Posed by Tina
The American people are fed up with government statistics being used to convince us that our economy is doing well when we are experiencing struggle at every turn. Happy talk from politicians isn’t comforting; it’s insulting. We’re told the semi-low unemployment rate (5.5%) means policies are “working” and yet, we know it’s bunk. The middle class is disappearing, how does that make sense? We also know our dollars don’t buy as much as they used to buy. We know that insurances and tuition for college are sky high. There is an explanation; we are not being told the truth. The government is lying. At Zero Hedge it’s revealed that although our government claims 6% inflation since 2011 prices for everyday items are up 60%, 75% and more:
According to official statistics, inflation has reduced the purchasing power of the dollar by a mere 6% since 2011: barely above 1% a year. We’ve supposedly seen our purchasing power decline by 27% in the 12 years since 2004—an average rate of 2.25% per year.
But our real-world experience tells us the official inflation rate doesn’t reflect the actual cost increases of everything from burritos to healthcare.
The cost of a regular taco was $1.25 in 2010. By official standards, it should cost a dime more. Oops—it’s now $2 each, a 60% increase, six times the official rate.
The cost of a Vietnamese-style sandwich (banh mi) at our favorite Chinatown deli has jumped from $1.50 in 2001 to $2 in 2004 to $3.50 in 2016. That $1.50 increase since 2004 is a 75% jump, roughly triple the official 27% reduction in purchasing power.
So let’s play Devil’s Advocate and suggest that these extraordinary increases are limited to “food purchased away from home,” to use the official jargon for meals purchased at fast-food joints, delis, cafes, microbreweries and restaurants.
Well, how about public university tuition? That’s not something you buy every week like a burrito. Getting out our calculator, we find that the cost for four years of tuition and fees at a public university will set you back about 8,600 burritos. Throw in books (assume the student lives at home, so no on-campus dorm room or food expenses) and other college expenses and you’re up to 10,000 burritos, or $65,000 for the four years at a public university.
University of California at Davis: 2004 in-state tuition $5,684, 2015 in state tuition $13,951
That’s an increase of 145% in a time span in which official inflation says tuition in 2015 should have cost 25% more than it did in 2004, i.e. $7,105. Oops—the real world costs are basically double official inflation—a difference of about $30,000 per four-year bachelor’s degree per student. …
… According to official inflation calculations, the $12,214 annual medical costs for a family of four in 2005 “should cost” $14,963 today in 2016.
Oops—the actual cost is $25,826, $10,863 higher than official inflation, which adds over $100,000 in cash outlays above and beyond official inflation in the course of a decade.
Set aside the fact that Obamacare was supposed to reduce the cost of insurance, which it didn’t, inflation is making it impossible for the average American to afford it. The cost of necessities is so high there is nothing left for discretionary spending much less a college education. Private sector debt is through the roof! No wonder poverty rates are up! No wonder home ownership is down! No wonder college graduates are living in their parents’ basements. No wonder the middle class is disappearing!
The article concludes that it would take a $20,000.00 per year increase in pay to keep up with actual inflation rates. There’s no way a minimum wage increase is going to come close to giving the people greater buying power. The suggestion is an insult and a grand distraction from the destructive power of the economic polices pushed since 2006 when Democrats took control of the House. The thing that matters most is how much our dollars will buy and in the last ten years our dollars buy less and less. By the way, taxing the rich, as Hillary wants to do, will not improve the situation. The rich will simply avoid or minimize investments that will be heavily taxed and the economy and jobs will continue to stagnate and our dollars will buy even less than they do today. The only class that will not be impacted by inflation and high taxes is the rich. Hillary’s policies are bad for the middle class and the poor…unless the goal is to minimize our independence and make the good citizens of America even more dependent on government. Your buying power is a measure of your freedom. Buying power marks the difference between a free man and a serf! Average Americans CANNOT AFFORD another four years of Keynesian (progressive) policies!
Think it was Mark Twain who said There are three types of untruth: lies, damned lies and statistics.” (Four, if you count anything outta $hrilLIARy’s mouth)
What’s surprising, given the multitude of misstatements from the Obama administration for the last 7+ years, that anyone believes this admin at all anymore!
An increase in price is not necessarily inflation. I can’t see inflation as a factor in tuition, at least not a big one. Biggest university expense is salaries, and it’s been a good ten years since anybody’s had a raise. My understanding is that public university tuition rises as the percentage of public funding falls … Reaganomics at its most endearing.
If we’re ever going to recover from this benighted policy, Republicans must be removed from the Congress.
” My understanding is that public university tuition rises as the percentage of public funding falls…”
In fact it’s the exact opposite. Government subsidy isn’t the only reason for rising tuition but it is a major contributor. As government guarantees and provides funding colleges are assured revenue. They need not work hard nor compete for students since demand remains high. Gov subsidy literally creates a condition of perpetually increasing tuition:
“Reaganomics at its most endearing.”
Saying it over and over won’t make it so, Libby. This is not Reaganomics. This is socialism…take from those some idiot politician thinks has “too much” and give it to someone some bureaucrat decides is deserving.
Socialism actually blunts Reaganomics activity. It causes inflation as too few dollars are chasing too many goods. people lose their jobs and have less to spend. It becomes a vicious downward spiral…just as we have experienced over the last ten years.
Because college education subsidies are popular both party’s have increased and government subsidies for college, see here.
Economist and professor Stephen Moore explains further:
First and foremost education should be affordable…I agree with Stephen Moore when he says that the internet can make a big difference but getting the third party payer out of the picture is also necessary.
Despite all the overwhelming evidence that the Progressives are destroying the Country as well as the State of California, it doesn’t matter one hoot to the citizens because 90% of them know of nothing being dangerous to them and their freedom. The real enemy is the Liberal Press NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, and of course The Clinton News Network otherwise known as CNN. USA Today, the Huffington Post, The New York Times, the Associated Press; they are all bought and paid for by the Progressive Liberal Democrats. And each Progressive got elected by lying and calling themselves “Moderates”. Once elected, like President O’Liar….game on until they control us all!!
Or … 10% of us are raging paranoids. I don’t have any trouble seeing through the dubious reasoning of the stuff Tina re-posts … complaining about inflation that isn’t inflation at all.
“… control us all!!”
What, exactly is it “they” are gonna make you do?
Real answers, now. No more airy fairy bloviating about your diminishing freedoms. Concretely, what are they gonna make you do?
Speaking of blovation, Libblowhard, how do you account for the fact government claims 6% inflation since 2011 yet prices for everyday items are up 60%, 75% and more?
Give us the benefit of your infinite wisdom and prowess at macro economics back by fact and valid analysis. Show us your stats.
Or shut up.
“I don’t have any trouble seeing through the dubious reasoning of the stuff Tina re-posts”
Seeing through?
My experience is that you are hard wired to socialist thinking and stubborn as he77!
You refuse to think outside that socialist box feel so confident in your little cloistered world that you think you can reduced me to a 10% fringe (Alinsky tactic) and beat up on me (paranoid).
Trouble is you have no proof of either charge and what’s more telling is that you cannot tell me how raising taxes on wealth and investment will grow a strong economy. You also cannot defend the economy we’ve experienced with progressive policies under Obama. Your opinion is thus reduced to crappola!
“…complaining about inflation that isn’t inflation at all.”
Sure Libby…everything today costs you the same as it did in 2007…yes?
“What, exactly is it “they” are gonna make you do?”
I will indulge you and repeat.
Pay even more for goods and services inflated by the cost of government as the middleman and high taxes on those who grow the economy. This goes beyond government involvement in education and healthcare. Every manufacturer, seller, distributor, and retailer charges more today because of taxes and fees imposed on them and the money it takes to comply.
The insidiousness of this is that it’s hidden unless you are the one paying the taxes, fees, and compliance costs.
Consumers don’t know why their dollars don’t buy more and when they ask they’re directed by politicians (progressives) to blame the “greedy” investors, producers and sellers.
Loss of buying power is a loss of freedom. Our earnings are our property. It’s as if the government took chunks of your car or land year after year…in that case you’d notice. Diminished buying power and the diminished ability to save and build wealth is an infringement on our ability to save and spend freely and achieve upward mobility. That represents a loss of freedom.
The cost of federal employees alone is more than $260 billion. You do the math. In term of per household buying power that’s quite a chunk:
And the money keeps rolling in…forced tax payments. Is it any surprise that Washington DC is both filled with the wealthy and the poor? (No middle class)
You progressives keep attention on those greedy wealthy people to hide the fact that your policies murder upward mobility for the middle and lower classes. “And that’s the truth,” as Edith Anne always said.
And our government keeps saying they don;t have enough. Well in the last ten years they’ve wasted so much that Hillary says she’ll tax th rich cause that’s where the money is…guess us peons have been taxed out, but don’t count on it.
Lack of adequate education (no accident) and vulnerability to political yarns and spin is the only reason that makes sense. If people knew what they were buying into, knew these policies are against their own self-interests, they would run away from progressive democrats like gazelles being chased by lions.
Off Topic stuff …
Black Lives Matter Releases Their List of Demands —
1. End the war on black people: We demand an end to the war against Black people. Since this country’s inception there have been named and unnamed wars on our communities. We demand an end to the criminalization, incarceration, and killing of our people.
2. Reparations: We demand reparations for past and continuing harms. The government, responsible corporations and other institutions that have profited off of the harm they have inflicted on Black people — from colonialism to slavery through food and housing redlining, mass incarceration, and surveillance — must repair the harm done.
3. Invest-Divest: We demand investments in the education, health and safety of Black people, instead of investments in the criminalizing, caging, and harming of Black people. We want investments in Black communities, determined by Black communities, and divestment from exploitative forces including prisons, fossil fuels, police, surveillance and exploitative corporations.
4. Economical Justice: We demand economic justice for all and a reconstruction of the economy to ensure Black communities have collective ownership, not merely access.
5. Community Control: We demand a world where those most impacted in our communities control the laws, institutions, and policies that are meant to serve us – from our schools to our local budgets, economies, police departments, and our land – while recognizing that the rights and histories of our Indigenous family must also be respected.
6. Political Powers: We demand independent Black political power and Black self-determination in all areas of society. We envision a remaking of the current U.S. political system in order to create a real democracy where Black people and all marginalized people can effectively exercise full political power.
Nawww, these people are not a bunch of racist, race-baiting, radical progressive communist nut cases. “The war on black people.” Oh puhleeeeze.
Hmmm …
This story is UNBELIEVABLE– Except that it’s Hillary Clinton we’re talking about…
Wikileaks is reporting on deals Hillary Clinton did with the the French industrial giant Lefarge – a company accused of secretly sponsoring ISIS.
Hillary took $100K from group that supports ISIS
Tina, just remember this, every time some witless progressive socialist screams “Tax the corporations! Make them pay their fair share!” what they are actually screaming is “TAX ME!”
Corporations do not pay taxes, they collect them. Such costs of doing business are passed on to the consumers of their goods and/or services.
When corporations are so heavily taxed and regulated so as not to be able to reasonably compete in the marketplace against other corporations not so heavily taxed and regulated, they move to a friendlier environment.
Thus you see corporations fleeing California for Texas (like Toyota), or moving out of the country entirely (like Carrier).
You cannot expect a progressive to understand these basic economic principles. They lack the interest and intellect.
All true Pie.
Hillary goes even further. She plans to tax retirees dependent on savings and investment. She plans to tax wealth building middle class Americans trying to secure their future retirement. She plans to double down on increasing the size (and cost) of government which means Americans of the future will be burdened with more debt and more redistribution obligations. All of this will drag on the economy and eliminate private sector jobs. As one politician said back in the 1990’s there will be too many people riding in the cart and not enough pulling it.
Democrats are unqualified to hold office because they are too ignorant, or simply ideologically unwilling, to work on behalf of the people…to support power being vested in the people. Big government and confiscation of all wealth is their goal. It is the means to absolute power, in permanent one party power.
If the people don’t wake up to the anti-American radical left in leadership today and their devious agenda, America will soon be no more.
“Democrats are unqualified to hold office”
If someone said “Republicans are unqualified to hold office,” would you consider that a bigoted statement?
What I see are Democrats (and many Republicans) condemning one specific candidate as unpresidential and unqualified. You seem to believe that every Democrat is inherently unqualified. This is a skewed and overly biased way to view the world, but it explains your support of Trump; you are convinced that every single Democrat is inherently unqualified, so you would vote for Trump (who isn’t even a Republican) over any Democrat.
No Chris, I would say if someone said “Republicans are unqualified to hold office.” they were morons, not bigots. And yes, every Democrat is unqualified to hold office. 😀
But…. but… but. There has been no COLA for Soc. Sec and the military for years or very little if at all. How can that be if the cost of goods as risen 40-60%? Is someone cooking the books again to make themselves look good like they do with the unemployment rate and use the U-3 instead of the U-6 rate. The U-6 is 9.9-13.4%.
http://unemploymentdata.com/current-u6-unemployment-rate/
So, which is it? Is our cost of living going up or isn’t it? If we’re paying more for items then it’s really simple to figure out isn’t it? It is. If people aren’t smart enough to figure out they’re being lied to they deserve the gov’t they get and can explain to their kids the mess they left them with.
As for the cost of tuition. Remember the federal student loan program was moved under ObamaCare, so the gov’t could make money off of the interest the students when they make their payments back to the gov’t to help pay for ObamaCare.
The feds borrow the money at the lowest rate and charge the students a higher rate. It makes billions of dollars in profits that also goes back to the colleges to pay for those higher salaries. Boy, if this was done in the private sector I’m sure it would be called something illegal like graft.
Nice little scam they’ve set up to sucker those poor college students by forcing them to buy health insurance they don’t want and can’t afford and then making them pay interest on their student loans for it too.
College Loans Subsidize Obamacare:
“According to the Congressional Budget Office, $8.7 billion of the money collected in student loan interest payments actually goes to pay for ObamaCare. The CBO estimates that the interest rate on these loans could be reduced from 6.8 percent to only 5.3 percent were the funds not used to subsidize the healthcare reform law and other federal programs.
The profits from student loans are divided as follows: $8.7 billion goes to pay for ObamaCare; $10.3 billion goes to pay down the federal debt; and $36 billion goes to Pell Scholarship grants.
The 16 million American students who now have student loans are paying for ObamaCare out of their meagre incomes just at the point when they graduate from college and need funds to start their lives, buy their first homes and begin a family.”
https://obamacare.net/college-loans-subsidize-obamacare/
Students being used and lied to while the gov’t digs deeper into their pockets while lying to them and telling them they’re their friend and want to take care of them. All they want is their money and to keep the cash cows coming through the revolving door.
They’ll be in debt to the gov’t for decades who will have a hold of their nose rings and force them to behave or they’ll give it a twist until they do. The price of freedom paid in full.
Wake up suckers. Jake/Chris and Libby
Peggy it’s disgusting that the party that deplores “profits” in the private sector finds a way to profit off of students and their parents and then has the gall to brag about how many people are going to college while ignoring the fact that they can’t get a job and live in their parents basements! But that’s the ugly truth about this devious party.
From your Obamacare.net article:
This is one of the ways they cook the books on Obamcare to claim it’s sustainable. It is also a sham! A loan rate on a home was only 3% yesterday! Interest rates have been kept artificially low for seven years. Why are students paying such a high rate?
Is the rate adjustable too? If so these kids will really be screwed when the interest rate rises. They don’t care because the plan is to forgive that debt and have the working man pick up the tab in higher taxation. As Pie reiterated they will pay it directly in higher tax rates, added taxation, higher costs for goods, a hit on retirement income, and/or lost jobs!
Jonathan Gruber was talking about Democrats when he said Americans are too stupid to understand how ObamaCare works. With the help of the liberal media keeping it hidden they’ll keep voting to their own demise. For the first time in our history Children will be paying for their parent’s college education with taxes, and taxes and more taxes. At least now and in the past adults paid for their own K-12 education through property taxes in mortgages and rent to property owners.
Read recently that Millennials are not into owning homes like the Baby Boomers were. They prefer renting and living where lots of restaurants are because they’re not into cooking and entertaining at home. Expanding the school bonds from K-12 to include community colleges and universities is going to still increase what they pay in rent.
With BBs dying off and Mills not interested in buying, the housing market is going to remain low decreasing cities/counties property tax revenues. Funds will always be needed to pay for police, fire and infrastructure cost.
No “free” lunch. Just like the decline in gas tax collected with fuel efficient cars bills will be written to collect the funds in usage or other taxes. Mills will learn the hard way, they will pay and pay and pay.
“Funds will always be needed to pay for police, fire and infrastructure cost.
Not to mention education, Peggy. We finally see how killing the golden goose happens.
Paul Bedard, “Report: Worst economic recovery since 1930s, salaries fall $17,000 short”
The people know it too!
Chorus to one of my father’s favorites—
Rolls in, rolls in
My god how the money rolls in, rolls in
Rolls in, rolls in,
My god, how the money rolls in.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/400-million-sent-to-iran-as-us-prisoners-released-raising-questions-2016-08-02