> Under Bretton Woods, it roughly tripled. If inflation does not exist on the gold standard [...] how does this happen?
Bretton Woods != Gold Standard.
We were off the gold standard in 1933 with the Gold Reserve Act. You said that yourself a couple posts above. That was the first part of the unpegging which reached its conclusion in 1971. But it started in 1933.
To illustrate this further, Executive Order 6102 made it illegal for US citizens to trade gold, and this was in effect all the way until 1975 (notice how 1975 comes after 1971 - we can finally trade gold freely but uh-oh, gold isn't money anymore so what's the point?)
So to answer your question, Bretton Woods was born and died outside the gold standard, and that's why you see the inflation you pointed out.
Regarding the CPI, I will refrain from commenting on your remarks out of ignorance. This is very new territory to me, which I'm still navigating. Some remarks you made went over my head but I can see that it's because of gaps in my knowledge. I found the BPP argument interesting, but it seems it started to show the real inflation and then they changed their formulae: http://www.zerohedge.com/article/mit-tepcoes-its-billion-pri...
So instead I will step back from this tangent. We got into CPI over disagreement on how much inflation there is, and I was arguing that there's a lot of inflation because we went off the gold standard, and so that's why factory jobs don't pay $30/h anymore. You argued that I have it backwards and that everything was good in the 70s. You said it worsened in the 80s and asked me to explain how and I justified it by saying that's when Neoliberal policies took over. What part of this do you disagree with?
We just aren't going to agree. Because I'm of the opinion the CPI isn't perfect ... but compared to other CPI data points, its relatively accurate. The problem with the "perfect, ideal" idea is the fact that, frankly, no one ever tried to build it and graph it over time. Those that pretend they want that are just pushing an ideological agenda and drop large portions of the basket completely. The problem with the CPI is the qualitative analysis, by its nature, fundamentally imperfect. It is an opinion. That said, you can't just drop categories and claim to be anything except a joke.
> So instead I will step back from this tangent. We got into CPI over disagreement on how much inflation there is, and I was arguing that there's a lot of inflation because we went off the gold standard, and so that's why factory jobs don't pay $30/h anymore. You argued that I have it backwards and that everything was good in the 70s. You said it worsened in the 80s and asked me to explain how and I justified it by saying that's when Neoliberal policies took over. What part of this do you disagree with?
It seems roughly right for what was said.
The reason factory jobs don't pay $30/h is because of globalization [cheaper to produce goods in other countries], tax burden shifting from capital to labor [ http://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-tax-rates?op=1 ], etc. That isn't really a "Neoliberal" issue but more simply technological progress has allowed us to outsource more to cheaper labor countries.
I don't care too much as long as people have a living wage [which is at least $10/hr] and the poor aren't taxed heavily compared to historic norms.
Bretton Woods != Gold Standard.
We were off the gold standard in 1933 with the Gold Reserve Act. You said that yourself a couple posts above. That was the first part of the unpegging which reached its conclusion in 1971. But it started in 1933.
To illustrate this further, Executive Order 6102 made it illegal for US citizens to trade gold, and this was in effect all the way until 1975 (notice how 1975 comes after 1971 - we can finally trade gold freely but uh-oh, gold isn't money anymore so what's the point?)
So to answer your question, Bretton Woods was born and died outside the gold standard, and that's why you see the inflation you pointed out.
Regarding the CPI, I will refrain from commenting on your remarks out of ignorance. This is very new territory to me, which I'm still navigating. Some remarks you made went over my head but I can see that it's because of gaps in my knowledge. I found the BPP argument interesting, but it seems it started to show the real inflation and then they changed their formulae: http://www.zerohedge.com/article/mit-tepcoes-its-billion-pri...
So instead I will step back from this tangent. We got into CPI over disagreement on how much inflation there is, and I was arguing that there's a lot of inflation because we went off the gold standard, and so that's why factory jobs don't pay $30/h anymore. You argued that I have it backwards and that everything was good in the 70s. You said it worsened in the 80s and asked me to explain how and I justified it by saying that's when Neoliberal policies took over. What part of this do you disagree with?