Gasoline is a poor choice of benchmark. Energy prices aren't really a proxy for inflation.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=core+inflation+from+200...

> Gasoline is a poor choice of benchmark. Energy prices aren't really a proxy for inflation.

Core inflation is also a poor choice.

My housing costs are fixed, so the variation that I see is in the things that core inflation excludes.

I am not sure that I understand your mention of housing costs. Doesn't core inflation exclude housing costs as well?

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_inflation , core inflation excludes food and energy. It does not exclude housing.

SQL Server was in that range for many forms of licenses, and so was Windows Server when I worked at Microsoft. Actually I could think of a lot of software in that range.

Today, I was looking at UBS in South-East Asia..... A basic system may be a bit below $2k, but a functional system is probably about $4-5k.

Also a basic functional system of Sage ERP for smaller businesses is often well above $10k and below $50k

SQL Server was $50k per socket (going to core) for the Enterprise Edition as a list price. The typical SQL Server sale was >$100k, easily. Also, sales were negotiated and Microsoft licensing is totally fluid, especially if an Enterprise Agreement comes into the mix (where the cost is spread out over a few years). People citing MS licenses here are blind to how the majority of MS license in Enterprises get sold--huge deals with multi-year subscriptions that cost lots of money. MS will typically "true up" licenses at the end of an EA.