LETTER: It’s not just inflation
VIn his Friday letter, Anthony Palmer laments that he has been lied to by the government when officials say that inflation is “easing.” He uses the rising cost of eggs as an “eggxample.” Unfortunately, you can also get shorted when government officials tell the truth, without really understanding the implications of what they are telling you.
The best example of that would be the 2021 interview by The Washington Post where a Biden economic council member was asked if the government was taking into account the highly relevant concept of “shrinkflation” (where the product container shrinks but the price remains the same) in its economic statistics. He replied that the government could no longer gather those statistics because of COVID.
So now when a 20-ounce loaf of bread shrinks to 16 ounces and the price remains the same, there is 0 percent increase in the cost-of-living statistics even though your bread just went up 20 percent per slice. Therefore, everyone’s Social Security COLA will be understated by all of the shrinkflation, every year, compounded until you die — unless you contact elected officials and candidates for office and have them campaign on this “eggxact” issue.