From the taxpayer's point of view, then, the proposed change means higher taxes, better disguised, although the Republican supporters of the plan won't tell you that. To drum up support, backers are quick to reassure us that all good economists say the current CPI understates the real inflation rate. We'd only need to consult the financial fortune tellers. In the old days, only Austrian School economists criticized government economic data. They refuted the idea that economic activity can be accurately quantified and debunked the gizmos economists use to pretend it can.
Every theory is shot down by someone else, and on seemingly solid grounds.
There are hundreds of formulas and strategies for determining the direction and range of price movements. Because every attempt to discover an inflation rate is necessarily flawed. We can't just measure inflation the way we measure the height of a tree. Prices reflect too many variables. We can't be sure what accounts for changes.