Housing is by far the largest component (42%) (contrary to the common misconception that housing is not in the CPI), followed by Food and Beverages (15%) and Transportation (15%). If you want to up-weight food, you must necessarily down-weight some other component. The prime candidate would be shelter (most other categories are already much smaller than food), but that's of course not the answer that CPI-doubters are looking for.
But the CPI targets a generic US consumer. I would argue that poor people have a different priority list than the rich. The US economy is increasingly polarized with a widening gap between rich and poor.
I am curious as to whether the CPI targets the average person or the average consumer. Rich people spend more. They consumer more and are therefore overrepresented in most consumer-related measurements. Is the CPI meant as a measure of the cost of living or a tool for the calculation of available spending power?
Housing is by far the largest component (42%) (contrary to the common misconception that housing is not in the CPI), followed by Food and Beverages (15%) and Transportation (15%). If you want to up-weight food, you must necessarily down-weight some other component. The prime candidate would be shelter (most other categories are already much smaller than food), but that's of course not the answer that CPI-doubters are looking for.