If you believe what accountants say you'd believe anything, ever read the book How to Lie with Statistics......

For the "essentials" of life ie FOOD, and requisites that we need for everyday life the costs have gone through the roof in the last 5 years. My weekly food bill has almost doubled in that time and I have in fact cut back a bit on what I buy.....

dave stevens, Bishops Stortford, Herts

What a scam. This article has no relation to the real world. I spent over 2000 pound on petrol last year and only bought 1 fan heater. Thanks for the money saved Blair and Brown!!!
Just wait when the world wakes up to the weakness of the pound sterling. Lets see how much that fan heater is going to cost then.

Ken, Leicester,

Her Majesties Government have managed to take up any slack produced by the natural efficiencies of capitalism and competition. So it's a nil sum gain for the serfs. I did read some where that in real terms the average male disposal income has indeed shrunk since the 70's and that our "wealth" in fact comes from the huge increase in the female work force. Even more bunce for the legal muggers to spend on their Tv licences, food and mortgage payments and the simple throw money at it style of management,
So it's still a "feudal" system at heart.

Tom Taylor-Duxbury, Ludlow, UK

What is the point of this article? The logic is depressingly similar to that of our Government. The cost of electrical goods is indeed falling and will always continue to fall as technology improves. I can get a decent laptop for a fraction of the cost i would have paid 10 years ago. Great...but i don't buy a laptop on a weekly basis. Those that i do - shopping, petrol etc seem to be running out of control. Even bus fares have risen in Bham by 60% in circa 2 years...not to mention utilities!! HRH Brown knows this, so adds Plasma TVs et al to the 'shopping basket' used to calculate inflation to deliberately skew the figures to make it easier to spin the Government's economic incompetance. I want to be able to go shopping, drive to work, or have a night in the pub without being relieved of large amounts of money! Luxuries like TVs are so cheap because retailers have to heavily discount so anyone can actually afford to buy them (harder now thanks to the 'Crunch' restricting cheap credit)

Anthony, Birmingham,

Martin, Lutterworth, UK

Inflation is NOT the increase in retail prices.

Inflation IS an increase in the money supply. Inflation comes first and then prices rise. Basic economics.

Consumer goods have got cheaper in real terms because of the destruction of UK industry and the outsourcing of production to countries like China with slave labour at $1 a day or less.

Chris, Aylesbury, England

Folks tend to forget that money itself is worth nothing, it is no more than a meduim of exchange to facilitae trade and the purchase of services including the necessary such as health, education et al. The banks have been guilty of running their affairs like a casino for som years with executives not ubderstanding what the are investing in. The real economy depends on individuals doing a meaningfull job and creatin economic activity. So driving those Chelsea Tractors, drinking bottled water, visiting your aunt in hospital is all economic activity. Taking into account growth as well as inflation explains why everything is cheaper than the 70s.

Gus Scotson, Glasgow, Scotland

Mark Joshi is exactly right. What can it possibly mean that: the cost of everyday household goods has fallen, compared to inflation?! Inflation IS the increase in retail prices.
If retail prices have increased less than inflation then it means our measure of inflation is wrong; and it is wrong because it includes housing costs. This is a serious problem, because the fact that it includes housing costs leads to many people being given bigger pay rises just in order to keep up with inflation, but this just causes more house price inflation and more general inflation so everyione is worse off!

Martin, Lutterworth, UK

If the progression of the last ten years is maintained in ten years time we wil be paid 10% of our incomes to take away luxury goods like wide screen digital high definition TV's and 110% of our incomes, even those below the poverty line, will go on heating food and the biggest chunk of all on taxation.

D Cage, Highworth, Wilts

We have the curious situation today of many "sub-primes" having a 50" plasma TV on the wall, but can`t afford the electric to run it!
The same can be said for their oversized car parked outside.

We have had 10 years of greed created by lax interest rate policy, absurd lending practices and slick marketing of imports, and now we are JUST beginning to pay for it.

Darius Midwinter, London, England

Mark Joshi says ‘Prices overall stay constant in real terms, that is the definition of real terms’. Not sure how he defines ‘constant’ but the article does make it clear that ‘as far as the cost of everyday household goods on the high street are concerned’ and does not refer to all prices falling in real terms. Stephen Hulton asks about the price of a pint of beer and a packet of cigs. Don’t know about the cigs but it was recently estimated that the cost of alcohol in real terms ought to be 2½ times what it is now, compared to what its real terms cost in the mid-1960s

Chris Rivers, Manchester, England

Saying prices have fallen 50% in real terms is a contradiction.
Prices overall stay constant in real terms, that is the definition of real terms. All that has happened is that the prices of some goods, i.e. manufactured household machines, have fallen relative to other goods.

Mark Joshi, Melbourne,

Hurrah! Trinkets are cheap! Ingsoc is wise!

E Skelton, cardiff, wales

The article says: "A fan heater in the original catalogue priced at £7.60 would cost £51 in today’s money, given the impact of inflation over the past 35 years. A similar product retails today at £12.99.". What isn't immediately obvious from this is that it is likely that the fan heater is now made in China, is designed to be redundant within a few years and is of inferior quality. Anything where build quality is of any significance is likely to be cheaper for a reason...

David Iliff, London,

Having done my own personal CPI calculation, there is no way I am better off compared with even 10 years ago.

The way officials calculate "our" inflation, and then tell us it is low, relies on some very odd assumptions...

...in my case, the only way my CPI is close to 2% is if I replace EVERY single gadget in my house EVERY single year...

Am I the only person who does NOT replace ALL my big ticket/ electronic items every year? I doubt it.

Trevor, UK,

Endless piles of manufactured rubbish are indeed cheap.
A night out, electricity, food and housing have however risen
at a scary rate. Young people today are being straddled with
huge debts, college fees and mortgages they will spend a lifetime repaying, this in turn affords them no opportunity to save for their own futures. The only upside is that we have filled our houses with enough goods to last us for several generations. Maybe my grandchildren will wear the size 30" 501's that only fit me for a weak after a trekking holiday ten years ago.

Mark, Epping, Essex

We've had it good for a while but prepare for pricier goods in the very near future. Almost every manufactured product sold in the UK is imported and we have benefited from a strengthening pound and intense global competition coupled with relatively cheap raw material costs. Well, inflation in China is approaching 10% now and this will feed into labour costs there, also sterling is weakening against every major foreign currency reducing our international buying power. In addition, soaring growth and industrialisation in emerging countries is driving up demand and prices of oil and raw materials. Everything we buy is about to become more expensive. Services however may become cheaper as unemployment soars and depresses UK wage growth.

C Park, Epsom, UK

Prices have fallen so low because the jobs that produce these goods have all been outsourced to China and other low-wage countries. Not just the factory floor jobs either but the higher-end marketing, design and sales jobs associated with them. I suppose you could regard this as a positive thing if you believe the hollowing out of the British economy to become a rentier culture based on asset speculation is a good thing.

MB, Edinburgh,

It's true that manufactured goods are cheaper. I can remember my father buying our first TV in the fifties for sixty pounds, it was black and white and didn't work very well. In those days a working man earned £10 to £15 a week.
However we can all survive without these goods, in comparison my first house which I bought in 1971 was £4950 and the mortgage repayments were about a quarter of my salary. A home is something that we can't do without and today's prices are ridiculous.
The politicians have failed to measure inflation across all classes of expenditure and can point to distorted measures such as CPI to prove what a wonderful job they have done.

david webb, bournemouth, uk

What about the price of a pint of beer and a packet of cigs?

stephen hulton, eure, france

Yes, all the things you don't need are coming down in price, but all the things you do need are soaring in price. I'd sooner that food and electricity were cheaper and ipods and televisions were more expensive. Four or five televisions in any house is a sign, not of wealth, but of too much easy credit.

Paul, Coventry,

If you could include the human and environmental cost then we are paying more today - we just don't realise it yet.

keeley stitty, Tunbridge Wells,

Prices may have fallen 50% but the product does not last very long. 30 years ago a product had a life of 5 to 10 years now you will be luck if you get 2 years from some products. So in the survey was replacing the item included?

Tony , Dartford, Kent