About Me

In writing the "About Me" portion of this blog I thought about the purpose of the blog - namely, preventing the growth of Socialism & stopping the Death Of Democracy in the American Republic & returning her to the "liberty to abundance" stage of our history. One word descriptions of people's philosophies or purposes are quite often inadequate. I feel that I am "liberal" meaning that I am broad minded, independent, generous, hospitable, & magnanimous. Under these terms "liberal" is a perfectly good word that has been corrupted over the years to mean the person is a left-winger or as Mark Levin more accurately wrote in his book "Liberty & Tyranny" a "statist" - someone looking for government or state control of society. I am certainly not that & have dedicated the blog to fighting this. I believe that I find what I am when I consider whether or not I am a "conservative" & specifically when I ask what is it that I am trying to conserve? It is the libertarian principles that America was founded upon & originally followed. That is the Return To Excellence that this blog is named for & is all about.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Grocery Store Quiz

It is pleasing to have recently discussed some of the quizzes presented from time to time with subscribers who use them as an opportunity to monitor & participate in their children's education - & even to improve their own education.  One mother told me she wants to make sure she knows how to correctly answer the quiz herself before presenting it to her daughter who is in the eighth grade.

My friend Anne Neal, past president of ACTA, told me more than once that people love quizzes.  And this is borne out in that five of the top ten most read posts on RTE worldwide recently have been quizzes.  The Rockefeller Center Christmas Store Quiz tops the list & the old favorite Water Bucket Quiz is in the top ten more often than not.

So let's try one that is very timely - the Grocery Store Quiz.  I will post all correct answers or alternatively will send the correct answer privately to anyone who requests it if no one gets the right answer to the quiz below.

Grocery Store Quiz

Consider the following graph that shows the changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for groceries & all items from January, 2020 to & including January 2024.

















The Fed reports that the Grocery CPI was 261.057 for January, 2020 & 327.327 for January, 2024.  If groceries increased in price by 3.78% from January, 2020 to January, 2021 what was the change in price from January, 2021 to January, 2024 of a basket of groceries that cost $75.00 in January 2020?

5 comments:

  1. I'm coming up with $94.03. Not sure about this one though.

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    Replies
    1. To the penny for the intermediate step, but don't forget it is the difference in prices that the quiz asked for.

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  2. Hi Doug - I think the amount your groceries would cost is $97.59.

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    1. Similar to HowK's. You are very close. I think you used the 3.78% in the wrong place & multiplied 1.0378 times the correct answer instead of using it in an earlier step. Also remember the quiz asked what was the change in price from January, 2021 to January, 2024 of a basket of groceries that cost $75.00 in January 2020. Show me your steps & I'll show you mine.

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  3. I started by taking the index & the $75 up to January, 2021 levels by multiplying both by 1.0378 & got 270.925 & $77.84 respectively.

    From there divide 327.327 by 270.925 = 1.208

    1.208 X $77.84 = $94.03

    Don't forget to subtract $77.84 from $94.03 to get $16.19 which is the difference in prices that the quiz asked for.

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