Rising costs

J

Jack O'Conner

New member
It isn't just that nearly everything is costly these days. The fact is that our USA dollar is almost worthless compared to its buying power of 30 years ago. In other words, prices went up because our USA dollar went down.

Our USA gov't officials often de-value our currency to make made-in-America products appear more competitive in overseas markets. But the result is that we always pay more. Basic economics that have failed the consumer but benefitted large corporations.

I'm not a communist, nazi, or liberal. I'm just stating the facts.
Jack
 
Why sure.;) It's a conspiracy I tell ya. They keep us peons so busy worling enough to just keep the lights on that we have little time or money for things like politics and guns.

If we had real money, our economy would be stronger than anything on earth. We the people would also be uncontrollable. We'd have the werewithal to make them stand down and they just can't have that.

That's why they had to take our money, give us their money (tokens), and control pricing. So we need them (sic). They don't want us to be able to go dig up our own money or our economy to get good (better). It would weaken Dr. Evil's ability to take over the world.

They call it capitalism and say it's free market no restraint...but then drive overhead / operating costs so high that we can't make much real money. Aint controlled capatalism grand?

Can you imagine how much prices would drop if there was real gold money? There would be so much extra money floating around competing for the same goods & services that pricing could drop 50% or more. Then we could all afford that new Barrett or whatever that we all want. We could afford to hire lawyers to beat back their regulations. The people would collectivly be better armed than the gubmint. We'd be the strongest nation on earth. But that just don't fit in with their agenda.

If you want to control the people, control their money. It's that simple.

Flame away.
 
"The fact is that our USA dollar is almost worthless compared to its buying power of 30 years ago."

But I make almost 10 times as much. Wait a minute...counting on fingers and toes...no, it's closer to 13 times as much. And it's way more than that if you go back to when I was making $1.15 an hour at McDonalds turning 100# bags of spuds into wonderful french fries.

I think a large part of the problem is that the houses people buy today (or the apartments that they rent) are two or three times as large as they were when I was a kid, and they have central air and dishwashers and assorted junk like central vacs that drives the price up.

The same goes for cars. Now they have power windows, locks, seats, sun roofs, security, 12-speaker sound systems (we had AM if we got the optional radio), and a whole bunch of stuff like radial tires that we (and I include myself in some of this) have come to expect. Alloy wheels, remote trunk opener, lumbar support, cruise control, etc.

Me? I'm basically thrifty. I bought a 19" Mitsubishi tv 20 years ago for $499 and I'm still watching it. I sort of need a new tv that'll do closed captioning, but I just can't see blowing a grand or two on some oversized flat screened stereo-equipped thing. I'd rather buy a gun or take a trip.

But that's just me.

John
 
13 times as much? Really, or off the cuff? You ever sat down and crunched the numbers of how much it costs to work?

I do HVAC. The cost of just being able to work is more than one might think.

First off, I'd need about 300 worth of classes that are prerequsites to being able to test for the license, then test fees, oh don't forget the 200 dollars worth of books for the test. Then the license fee but first the million dollars worth of insurance to be able to activate the license. Now I need a phone, advertising, a few thousand in stock for the truck, about 3000 worth of technology on the truck (which if it isn't there and I get checked out, probably 25K fine for that), gotta pay the sales tax for the equip & materials, & gas, disposal fees for old freon or related hazmat items, bonding fees, banking fees, permit fees, truck payments / repairs and all pretty much before I can even go to work. Then, I get to pay income taxes afterwards...and the customer wants a discount! Hah!

I crunched the numbers for last year and after overhead & operating costs, I made about 12 dollars an hour. It costs me 65 dollars an hour to drive my work truck down the road all inclusive. My labor is 70 hr and people complain about that. How in the heck am I putting my son through college? Thats a mystery!

Methinks you are only looking at the surface when you say 13 times as much as to 30 yrs ago. Either that or I'm in the wrong trade!;)
 
Well, I did get an M.S. when I was 23 and I've worked a professional office job since 1974 and I don't have any overhead. And I walk to work most days which saves me a bunch compared to a buddy who has 3 plumbing trucks on the road 7 days a week.

I could really run up the ratio if I calculated my per hour income for only the days I work and didn't include all of the paid vacation days and holidays and such. (I have monthly and yearly production quotas, so the work has to be done.)

Quick and dirty calcs: roughly $29/hr divided by the $1.15 I made at McDonalds almost 40 years ago works out to a little over 25x as much.

I do have two long-term (25-30 years) self-employed friends - one's a lawyer and one's a plumber - so I've seen what overhead amounts to and it is most of the gross. The majority of folks have no idea why some services cost what they do and how little the take home is.

I'm comfortable and have plenty of money to buy guns and ammo and accessories, but I don't feel rich. :)

John
 
I am invovled with manufaturing. I sell screw machine parts made in Switzerland to American manufacturing operations. For this reason I am very aware of what the dollar is doing and some of the reasons why.

First of all inflation is at an all time low and has been for some time. This has been done by outsourcing more and more manufacturing to low cost China and other Asian regions. Keep prices down and you help keep inflation down. The problem is as more and more manufacturing picks up and leaves you are left with next to none here. At some point you wind up with plenty of high value products for low cost but reduce the people who can buy them. It is not because the money is worth any less but because jobs are going away. BOTH parties have played this game for years in order to be able to say "See, we licked inflation!" and we are goign to start really paying for it in a painfull way... At the same time China devalued its currency obscenely in order to keep prices low.

The dollar is in the garbage because we have a Congress and President that are spending like drunken sailors on shore leave. No check is too big to write. As such, with our government spending out of control and no way to pay for it the dollar's value begins to plummet. There is also a little bit of punishment being inflicted on the dollar by forgein nations for political reasons though that is rarely mentions. If the dollar was really low and we were manufacturing like we used to this would be a good thing. US goods would cost less than before and we could sell them overseas and make a fortune. That is not the case now because most American manufacturing is in China and elsewhere. As a result we wind up with currency worth less on the global market and good made overseas becoming more expensive.

I just replaced a wedding band I had lost two years ago. It was $484. I found out when I picked it up this week that due to climbing gold prices and the Dollar tankning against the Euro (ring is a Celtic desgin from Ireland) the price went WAY up right after I orderred. New price is now $784! That is what is going to happen more and more with non-luxury items as we move forward on this path.

My company buys goods in Swiss Francs and sells in Dollars. We have had to raise prices across the board to stay proffitable. Luckily it is now a sellers market and prices are on the rise everywhere. In 2001/2002 these exchange rates would have killed us.
 
The amount of US govt debt growth, while a concern, is insignificant next to the monetary expansion of banks from the perspective of currency inflation.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top