the dozen different times they’ve changed the inflation metrics to remove/reduce the effect of various “volatile” things that were…becoming to expensive…like food, and housing.

That sounds like you’re describing the Consumer Price Index and the changes made to it over time. Those changes make sense to me because at one time the money you’d spend on internet access wasn’t included because the items included predate the internet. Once it was accepted that internet is something everyone needs, they changed the metric to include it. Further, all of this is published in the open. You can read all the docs where the decisions were made and when the new metric is reflected in the data.

The changes made to the CPI haven’t “remove/reduce”'d the measured inflation number, they’ve actually increased the measured inflation, which I think we both agree is a more accurate assessment of what American consumers are facing.

This doesn’t compare to China in the past or what trump is doing now where they are simply faking numbers or withholding reports altogether.

and that’s before you throw in shit like federal/state subsidies which are used to directly and artificially manipulate the price of goods for consumers, like for gas. americans hate paying more than 4$/gallon for gas, but they effectively pay alot more when consider all the subsidies

That’s a much larger conversation that isn’t aimed at lying to people or withholding data. Yes, there is a political component where consumers don’t like to pay more for gas, but even that isn’t the main driver. The main driver is businesses need predictable prices and much of what the US Government (historically) does is making things predictable, not cheap, but predictable. With trump most of this is out the window and he’s breaking rules and screwing up the stable predictable environment businesses want and need.