• walden@sub.wetshaving.social
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    15 hours ago

    That isn’t an indicator of current inflation. Past inflation, maybe.

    People confuse “everything is expensive” with “inflation is currently high”. It’s an understandable misunderstanding, and part of the reason why Kamala lost.

    • PriorityMotif@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      It’s because of hysteretic effects from 4 years ago when they stopped production of cars and fewer cars were sold because people were staying home. Then there was a supply chain crisis because of the aforementioned shutdown. It’s inflation because the dollar can buy less than it used to. Things being more expensive is inflation. You’re confusing inflation rate with inflation.

      • n2burns@lemmy.ca
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        14 hours ago

        Inflation rate and inflation are the same. You’re confusing inflation with affordability.

        • PriorityMotif@lemmy.world
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          14 hours ago

          That’s literally the definition of inflation. “Inflation is a loss of purchasing power that reflects a rise in prices for goods and services over time.”

          • n2burns@lemmy.ca
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            6 hours ago

            That definition is literally describing a change, as rate of change.

            Inflation is a loss of purchasing power

            Over the past year, we haven’t experienced a loss of purchasing power. We have a lack of purchasing power, but we lost it over the 2-3 years prior to the last year.

            a rise in prices for goods and services over time

            This is pretty much the mathematical definition of a rate of change. Like how speed is the rate of change in position over time. After a day of traveling, your position (prices for goods) may be way different than your starting point, but if you’re not currently moving, your speed (inflation) is NIL.