- Thanks received
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The CPI basket isn't supposed to represent essentials though - it's supposed to be representative of the average person's spending habits.As long as those things are defined as being mandatory, and feature in a notional "shopping basket" of prerequisites, selected by a neutral panel of egg-spurts.
Things that you genuinely could not get by without. Carpet Slippers and floor tiles, wicker baskets and ratchet screwdrivers, plastic utensils and fake t-shirts. All items deemed vital to the average family by the government of the day.
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Not that it does a very good job of that either, but there you go...

: This thread is about deflation