http://stats.bls.gov/mlr/cpiart01.htm
Hank Leland Service Employees International Union lelandh at seiu.org
Enrique Diaz-Alvarez wrote:
> Hi everyone. My apologies if this gets sent twice.
>
> I read an interesting article in this weeks Barron's about the CPI. As
> y'all probably know, downward revisions of the CPI are one of the most
> effective means of upwards redistribution of income: taxes on labor
> rise, because brackets and deductions rise more slowly; social security
> and other government benefits decrease; union contract wage increases
> are usually tied to the CPI in some way, etc. The writer was plainly
> very excited about what this all meant to rentiers, although she did try
> to cloak it in the usual terms ("incentives to investment", etc).
>
> Five revisions have been implemented, and two more are on the way. Every
> single one (surprise!) resulted/will result in a lowered CPI. A couple
> of them (the least important) actually made sense. Then there was the
> 'substitution' one: if beef goes up by x%, the CPI will reflect less
> than this increase because people will react by partly switching to
> chicken. Hell, if chicken goes up, then retirees can switch to rice and
> beans, which is more healthy anyway.
>
> The most egregious revision, however, had to do with health care. So
> far, hospital costs were measured in terms of cost per day. From now on,
> the BLS will keep track of cost _per patient_. So, the sooner insurers
> can kick patients out of hospitals, the 'cheaper' health care becomes,
> and there will be no need to give people raises. I think this revision
> is crucial, given that the cost of health care is projected to skyrocket
> again after a brief lull.
>
> --
> Enrique Diaz-Alvarez Office # (607) 255 5034
> Electrical Engineering Home # (607) 758 8962
> 112 Phillips Hall Fax # (607) 255 4565
> Cornell University mailto:enrique at ee.cornell.edu
> Ithaca, NY 14853 http://peta.ee.cornell.edu/~enrique