The Basket Of Goods

Economic inflation is the rate at which prices increase, whatever the cause, whether supply and demand dynamics or corporate greed.  A low inflation rate, thus, does not mean that prices are decreasing or at a standstill: the rate of increase has slowed but not ceased.  This also means that whatever prices have become the new baseline remain in effect, so that minor inflation following significant inflation does not undo whatever devastating impact the previous price changes already imposed on the cost of living.  If someone complains about inflation, perhaps they are not referring to ongoing, potentially slow increase in prices, but to the sustained effects of the previous changes.

And there is no single cause, no matter what some corporate figures might love to pretend; inflation absolutely is not inevitably brought about by nothing more than supply and demand forces beyond the control of corporations.  If a company raises prices quietly or minimally to appease shareholders, inflation has occurred.  Prices increased, and, in this instance, it was a premeditated attempt to boost profits without expanding the consumer base, introducing a new product, and so on.  Certainly, a company could raise prices with this pathetic excuse of a goal in mind, while blaming its actions on the volatility and uncertainty of broader economic trends that really have nothing to do with them specifically.

Whatever the valid or invalid reason for inflation, there could be a multitude of inflation rates because no single product or service reflects an entire multifaceted economy.  The basket of goods, a miscellaneous sample of goods or services, can be examined to track price changes over a given timeframe.  A random person could monitor fluctuations themselves using in-store or online price listings.  No one has to be a professional economist to do this!  If the price of a singular thing increases, it has inflated.  This can be checked through personal effort.  It is always illogical to assume that whatever inflation rate is proposed by news media or anyone else is true.  This does not follow.

But different items could have their own respective inflation, complicating the matter.  Tracking the inflation rate of a particular item reveals nothing about that of a separate item, for the two are not identical products, and thus one having a specific cost does not logically necessitate anything about the other.  What one consumer buys might infrequently or never be purchased by another, so one "basket of goods" does not ultimately illuminate very much about the seeming state of the economy at large.  It is vital to not conflate the beliefs of an alleged authority figure/organization for an epistemological savior in light of this extremely limited illumination.

Only an irrational person assumes the results of someone else's basket of goods analysis, whoever they are, is correct or extrapolates from one sample of items to another.  Moreover, there is still another inherent limitation to examining this figurative basket.  The basket of goods metric is incapable of revealing which of the logically possible reasons for inflation is responsible for the changes.  Did a company or industry genuinely need to increase prices to make their business sustainable?  Did an executive have prices raised so there is more money to hoard at the top of a company's hierarchy?  A price increase alone cannot prove what is really the root (and proof always lies in logical necessity, not hearsay or other conjoined sensory evidences), with there being even greater ambiguity in chaotic times.

Unfortunately, it is not just consumers who can be trampled upon through the asinine kind of inflation.  Some companies might rush to take advantage of consumers by raising prices, yes.  After increasing prices, some companies might also refuse to increase their own employees' compensation to match the new, higher cost of living.  If the same company does both, it can exploit its buyers and workers all at once, and any basket of goods containing their products or services could then be fallaciously treated as a basis for more unecessary inflation, since the exaggerated uncertainty makes their business vulnerable, which could then be treated as a basis to lay off workers or deny wage and salary raises.  It would be unusual indeed if many of the companies least in need of inflation to remain afloat did not increase consumer costs to maintain or maximize their profitability, though!