The textbook cost thing is ridiculous, yes. But the red line right below it is the rise in medical costs, which have gone up 575% since 1978. The brown line at the bottom is the current consumer price index (CPI) that measures overall inflation, which has only gone up by about 250% over the same time period.
Next time someone tells you that chained CPI, which would lower the estimated rate of inflation used to calculate Social Security and veterans’ benefits, is ‘more accurate’ … think about how much time people spend with doctors after they hit 60, think about this graph, and laugh at them.
Chained CPI for Social Security is a Capitalist Republicans fondest dream. But Obama talked about it you say. Please listen very carefully to what Obama says about everything. Then think “poison pill” and how it impacts the passage of legislation.
I’d have to see the formula for calculating CPI. Contributors that skew higher than ‘average’ are often dropped because an accurate picture of ‘what things cost’ would set the public’s hair on fire. Much like manipulation of unemployment statistics, the real numbers would be too embarrassing for our Our Corporate Masters.