Yes, the plumber will charge me more. No, you would not be able to determine that if you had my financial records, because I don't spend an appreciable fraction of my income on plumbers (or lawn care, or electricians, or other home services outside of child care).
The same applies to electricity and gas; the expenses are there, but a 10% rise in all of my utilities is still not meaningful in my overall budget. For comparison, I can easily see a 10% swing in annual heating bills based solely on the average temperature during 3 months of the year.
Yes, I am impacted by all the same things you are. But my health insurance expense dropped 3% and that dwarfs all the other category increases. This is why the BLS weighs their basket.
I understood the point entirely, and you are correct that if inflation continues at this rate for decades, what today are small expenses like lawn care will eventually become the dominant term, eclipsing my mortgage. But I would wager we will have bigger problems should that eventuality come to pass.
Also, don't forget that increased inflation also eventually leads to everyone's compensation increasing. As I am in "everyone"," it will net out. If inflation moderates over the next few quarters/years, the likely impact to me is that I will earn more and so my largest expense (which is fixed!) will be proportionally smaller. But yes, I will pay more for plumbers and the like so I will be impacted by the cycle.
Yes, the plumber will charge me more. No, you would not be able to determine that if you had my financial records, because I don't spend an appreciable fraction of my income on plumbers (or lawn care, or electricians, or other home services outside of child care).
The same applies to electricity and gas; the expenses are there, but a 10% rise in all of my utilities is still not meaningful in my overall budget. For comparison, I can easily see a 10% swing in annual heating bills based solely on the average temperature during 3 months of the year.
Yes, I am impacted by all the same things you are. But my health insurance expense dropped 3% and that dwarfs all the other category increases. This is why the BLS weighs their basket.