BBC: debasement bullshitters

 I just heard something like the following on BBC 1 in my hotel:

the cost of living hits its highest level in a decade, as inflation to November reaches 5%

If we buy the fiction that some inflation index measures the cost of living, then the quantity under discussion is the rate of change of the cost of living, not the cost of living.  As long as debasement ("inflation") is positive, the cost of living in this sense is always hitting new highs.  Only with negative debasement ("inflation") according to the index, would the cost of living in this sense go down.

It's like someone not caring about the difference between distance and speed.  

That was the headline.  In the main piece, they talked about "cost of living has risen", so okay.

The other major issue with the statement, of course, is that whatever "inflation" index does not measure the cost of living, it measures the value of money.  As currency units are debased, ultimately through printing more units, each one is worth less, and it takes more to buy the same things.  This has nothing to do with "cost of living".  Anyone's income, fixed in these debasing currency units, goes down in real value.  It is false, and an extreme political agenda, to claim the cost of living is going up, when in fact the value of money is going down due to corrupt printing.

Most people can't see it, but as the cycle destructively plays out, more people will have to see it.

The remaining issue, of course, is that the official index, CPI, is engineered to under-report debasement.  When CPI was at 1% / year before, actual debasement was more like 5-7%.  Now CPI reports 5% / year, and actual debasement is more like 10%.