the following were extant national averages at the end of 2000:
Average Cost of new house $134,150.00
Average Income per year $40,343.00
Cost of a gallon of Gas $1.26Cost of a gallon of milk $2.99
Average cost of new car $24,750.00
US Postage Stamp 33 cents
1 LB of Bacon $2.97
Loaf of Bread $1.72
Dozen Eggs 89 cents
(I crosschecked the preceding consumer prices at the Department of Agriculture website, usda.gov. Be my guest if you’re sufficiently skeptical or are a cynic.)
Who’s using statistics, to perpetuate the notion that inflation is low? Here’s the reason those who want to are able to legitimately assert that “inflation is low.” They’re using the core CPI (Consumer Price Index). That index excludes food and energy from the calculations!
And why — or, at least a significant part of the why — it costs you considerbly more to feed your family and to drive to work than when George Bush assumed the presidency are traceable to two factors. One is the falling value of the dollar for the goods we import, caused almost exclusively by a deficit and national debt that has more than doubled, and the other is the instability in the oil markets, instability that was ushered in the moment George Bush invaded a Mid-East country, to preemptively prevent the smoking gun from becoming a mushroom cloud.
All I ask is that you take note of some or all of the prices above; and the average individual income, if that’s a figure that you can relate to. When any of your GOP-leaning friends, associates, and/or relatives pronounce their support of one of the Republican candidates, assign to them the challenge first uttered by their iconic hero.
Will any of the Dems do better? Who can know today? Then again, statistically thinking, what are the odds he or she could really do much worse? All we have as a guide is history. What shape were you in before George Bush took over?
— Ed Tubbs
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