DouchebagBLS.png
[Hide] (22.8KB, 532x237) Let me start off by saying:
- I know about Shadow Stats. I know about libertarian statistics alternatives. I have my issues with those, but I'm not going to bring them up here, and I hope you understand by reading this that that is not what I'm talking about.
- I know about how poor government statistics are. So, while this post may be of the same kind, I'm talking of a completely different degree. In my experience, it's always been bad, but not THIS bad.
With that said...
Price statistics have been getting really, REALLY bad recently. Yes, it was 'bad' before, but it's getting to a different level now, and I'm surprised there aren't more outlets talking about it. From what I can see, this includes pricing statistics both over the past few years, but ESPECIALLY across cities. The cost of living calculations being brought up by the various federal bureaus is really going off the rails.
My mother lives in Florida like every other old person in existence, and I live in what the government calls "flyover country." If I look up on a federal website what the cost of living difference is in--say--food, it says it's even. When I call up my mother about the price of eggs, she tells me in all the grocery stores in Florida it's at least 3x my price. Onions are 2x. Like this isn't "Oh, we're off by a couple % or even we're off by 30%." Most of these food prices are orders of MAGNITUDE off. Like they're WAY off. If I compare rent prices, cost of living calculator says it's 10% less where I live, but according to people I call up, it's FIVE X! FIVE FUCKING TIMES HIGHER. And I have an entire house, my friends live like fucking bug people with roommate while living in a crawl space's ventilation shaft!
Then if I do salary comparisons, it's the other way. Cost of living calculators say the wage difference is 2 or 3x more that I'd get paid in a city. Out of everyone I've called up, the biggest difference I can find is 30% more for the same job. Like, that's good, but the difference in the statistical outlets is still staggering.
Over time, I don't think I need to belabor it. CPI says that prices have gone up 20% where they've demonstrably gone up 200%.
At first, I thought the following was happening:
- Rent was getting misconstrued due to availability. E.g., 3 houses for sale dirt cheap and 1 expensive mansion v. 3 expensive houses and 1 expensive mansion can make the average housing cost in two areas LOOK similar, even though it isn't.
- CPI statistics over time have a lot of inflation hidden by the weights in that stupid fucking "user car price" component.
- Maybe the food basket only includes wine, caviar, and bread or something.
The only other explanation I can think of before I go full-boar Alex Jones conspiracist is that hundreds or thousands of employees of the Bureau of Labor Statistics have never actually physically walked into a Wal-Mart in flyover country or called up a realtor in flyover country. But statistically, that would require hundreds or thousands of bad faith actors without a single bad bad faith actor acting against them. So...
Fuck it, every libertarian becomes a conspiracist at some point, so I'm a conspiracist now. I think the Bureau of Labor Statistics is purposefully OUTRIGHT LYING on cost of living and pricing statistics to get people to move to cities and help depress wage rates for the middle class or hell I wonder if it's an outright genocidal scheme at this point. These differences are just TOO BIG.