As this XKCD comic illustrates, prices for different goods change at different rates.  This has made me wonder whether certain demographics face different rates of price changes.  One thing I remember from freshman economics is the idea of consumer price indices.  A consumer price index is a measure that estimates the average price of consumer goods and services purchased by households.  It tries to capture the price changes for a certain basket of goods.  The change in the CPI gives an estimate of inflation.

Now, I realize most households purchase a lot of things in common like fruits, televisions, and milk.  However, there remains huge discrepancies in how certain households spend their money.  A suburban family probably spends money on cars, gasoline, and auto insurance which an urban dweller may not.  A college-educated household with kids will likely face price changes for tuition while a less educated household with kids will be less likely to face that.  The urban poor that lack access to fresh fruits and veggies probably have a different basket of foods at the Dollar Store than the Whole Foods shopping crowd. 

Why aren’t there CPIs for different demographics?  Perhaps the differences aren’t large enough to be worth measuring for the purpose of inflation fighting on the macroeconomics level, but it would definitely be interesting to explore how different demographics are getting different price changes year to year.  If not for important sociological research, then at least wouldn’t you want to know who is facing the most inflation between yuppies, hippies, and hipsters?