April 02, 2005
On the link between bedsheets and inflation
Virginia Postrel: How Changing the Sheets Can Make a Hotel Room 'New'
The quality of goods and services is always changing, often for the better and often in intangible ways. If those changes take place at the same time that prices go up, it is hard to separate paying for greater value - for, in effect, a different good - from paying for inflation.
A good analysis of how many of the basic statistics we take for granted are built on a series of compromises and value judgements which disappear from view by the time we get "results".
