At 8:02 on Apr 23 Doug Henwood wrote <<If you look at workhours rather than using a price index, you get a much darker picture of wages. I haven't updated these stats in a while, but between 1973 and 1993, the number of hours required for a U.S. worker paid the average wage to cover a household's yearly expenses (according to the Consumer Expenditure Survey) rose 43%; to buy the average new car, 57%; the average new house, 45%; and to pay for a year at Yale or UCLA (residents' rate), 75%. The CES reports what the average family spent on various items over the year. These expenditures then form the basis for the weights used in the CPI. As far as I can see, the point of Doug's post is that property income is going up much faster than wages and salaries. For this reason, the average family expenditure, both in total and for individual items, has increased much more rapidly than wages and salaries. I am convinced that there is a political point to be made here, but it is not a comment on the accuracy of the CPI.
