# Cost of Living **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 10, 1999, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-living/4627 "1999-11-10T20:07:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Flypsyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@Flypsyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flypsyde)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 1999, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-living/4627/1 "1999-11-10T20:07:00Z")
What criteria do economists use to determine the cost of living for a city/state/nation? I would guess they encompass csot of homes, average price of food, gas, owning a car, etc., but are there _specific_ standards for these criteria? Fr’instance, do they take the price of a 3 bedroom home with 1 and 1/2 baths, a sedan, and a diet of red meat and veggies? And what exactly are the uses of this standard for a single guy with no kids, an SUV, and a diet that unfortunately consists of maybe 2 meals a day, one of which inevitably comes from a fast food place? Is there a reasonable formula for extrapolating these values to encompass other lifestyles? And is there a scale where various places can be measured against one another? Where, say, NYC is an 8 and Assboink is a 2 (where higher numbers indicate higher COL’s)? * * * And the problem with small furry animals in corners is that, just occasionally, one of them’s a mongoose. Terry Pratchett, _Witches Abroad_ ---
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 1999, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-living/4627/2 "1999-11-10T20:37:00Z")
## I don’t know that there is a specific standard for computing COL but I believe any given COL is based on a standard set of purchases for that index. As you suggested, they price the cost of a house, a car, groceries, utilities, etc. and track them from year to year, month to month, or whatever. Anyone who cites a COL index _should_ be able to get you back to the basis for that index, but of course they seldom do. “Vandelay!! Say Vandelay!!” ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 1999, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-living/4627/3 "1999-11-10T23:21:00Z")
I’m not exactly sure how any of this is done, but I have a couple of resources that will calculate it all for you. The first compares demographic, economic, and climate info between two cities, while the second one will calculate how much you will need to earn in the city you plan to move to in order to keep the lifestyle to which you are accustomed where you live now. [http://www2.homefair.com/calc/citysnap.html](http://www2.homefair.com/calc/citysnap.html) [http://www2.homefair.com/calc/salcalc.html](http://www2.homefair.com/calc/salcalc.html) ---
**Author:** ![mr\_john](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@mr\_john](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr_john)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 1999, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-living/4627/4 "1999-11-10T23:31:00Z")
I don’t know how econimists do it, ( if you layed all the econimists in the world end to end they STILL wouldn’t reach an agreement) but every time the price of Cuban cicars, hotel suites, limo rentals,gourmet meals, hotel suites and ‘advisors’ goes up, congress votes themselves a 'cost of living ’ raise. * * * “Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.”-Marx ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 1999, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-living/4627/5 "1999-11-11T00:07:00Z")
Excellent question, **Flypsyde**! Unfortunately, way too much to answer here. I’ll take a crack at quick and dirty answers, and direct you elsewhere for the complete skinny. [quote] What criteria do economists use to determine the cost of living for a city/state/nation? … (A)re there _specific_ standards for these criteria? Fr’instance, do they take the price of a 3 bedroom home with 1 and 1/2 baths, a sedan, and a diet of red meat and veggies? [quote] The people at the Bureau of Labor Statistics take extensive surveys in each area to find out how consumers are actually spending their money. From the surveys, they create a “basket” of goods and services from which the Consumer Price Index is derived. This “basket” has about 200 categories, arranged into eight broad groups. The basket is readjusted every so often. When the guy on CNBC says that “The Consumer Price Index came in at +.3%,” he means that nationally, the price of the basket went up .3%, seasonally adjusted (another complex set of variables). > [@](#): > > And what exactly are the uses of this standard for a single guy with no kids, an SUV, and a diet that unfortunately consists of maybe 2 meals a day, one of which inevitably comes from a fast food place? Essentially none. It also is useless for people with much larger than normal medical expenses, people with 17 cats, or whatever. Like most averages, it applies directly to a relatively small population in the sample. > [@](#): > > Is there a reasonable formula for extrapolating these values to encompass other lifestyles? BLS publishes the components, so yes, but it’s tricky. Special interest groups do this from time to time. For example, a senior citizen’s advocacy group might reasonably want to try to demonstrate that the cost of living for the aged exceeds the stated rate, so Social Security COLAs should be higher. It rarely works anymore. > [@](#): > > And is there a scale where various places can be measured against one another? Where, say, NYC is an 8 and Assboink is a 2 (where higher numbers indicate higher COL’s)? BLS is pretty careful to avoid making this sort of thing available, but yes, economists, interest groups and others try to create cost of living differentials by geography. There’s a pretty good site at [http://stats.bls.gov/cpihome.htm](http://stats.bls.gov/cpihome.htm) . Any deeper than that, and you’ll need a few statisticians and an economist, which will _really_ increase your cost of living! * * * Livin’ on Tums, Vitamin E and Rogaine ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 1999, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-living/4627/6 "1999-11-11T00:18:00Z")
**Nickrz**? One slash? Please? C’mon, I’m begging here!