Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Domains

Domain: randomuseless.info

Stories and comments across the archive that link to randomuseless.info.

Comments · 10

  1. Re:Maybe inflation is higher by abies · · Score: 2 · on Cable TV Prices Rising At Four Times the Inflation Rate

    Hmm, let's look at gas prices (which are one of the basic indicators of US lifestyle and affect cost of most things)
    http://www.randomuseless.info/...
    Year 2000 - 1.4-1.6
    Year 2014 - 3.80
    Factor of 2.4-2.7

    Beef prices
    http://www.criticalissues.us/B...
    Year 2000 - 285
    Year 2014 - 480
    Factor of 1.68

    There were just two first things I have checked out of 'americal lifestyle' pseudo-basket. Then we have cable tv prices, as described in original post with factor of around 1.6.
    CPI suggests difference of 1.34 between year 2000 and 2014. Shadow stats suggest around 2.26 as you say. Probably one of only importnat things which are following CPI data over this time period are apartment rental prices and this is just because of 2008 crash.

    I will agree with you that shadowstats is reporting too high inflation index - they are not trying to provide real numbers, rather to show the difference in creative accounting after 1980. But do you really think that CPI is valid measurement of what is happening? Why almost every report is complaining that XYZ is raising faster than CPI?

  2. Gas in Texas hasn't been 79 cents since 1979. by Andy+Prough · · Score: 1 · on Climate Change Could Drive Coffee To Extinction By 2080

    Although the adjusted for inflation number (since 1979) shows that it's still only $1.00: http://www.randomuseless.info/gasprice/gasprice.html

  3. Re:Inflation by Megane · · Score: 2 · on The Specter of Gasoline At $5 a Gallon

    I hope you all recognise that the prices of gas are being moved up by inflation

    From an earlier post: Gasoline Price History (with a line adjusted for inflation)

    Adjusted for inflation, gasoline is more expensive now than during the wonderful years of Jimmy "Malaise" Carter.

  4. Re:This is an americano-centric joke by marcop · · Score: 4, Insightful · on The Specter of Gasoline At $5 a Gallon

    It's hard for the average person to accept such a large swing in gas prices in such a short time especially when there are little alternatives. In Europe you have a good mass transit system. You even have Ryan Air for cheap air travel. The US doesn't have nearly as good system of trains and buses.

    So when gas prices change like the following:

    http://www.randomuseless.info/gasprice/gasprice.html

    It puts a strain on people's budget especially during hard economic times.

    BTW, I'm a Republican and am no defender of Obama, but I would love to ask the Republican candidates who was in charge when gas prices started to ramp up in the year 2000 and why it did so.

  5. Re:elect obama by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Programming Jobs Abroad For a US Citizen?

    I'd say obama's big support for ethanol has driven up food prices

    Did ethanol push up food prices? Yes, some farmers that were growing other things stopped to grow corn. Is it responsible for all (or even a majority) of food price increase? No, the fact the cost of oil tripled in the past decade did that.

    And if the fact that the cost of inputs (oil, fertilizer, etc) increased tremendously wasn't enough, we had a record breaking corn crop last year, with an (as of the time of that article) expected surplus of 1.4bln bushels. Now, all the farmers growing corn instead of wheat might explain why the price of wheat or barley or soy or whatever else went up, but the price of corn increased too, despite that glut, so I think it's fair to say that "ethanol" isn't entirely at fault.

    are worth MORE today than they were 7 years ago

    Only if they were better than the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq indexes. The Dow is the only index that is still up over 2001. Nasdaq is down to 1998 levels, S&P 500 is down to 1999 levels.

  6. Re:Who's your daddy? by number6x · · Score: 1 · on Russia Tests World's Largest Non-Nuclear Bomb

    White sands testing range is named after the state park, but no testing takes place there.

    That part of New Mexico looks a lot like the scrub desert in west Texas.

    Photos of the famous trinity site might help. This web site has some information on background radiation levels in the surronding area an a nice little bit of history.

  7. Re:Breaking News by ArcherB · · Score: 1 · on Netcraft Shows Smartech Running Ohio Election Servers

    Crap... here's the link here

  8. Re:A lot has to change to make parents responsible by proxima · · Score: 1 · on Judge Strikes Down COPA, 1998 Online Porn Law

    Gas prices are higher than they've ever been.

    Umm, no. You need to take nominal gas prices and adjust them for overall inflation. If you do that, you end up with a graph like this or like this.

    While we got somewhat close post-Katrina and in parts of 2006, we still haven't surpassed the average prices of the early 1980s (following the 1979 "oil shock"). You have to be a bit careful, as really big spikes which last a matter of days are averaged out in the data, so you shouldn't directly compare the highest number recorded on a given day with historical averages.

    In addition, cars are more fuel efficient at the same size now than in the early 1980s. However, people seem to just crave bigger vehicles now than in the 1980s, in part because they can afford them with the second income you mention. But that doesn't mean that a family couldn't maintain a reasonable standard of living on one income; it just means that instead of driving a huge SUV, they drive a compact car to work and the grocery store. It's absurd to claim that a second income is "ABSOLUTELY" necessary, when in fact many families are single parent (and thus single income).

    As others are pointing out, people are buying bigger houses. Each kid has their own bedroom, more bathrooms/person, etc. The point is that this second income helps sustain greater consumption, but that previously accepted standards of living are still affordable on one income.
  9. Re:WTF are you talking up, up then down? by bnenning · · Score: 2, Informative · on Much Ado About Gas Prices

    Gas prices have gone nowhere but up since Bush took office.

    I always hate to interrupt a good Bush-bashing session with facts, but take a look. Gas prices fell quite a bit during the 80s, stayed relatively constant for a while (but note the sharp increase toward the end of the Clinton administration), fell during the first few years of the Bush administration (even after 9/11, which should have been a prime gouging opportunity), and only rose significantly after the Iraq war and last year's hurricanes. Also note that prices peaked right before the 2004 election, which is inconvenient for the "Big Oil manipulates prices so Republicans win" theory.

    The President does not control gas prices. Or much of the economy at all, for that matter.

  10. I blame P2P by Five+Bucks! · · Score: 1 · on Music Downloads = Expensive Concerts?
    for the stupid articles that are written about it.

    I mean, if ther was no P2P, people wouldn't be able to conjure such outlandish theories!

    I, however, blame bittorrent for the rise in gas prices. These two datasets are correlated. Therefore, correlation proves causation.
    http://measure.das2.its.tudelft.nl/~pouwelse/Bitto rrent usage data
    http://www.randomuseless.info/gasprice/gasprice.ht ml