Inflation Figures Skewed Against Working People.

Wonder why the Republicrooks and talking skulls on the FOX Death Network are saying the economy is doing so well, but you feel like you are losing ground, or falling behind? The core inflation rate, one of those figures they like to pull out, like some cheap drunken pervert in a trench coat on the train, is low. You should be running to the bank with crap loads of cash. Don't ya just feel like a loser?

Truth is, the core inflation rate doesn't look at luxuries such as food and oil. The wife and I bring home about 4300 a month. Not bad by a lot of standards. We have family overseas who gets by on a couple hundred a month. Take out 1100 for mortgage, couple hundred in association fees, 350 for student loans, all of which have steadily increased but are not in the core inflation rate. We spend a modest 200-250 a month in gas. The house is electric, but electricity is on the rise, because it takes oil and gas to get coal out of the ground and get it to the generating plant. We don't eat out much anymore, and come in at a couple hundred easily for food. Throw in incidentals like clothing, car insurance, prescriptions, call phones to keep connected to our jobs, phone bills to keep connected to Blogster, car maintenance-we're driving a 2002 Honda with about 80K miles on it, couple hundred in car payments a month. My decadent and severely over-pampered wife needs her coffee in the morning on the way to work(SARCASM KEY). The 250 we send overseas to keep her family from starving in Bosnia , where unemployment is averaging about 50%. When its all said and done that about covers it. If we go out to dinner and a movie once a month, or put away a little for the vacation we're ultimately too exhausted to go on we might have a 100-150 left over. If we had kids I don't know if I could sell enough body parts!

So the core inflation rate doesn't account for rises in food and oil. At the circus they would call that a shell game.