roadrunnertwice | Conniephobia

OK, who here has heard of the Consumer Price Index (CPI)? I figure you've at least heard the initials on NPR or something. It's used to track inflation, and a bunch of other important stuff.

You know how they make the CPI? With the Consumer Price Survey, where they choose people (households, really) at random and send census employees to interview them, over three separate calendar quarters, about pretty much everything they spent their money on.

Guess whose household got picked, this time around?

Guess who's had two of their CPS interviews but is still looking down the barrel of the third one?

Guess who also just bought a fucking house?

When we were being normal and incredibly boring in our spending habits, an interview could still take hours. I am living in abject dread of Connie the Census worker's next visit.

Anyway, it’s definitely been an interesting look at how the econ sausage gets made. I think participation is technically voluntary, but we're putting up with the interview slog bc we're good patriots who think the CPI is legitimately important, and also we're probably chumps.