesco , westinghouses electrical supply division to come in and talk and pretty much write my own pay check within some very high bounds .
Your city was one of the ones with a high correlation between wage growth and inflation. It's a local phenomenon.
This is yet another example of when regurgitating ivory tower knowledge doesn't answer a real-world question. Making statements about CPI doesn't answer OP's question.
Bringing us back full circle to my original comment, we are trying to answer why the steep price increase in price at a restaurant occurred, above inflation.
The restaurant is free to charge whatever the Market will bear. So long as patrons are willing to pay those prices, it's not an issue.
Prices could have risen for any number of reasons, including a change owners, a change in management, a change in executive chefs, a change in suppliers whose prices were higher, increased labor costs, increased regulation (Cost-push Inflation), a change in the financial situation -- perhaps the restaurant recently took on addition debt for whatever reason, may be to modernize the kitchen or redecorate the dining room, or simply a realization that prices were too low for Market rates and increased them appropriately.
There's also the possibly that restaurant owners or management or the executive chef desired to see a change in clientele, choosing to cater to more upscale clients, for whatever reason.
Food and "recreation" of eating out are two different things...I have to assume.
I could have purchased a 50" 4K TV for $300 on Prime day, about 1/6th or less of the price as a decade ago...
So your mileage may vary.
Personally,we NEVER eat $150 dinners. We don't eat $100 dinners - well, maybe once a year if the kids or special old friends visit.
Wage growth has been fairly poor throughout my entire working life (40 years plus). Luckily, I worked for myself so this did not apply. But those I know in other jobs tended to make less and less as the years went by (downsizing, cast off and rehired as contractors, etc.)...
Even current wage growth - with low unemployment - is dismal. I think it's about even (meaning no growth) for the past year when measured against basics....even worse when put to the real world test with the higher gasoline and health care prices.
I always like to reference my own personal "base". In 1974 in a rural area of TN, my first real job was as a laborer framing houses. I didn't know carpentry, so this involved just carrying 2x4's from a pile to sawhorses and eventually cutting them to a certain length. Skill level was still almost nil.
I made $5. an hour - at the time that was not considered a lot of money. At one point we had no work and I did temp-unskilled work for $3.50 an hour. That was bottom of the barrel.
Using a basic inflation calculator the $5 today would be about $28 an hour.
The $3.50 would be $19 per hour.
This is why people have a hard time convincing me that a min. wage of $15 is excessive. We have gone so far downhill (for those at the bottom) that down looks like up.
Year before that I had a "learning job" as a dishwasher in a health food eatery. I say "learning job" because it was done to learn the healthy ways of cooking and was known to pay well below any normal wage (maybe restaurants could get away with this due to claiming tips were received..which they were not for the kitchen help!).....
That job was 1.50 an hour in 1970, which would be $10 today. Yet people don't look at $10 an hour today as being a "complete joke intern" type of wage. In some places that is even advertised as a wage to draw you in!
My, how much has changed...and it is reflected in the "inequality" numbers. These days, it appears, one is one one side of the divide or the other. There is not as much middle ground.
Its fantastic watching how everyone has 'fuzzy' memories of numbers and 'past' times. I bought a 50" laser in 2010 for about $3700. That was 7 1/2 years ago and 12 TIMES (twice your 6 times) more expensive than your proposed Prime special of a 4K model for only $300.
Its fantastic watching how everyone has 'fuzzy' memories of numbers and 'past' times. I bought a 50" laser in 2010 for about $3700. That was 7 1/2 years ago and 12 TIMES (twice your 6 times) more expensive than your proposed Prime special of a 4K model for only $300.
And 8 years ago, in 2010, I purchased a 50" LED Samsung plasma TV for $799.. still working great.
The restaurant is free to charge whatever the Market will bear. So long as patrons are willing to pay those prices, it's not an issue.
Prices could have risen for any number of reasons, including a change owners, a change in management, a change in executive chefs, a change in suppliers whose prices were higher, increased labor costs, increased regulation (Cost-push Inflation), a change in the financial situation -- perhaps the restaurant recently took on addition debt for whatever reason, may be to modernize the kitchen or redecorate the dining room, or simply a realization that prices were too low for Market rates and increased them appropriately.
There's also the possibly that restaurant owners or management or the executive chef desired to see a change in clientele, choosing to cater to more upscale clients, for whatever reason.
restaurants here in nyc tend to charge a 15 or 20% service charge . they used to falsely call it a gratuity .
we used to think it was a tip until we found out that charge just goes in to the company cash register and they are free to distribute it any way they like or even not at all . courts ruled it can't be called a gratuity on the menu ,it has to be called service charge .it really screws the waiters over .
Just talked to a builder who makes high end pools. Can't find any labor. They've upped payrates 50%, their biggest issue is just zero bodies out there. It's constraining work projects and increasing their backlog where some clients just say forget it.
Said it's all over the construction industry. No real skilled labor around. Not only for his pool business but general housing as well, and it's crimping home builders ability to increase inventory. One reason why we've seen such a shortage develop in housing.
This is an absolutely killer economy, but there are structural issues forming.
It's one of those places that give you a # which you prop on your table and they bring the food to you.. well, I don't consider that tip worthy sorry... because you are not being waited on.
Oh, and the sandwiches have become 30% smaller, nice try for cutting costs and thinking customers would not notice.
oh, just went to my regular self service coin operated car wash, price increased from $4 to $5.. 25% up. Also got my rent increase notice, 5% up. Inflation is here.
The Fed needs to increase rates by about 2-3% actually to tame what I see is very strong inflation, the lousy .25% isn't going to cut it. Fed Funds needs to be at 4-5%.
Last edited by k374; 07-21-2018 at 08:20 PM..
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