Yeah. I believe that thing's based on the Consumer Price Index, which conveniently ignores things like taxes, licenses and fees -- such as the "gas guzzler" tax -- that are a very big part of real life. Also, a lot of it is based on select items in grocery stores which may or may not be representative of what you actually purchase week after week. Probably if the actual rate of inflation ever were published -- if it could even be accurately figured out -- consumers would be shocked how much less each dollar they have is worth from year to year .