So for some reason the left zero/left paren key on my keyboard has stopped working. I have used Microsoft ergonomic keyboards for years so went to Amazon to buy a new one. I have to admit while I know inflation is a thing, I am fortunate enough to be in a place where I don’t really notice whether the price of things goes up. That being said I was a bit surprised at the cost of my favorite keyboard. 130 dollars for what is a pretty basic keyboard seemed high and Amazon was nice enough to tell me that I had purchased one in 2016
So I went into my order history and found my order from 2016
Back in 2016 I paid 22 dollars. I wanted to calculate the annual inflation rate for this increase. Interestingly both bard and ChatGPT gave me the wrong answer. Neither took into account the “per year” part and gave an inflation rate of 490%
Using my amazing math skills buying something for 22 dollars in 2106 and then having it cost 130 dollars eight years later is an annual inflation rate of about 25%. Since I didn’t have any cost data between 2016 and today this assumes a constant inflation rate over the entire time range.
What caused such a large increase? If you look at what Amazon recommends as alternatives there are similar keyboards much less (although the business edition of this keyboard is 400 dollars!).
I have been using the same keyboard for over a decade so am going to just go ahead and pay the 490% increase, but for a lot less money I could get a really spiffy retro keyboard
