[VJW]

Originally Posted by cercis

Okay, it's a major pain to wade through http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpifaq.htm#Question_3 and so far I didn't really see a detailed breakdown of what was included.

OK, this is from several years ago, but was a recent ‘Market Basket’ of goods and services, supposedly representing the budget of the average American.

There are seven broad categories:

* HOUSING - 41%

* FOOD & BEVERAGES - 18% (1/3 spent eating out)

* TRANSPORTATION - 18%

* MEDICAL - 6%

* APPAREL - 6%

* ENTERTAINMENT - 4%

* OTHER - 7% (includes both tobacco & education & misc.)

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Just SOME of the items the supposedly representative ‘Market Basket’ doesn't include:

* Health Insurance Premium increases
* Medicare Insurance Premium increases (almost 40 million people)
* New Car price increases
* Mortgage payment increases

How many people do you know (outside of the young & healthy) who only spend 6% of their income on medical related expenses ?

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