Panflation

My wife weighs the same as 30 years ago. Is this of interest to you? No of course not, but what interests you is that she wears smaller sized clothes, at least if she buys her cloths in the UK or USA. Clothes with the same size label have become steadily larger over time. Of course measurements vary as you might know from experience: if you try a shirt size L from Esprit it will fit differently than a size L from Urban Lockers. Interestingly enough this is mainly so for women clothes and not for men clothes. So a size 14 today (in the UK) fits like a size 18 of 1975. And a size 14 of 1975 is nowadays a size 10! Apparently fashion firms have stretched the garments and make women feel better if they can squeeze into the same size as many years ago!

Those of you who bought coffee at Starbucks know that “tall’’ is the smallest you can order.  Small seems to be a forbidden word. As a frequent traveler, I see inflation in hotels and airplanes. Standard rooms are non-existent, you have “deluxe’’ rooms (as the new standard), “premium deluxe’’, “superior luxury’’ etc. Some airlines do not have economy class but they offer “World Traveller” or “Voyageur’’, where sardine class would have been more appropriate.

The same happened in higher education in countries where they grade their students by using a relative scale. In the UK the proportion of A-level students given “A” grades has risen from 9% to 27% over the past 25 years (see the Economist, 7 April 2012). Other tests show that current students are not cleverer than students of past generations, some argue even on the contrary! A study at one particular institution shows that an A grade today is the equivalent of a C in the 1980s. American research shows that almost 45% of graduates receive the top grade compared to 15% in the 1960s.

Finally, job titles are also affected by inflation. Almost all of my colleagues are directors nowadays, although I do not know what they direct. The latest I heard is Director of First Impressions, a job commonly known as receptionist. Look around, inflation is everywhere.

Hans-Georg van Liempd is program manager internationalisation at TiU and president of EAIE. He blogs for Univers.