Inflation

Cafe Hayek notes an article about inflation that is interesting -- really! Accounting for quality improvements is really difficult.

Somewhat similarly, think about poverty numbers. Being poor today isn't the same as being poor 30-40 years ago as the Wall Street Journal points out:

Each year the Census Bureau calculates the nation's poverty rate, based on the number of people with incomes below the official poverty line, about $20,000 for a family of four in 2004. Since last year's poverty rate of 12.7% was essentially equal to the 1968 rate of 12.8%, it seems that little progress has been made. But many analysts -- on the right and the left -- have pointed out that, by many other measures, poor people's physical and material well-being is considerably better now than in the late '60s. How else to explain why so many poor now have color TV (93%) and air conditioning (50%), and own their own homes (46%)?

Food for thought.