Inflation

The Government has an interesting way of deceiving us. Take the U.S. Unemployment Rate. This figure is achieved by telephoning a sample number of households and asking if anyone is looking for work.

Okay, the findings tell us about people looking for work. They say little about the number of able bodied folks who would like to work, but do not currently have a job. Are they not unemployed?

Or, how about the widely touted inflation rate? For this they use the Consumer Price Index. They survey prices of a number of items, and compare those prices with the prices of the same items one year ago - or at some arbitrary date in the past. Problem is, they do not include the prices of certain categories of products or services.

How meaningful are the numbers they offer? Not very.

Telling us that the average price of some things we buy has increased a percentage point or two, compared to the average price of those same items one year ago, doesn't tell us a lot.

What is telling is when you go to the store and buy some item you have not purchased in a while. That tells you something about inflation.

I don't know if there is an accurate way to compute how many Americans are unemployed. I simply feel the current method is bogus.

Inflation? Well, the thing that matters is the buying power of our money. When our money buys fewer items, we say prices are inflated. Actually, that is not true. Modern manufacturing and farming methods, have brought products to market more quickly, efficiently then ever. Modern transportation means more products can come to us over greater distances then ever. Why are these products costing more every year? Because our money is worth less.

There may be an accurate way to compute rates of unemployment, inflation and other economic indicators. But, the results may show some government policies to be wrong. Not likely they will ever be developed.