also, a lot of the payment for education is in the form of taxes, and so doesn't show up in the CPI. (Does the CPI exclude sales taxes? even if it doesn't, it does exclude most other taxes.)
Jd
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: 7/7/2002 10:59 AM
Subject: [PEN-L:27709] Re: Re: Re: Re: Inflation and CPI
Re the 2.7% average spending on education and childcare:
I wonder the extent to which this is due to the use of "household"
spending
averages.
Example:
Beaver and family: $50,000 spending and $10,000 in education and
childcare
spending = 20 spending on ed/childcare%.
70 year old person (a household): $20,000 spending and $0 in ed/child:
0%
25 year old single person: $20,000 spending and $0 in ed/child: 0%
Average of the three household averages: %20 + %0 + %0 = 6.7%.
But total spending of 3 households = $90,000 and total ed/child =
$10,000 and
so 11% of total consumer spending goes for ed/childcare while the
"household
average" is only 6.7%.
This might play a part in what seems to be a too low number.
Eric
