Check out your city’s real inflation.
http://www.chapwoodindex.com/
The Chapwood Index reflects the true cost-of-living increase in America. Updated and released twice a year, it reports the unadjusted actual cost and price fluctuation of the top 500 items on which Americans spend their after-tax dollars in the 50 largest cities in the nation.
It exposes why middle-class Americans — salaried workers who are given routine pay hikes and retirees who depend on annual increases in their corporate pension and Social Security payments — can’t maintain their standard of living. Plainly and simply, the Index shows that their income can’t keep up with their expenses, and it explains why they increasingly have to turn to the government for entitlements to bail them out.
It’s because salary and benefit increases are pegged to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which for more than a century has purported to reflect the fluctuation in prices for a typical “basket of goods” in American cities — but which actually hasn’t done that for more than 30 years.
The middle class has seen its purchasing power decline dramatically in the last three decades, forcing more and more people to seek entitlements when their savings are gone. And as long as pay raises and benefit increases are tied to a false CPI, this trend will continue.
The myth that the CPI represents the increase in our cost of living is why the Chapwood Index was created. What differentiates it from the CPI is simple, but critically important. The Chapwood Index:
- Reports the actual price increase of the 500 items on which most Americans spend their after-tax money. No gimmicks, no alterations, no seasonal adjustments; just real prices.
- Shines a spotlight on the inaccuracy of the CPI, which is destroying the economic and emotional fiber of our country.
- Shows how our dependence on the CPI is killing our middle class and why citizens increasingly are depending upon government entitlement programs to bail them out.
- Claims to persuade Americans to become better-educated consumers and to take control of their spending habits and personal finances.
The inaccuracy of the CPI began in 1983, during a time of rampant inflation, when the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics began to cook the books on its calculation in order to curb the increase in Social Security and federal pension payments.
But the change affected more than entitlements. Because increases in corporate salaries and retirement benefits have traditionally been tied to the CPI, the change affected everything. And now, 30 years later, everyone knows the long-term results. Ask anyone who relies on a salary or Social Security or a pension and he’ll tell you his annual increase in income doesn’t come close to his increase in expenses. What comes in is less than what goes out — a situation that spells disaster for average Americans.
“The data solidly supports what many Americans have suspected for years,” says the Chapwood Index’s founder, Ed Butowsky.
The CPI no longer measures the true increase required to maintain a constant standard of living. This is the main reason that more people are falling behind financially, and why more Americans rely on government entitlement programs.
Butowsky began calculating the Chapwood Index in 2008. Using social media, he surveyed his friends across the country to determine what they bought with their after-tax income. He narrowed the list down to the most frequent 500 items and asked his friends in America’s 50 largest cities to check the prices on those items periodically. The Index shows the fluctuation in each city in the cost of items such as:
Starbucks coffee, Advil, insurance, gasoline, sales and income taxes, tolls, fast food restaurants, toothpaste, oil changes, car washes, pizza, cable TV and Internet service, cellphone service, dry cleaning, movie tickets, cosmetics, gym memberships, home repairs, piano lessons, laundry detergent, light bulbs, school supplies, parking meters, pet food, underwear and People magazine.
The Index forces middle-class Americans to recognize that their dependence on income increases pegged to the much-lower CPI virtually guarantees that they will run out of money before they die, because people are living longer and there is a huge difference between the CPI and the real world.
As an example, the CPI rose 0.8 percent in 2014. But in Boston, the Chapwood Index shows that the real cost of living increase was 10.7 percent. This means that if you work in the Boston area and got an 0.8 percent raise in your salary, it wasn’t nearly enough to cover the increase in your day-to-day expenses.
It was especially bad in San Jose, CA , where the Chapwood Index shows a 13.7 percent rise in the cost of living. Even the city with the lowest increase, Colorado Springs, CO , showed a 6.6 percent rise, a 5.8 percent higher than the CPI.
So, wherever you live, you showed a higher income. But at the end of the year, you spent all of it — and more.
The unintended consequence of the CPI is that people who depend on Social Security and pensions don’t get what they need,” Butowsky says. “Our hope is that people will review the Index, see what the real cost of living is where they live and understand that it leaves them exposed, and consult with a financial adviser to plan for the future.\
Read more about Problems with the CPI and how the Chapwood Index was created.
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
This can’t be right….President Barack W. Trump said this is the bestest ever economy !
And Stossel just wrote about how the poor are actually getting richer !
annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum- there is no way the Murican goobermint would lie !
sarc-off…….
It’s bullshit and it’s bad for ya.
Yes it is, Tom. And with all due respect to Mr. Chapwood, this Mr. Chappedass recognizes that even his adjusted rate does not accurately consider the ‘hidden’ inflationary costs.
Costs such as; a 16 oz can of widgets that sold for X is now a 14 oz. can that sells for X plus a dime.
How about the factors of ‘quality’ and expected longevity of goods purchased (recent article hear discussed this) such as appliances etc. And the number of reruns and increased commercial/ad time on cable, or the ‘censored’ information on internet sites…..on and on and on.
Or the compounded increases in local water rates, for an example. Locally (small town), we went through a three year period a decade back, that saw an annual increase of 2%, which is 2% on 2% on 2%. And since the sewer rates are based on water consumption, resulted in increased costs to flush a bowl. They are so devious, that they claim to set the sewer rate for a year based on the lowest water consumption months of Jan, Feb, March…..but were extending the billing period of those months from standard 28-30 days, to as much as 45 days (no more, to my possibly because of my ‘aggressive’ attempts to disclose this practice).
Additionally, due to planned neglect of the existing water purification plant, they have recently built a new $20 million plant…….and now an annual increase of 2% for the next FIVE years. But the freemason director has achieved a six plus figure annual salary, a car to drive 24/7…..and he just rents an apartment…..doesn’t even kick back property tax for a home !
annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum- the King has planned all this, and nothing will interrupt the ‘plan’……not even an uprising by the serfs……see yellow vests in France…..
Measure inflation accurately, exclude government debt from the GDP, and drop the BS seasonal adjustments and God knows what else they do to cook the books, and real GDP “growth” is deeply negative. We’ve been in a deep depression since 2008–even with the trillions of dollars printed out of nothing–and almost no one realizes it.
I’ve been pointing out the extraordinary implications of the Chapwood Index–that is, the impact of seriously underreporting inflation–for years to friends and family. They either don’t believe it or they don’t really understand what it means. With government telling the sheep inflation is 2%, we’re all falling behind approximately 10% per year. Even considering the period shown in the index (2014-2018), a thousand-dollar Social Security check would’ve grown to $1104.08 (assuming mean CPI of 2% a year for 5 years), but the cost of the 500 items (set at 1000) would now be $1610.51 (assuming 10% real inflation each year for 5 years). Needless to say this has been going on for a lot more than 5 years. Then add the misreporting of GDP due in large part to underestimating inflation, and the consequences are astounding. Inflation constitutes perhaps the most impactful lie the government tells, and that’s saying something. Yet everyone from zerohedge to MSM dutifully reports monthly CPI as if it means something.
“they don’t really understand what it means”
That’s what I find most of the time.
I have been trying to inform people for years that their incomes, pensions and savings are being plunder by under-reported inflation but most simply do not understand basic math and therefore cannot appreciate the consequences of a fraudulent CPI. All they know is that their standard of living is going down making it increasingly difficult to pay the bills at the end of each month. This is why democracy based on universal suffrage can never work.
Excellent observation Bob and my book describes all this and more. John Williams at
http://www.shadowstats.com/ has all this to a tee. The world has been in a depression – well – at least the 95% poor slobs like you and I. Free pdf on request to: [email protected]
Bob P,
You and Mannarino are on the same page.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUG4p07USGg
“We shall raise the rate of wages which, however, will not bring any advantage to the workers, for, at the same time, we shall produce a rise in prices of the first necessaries of life…” – Protocol 6.7
Funny how the orange god has done nothing to attempt to fix the CPI.
Anecdotal:
Just installed a new water heater…
Price doubled in 5 years based on quotes. It was all labor that inflated, as I bought myself and installed for the same price as 5 years back.
Fat Ass Before Inflation:
Fat Ass After Inflation:
Hmmm…Before aging inflation there were many offering comfort and many offering speed…sometimes, if you were lucky… you could find speedy comfort and occasionally comfortable speed.
Perusing the list I see more than a few expenses, i.e. Starbucks, dining out, that I deem wants, which are discretionary and not needs.