At 1:51 PM 4/26/96, Richardson_D wrote: >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. It bears on the notion of "real" wages. I thought the official BLS line was that the CPI is *not* a measure of the "cost of living," strictly speaking; using the wage unit seems like not a bad measure to me, since it avoids all the conceptual and technical problems of using an index over very long periods of time. Property income has little bearing on what the average family spends. Only the top of the income distribution has significant capital income; us working stiffs don't. Doug -- Doug Henwood Left Business Observer 250 W 85 St New York NY 10024-3217 USA +1-212-874-4020 voice +1-212-874-3137 fax email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> web: <http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/LBO_home.html>
