Vator,
I suspect that when they look at the number many things, like your mortgage or rent, your utilities, etc. haven't gone up at all, then they add higher prices for food, gas etc. and it comes out to 8%. It's probably about right when you think of it that way for the average person.
I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't complain about it, here in California our gas prices are the highest in the U.S. and they actually just added some additional taxes to it. I don't mind paying for the infrastructure repairs that are needed, but most of the time I don't find the repairs to be very permanent, they're constantly having to repave streets that had been repaved a couple years ago. Perhaps more importantly they're able to create huge surpluses and just keep letting them build, rather than lowering tax rates. I really believe that taxes on gas could be lowered, or eliminated, until prices fall below some threshold value, say $5, still on the high side, but much lower than what we're paying.
Our business models are a big part of the problem as well. As costs go up, so do profits. A manufacturer who has the price of the raw material used go up by a nickel doesn't just add a nickel to the price, he adds a dime. If the product goes through a middle man, he'll probably kick it up by a quarter and the retailer will take it to 50 cents. Everyone up and down the line has added profit to a nickel's price increase and it ends up costing ten times the actual increase.
Probably the worst such increase comes if the taxing authorities add anything to say the cost of a bottle of beer. Say a nickel is added. Do you know of a bar in the world that won't increase the price by at least a quarter, with higher end bars going up by 50 cents or a dollar because of the nickel more they must pay in taxes. It's simply how our capitalism works.
Sadly while the owner of the gas station may make more as the prices go up, the money paid to the workers in the station frequently don't, nor do the wages of all those handling the petroleum from the time it comes out of the ground till it's delivered to the station. Companies and their shareholders may be rewarded, but it's not often passed on to those doing the work, though management may get their bonuses.
Gary
