RPI adjusted...

[LandingSpot]

The cost of living is to be adjusted with the RPI set to include items the are not essential to living!

Items in:
Tablet PCs
Teenage vampire fiction
Take away chicken and chips

Items out:
Camera film
Casserole dishes

Now, I realise that camera roll isn't essential to living, but is it a mark of continuing desire for stuff that people can't afford that sees the cost of living incorrectly assessed on purchases made by enough people to be considered as ubiquitous as camera film?

The next thing we know everyone, regardless of disposable income will need an ipad purely because the tv told them that they should have bought one by now!

Edited by LandingSpot on Tuesday 13th March 19:25

[LandingSpot]

Ozzie Osmond said:

LandingSpot said:

Items out:
Camera film

Now, I realise that camera roll isn't essential to living, but is it a mark of continuing desire for stuff that people can't afford that sees the cost of living incorrectly assessed on purchases made by enough people to be considered as ubiquitous as camera film?

Have you not noticed that Kodak, once one of the world's biggest brands and a global company, entered bankruptcy protection from its creditors in January?

As a consumer product emulsion film based photography is as dead as a dodo.

Yes I did know that, although I'm not sure how the financial status of a company who happens to manufacture a product used in the RPI assessment should affect whether that product that is availble elsewhere is removed or not.

Can you elaborate?

[LandingSpot]

Ozzie Osmond said:

LandingSpot said:

Can you elaborate?

Yes. Kodak is in bankruptcy protection because its major product - film - isn't selling. Which means people aren't buying. Which means film is no longer relevant for the index.

RPI (and its lesser sibling CPI) are intended to measure what people are actually spending their money on.

Mind you, the gov't likes to have new electronic stuff in the indexes because prices tend to FALL over time. This suppresses the real and unavoidable inflation which is rocketing ahead on food, energy, healthcare etc.

OK. So is it more an attempt at linking what people buy to the target figures for inflation rather than an accurate reflection of what it actually costs to live?

Lies, damn lies and statistics eh??