Title: Inflation Is Higher Than the Numbers Say - The New York Times
Headings: Inflation Is Higher Than the Numbers Say
Today in Business
Inflation Is Higher Than the Numbers Say
People are buying more of those goods whose prices are rising the fastest.
The pandemic has changed where and how people shop.
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The quality of many services has gotten worse.
Variety has decreased.
The true inflation rate has risen.

Content: The quality of many services has gotten worse. Typically, many businesses add new features, or improve the quality of their products. Government statisticians try to make adjustments for how the changing quality of goods affects the price. It’s hard to account for every change, so these unmeasured quality improvements often lead the statistical authorities to overstate how fast the cost of living is rising. But the pandemic has forced many businesses to switch to producing lower-quality products. That restaurant meal you might have enjoyed with table service and mood lighting is now offered in a foam container to eat at your kitchen counter. Your therapist might be available over Zoom, but is it really an adequate substitute? And few colleges are offering discounts this year, even as they’re moving to largely online instruction, which my students tell me is a vastly inferior product. Even as the price tags on these products haven’t changed much, their quality has declined, which is a hidden form of price increase ignored by the official inflation numbers. Variety has decreased.