Why is everything so expensive (general rant)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you need to build up your emergency savings so that these non-recurring expenses don't wreck your budget.

Earmark separate savings for luxuries/treats. So they're not conflicting with each other.

This isn’t a question about personal budget. There is no budget hack for simply not making enough money and things costing so much

The question is why do things cost so much?

Because everyone wants a liveable wage. In the past, certain people were working for far less than they were worth, which kept costs down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t mean groceries and gas and the things politicized and blamed on Joe Biden. I actually think groceries, gas, property taxes, my personal car payment and mortgage are not all that bad.

But I mean, the general annoyances of LIFE are so expensive. Home maintenance. Car repairs. Broken appliances. That sort of thing.

And then when you actually want to treat yourself with something that doesn’t even seem so extravagant, like an evening out, or ordering a pizza, or getting a cabin for the weekend (so I’m not even talking about overseas vacations and shopping sprees), those things are so expensive. I thought those kind of treats would be reasonable for middle class people to partake in from time to time. But all these fees, taxes, included gratuities, service fees and all that crap.

I know this board skews wealthy (reportedly) but it just seems impossible to accumulate any kind of meaningful liquid cash savings or an emergency fund when everything cost so much. Yeah I could just “do without” and just put off enjoying myself indefinitely, but what kind of life is that, I have relatives who died of cancer in their 40s, died in car accidents, so to a certain extent you have to live for the moment.

Don't buy, rent then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you need to build up your emergency savings so that these non-recurring expenses don't wreck your budget.

Earmark separate savings for luxuries/treats. So they're not conflicting with each other.

This isn’t a question about personal budget. There is no budget hack for simply not making enough money and things costing so much

The question is why do things cost so much?

Because everyone wants a liveable wage. In the past, certain people were working for far less than they were worth, which kept costs down.

This. The people in China who were once content with earning 5 cents for the item you paid 10 dollars for are now demanding 5 dollars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you need to build up your emergency savings so that these non-recurring expenses don't wreck your budget.

Earmark separate savings for luxuries/treats. So they're not conflicting with each other.

This isn’t a question about personal budget. There is no budget hack for simply not making enough money and things costing so much

The question is why do things cost so much?

Because everyone wants a liveable wage. In the past, certain people were working for far less than they were worth, which kept costs down.

No, it's because everyone wants the best of everything all the time, but the say "it's not that much" because some billionaire consumes more.

Your grandparents would be amazed at how much you consume. Your house is bigger. Your food is fancier and imported from around the world. Your cars are plural, and bigger and fancier and technology complex. Your computers and streaming music and movies and games...

[Anonymous]

Things were cheaper when our clothing was made by the slaves who slept 10 to a room on a shack on the plantation and were paid in gruel

[Anonymous]

Everyone in the same boat so prices across the board going up - we all need and want more money.

I think in food costs some has to do with climate change and food insecurity. Chocolate and coffee for examples. I sincerely believe food costs will continue rising as it'll be harder to get certain foods as production will be less and tighter. Sons of this may be related to inflation but some to climate change which will worsen. In 5 years I think prices will really take a hit. You won't be able to enjoy certain foods daily from a spend point.

Inflation is real and unfortunately we are now having to cycle down from that and it's simply not easy to do. There's statistical inflation which is reported to be not so bad and real life inflation which we all feel is worse than what is reported. I think that's from the combo above. Greed is real

Once something goes up and people still buy, it won't come down. That's just logic. When one thing has been able to stay up, others will follow. Why not? That's just greed and it's real. I think we went past a line of no return and while gas prices can fluctuate because that's a controlled commodity in essence, you're just not going to see product prices controlled like that.

Companies need to pay more to workers who need more to buy enough and it's a vicious cycle. Everything goes higher and higher. We would need something to break that cycle and historically it would require a drastic change or event.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we also need to have a reset on what makes life enjoyable. Not everyone is meant to have overseas vacations and eat out everyday. Our great grandparents didn’t splurge on things like that but this culture of greed you talk about makes us think we need to. We are bombarded with what others are doing on social media. I don’t think people truly understand what living within your means actually means. If you can’t afford to pay off your credit card then you certainly shouldn’t be having that extra cup of coffee. OP you said what kind of life is that without these luxuries, you need to find happiness in everyday things. If I died today, I’m not thinking about how I never traveled to Europe, I’m thinking about how I could have bonded with my children more. We also live in a world of replace rather than repair. If we learned to fix things instead of rushing out and replacing appliances, we could save there too. You also don’t need to have the most modern kitchen and furniture. Society should accept that hand me down furniture from our parents is just fine. Ask yourself why you don’t like your grandmother cherry furniture, it’s because you are bombarded with ads and pictures of modern styles to make you purchase more. Things are only more expensive because we feed into this culture.

I agree with a lot of this, but appliances are no longer made to be repaired. They used to be, but they are now made to be replaced (see: corporate greed).

Repairable appliances are more complex to build and a repairman visit costs more than a new appliance. It's not corporate greed that you (and I) are too lazy or incompetent to maintain a skilled shop in your garage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t mean groceries and gas and the things politicized and blamed on Joe Biden. I actually think groceries, gas, property taxes, my personal car payment and mortgage are not all that bad.

But I mean, the general annoyances of LIFE are so expensive. Home maintenance. Car repairs. Broken appliances. That sort of thing.

And then when you actually want to treat yourself with something that doesn’t even seem so extravagant, like an evening out, or ordering a pizza, or getting a cabin for the weekend (so I’m not even talking about overseas vacations and shopping sprees), those things are so expensive. I thought those kind of treats would be reasonable for middle class people to partake in from time to time. But all these fees, taxes, included gratuities, service fees and all that crap.

I know this board skews wealthy (reportedly) but it just seems impossible to accumulate any kind of meaningful liquid cash savings or an emergency fund when everything cost so much. Yeah I could just “do without” and just put off enjoying myself indefinitely, but what kind of life is that, I have relatives who died of cancer in their 40s, died in car accidents, so to a certain extent you have to live for the moment.

It’s extremely expensive bec of corporate greed.

Maga is so dumb this is their fault

And if Trump wins I hope to hell they lose everything I mean it every thing all their social security all their savings jobs etc everything. We all know his heath are plan is coming after what like 8 years? Oh dear maga project 2025 definitely spells that one out you idiots are too stupid to have read it.

They got us here this is 100 percent on maga stupids unamerican dummies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The prices at McDonald's tell a crazy story. The dollar menu is gone. I paid $15 for two fish filets this week. $20 used to feed a family of four.

You paid $15 for that completely unnecessary tripe because McDonald's knows you'll pay because you aren't so poor after all.
They brag about jacking up prices because lazy gross people keep buying it, until they just recently found the upper limit.

$20 fed a family of 4 30 years ago. Adk your parents what it cost 60 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you need to build up your emergency savings so that these non-recurring expenses don't wreck your budget.

Earmark separate savings for luxuries/treats. So they're not conflicting with each other.

This isn’t a question about personal budget. There is no budget hack for simply not making enough money and things costing so much

The question is why do things cost so much?

Because everyone wants a liveable wage. In the past, certain people were working for far less than they were worth, which kept costs down.

No, it's because everyone wants the best of everything all the time, but the say "it's not that much" because some billionaire consumes more.

Your grandparents would be amazed at how much you consume. Your house is bigger. Your food is fancier and imported from around the world. Your cars are plural, and bigger and fancier and technology complex. Your computers and streaming music and movies and games...

Only part of this is true. My house is much, MUCH smaller than either of my grandparents'. I have one car, they had two.

It's true that we have computers and cell phones, which they didn't at my age - although they did a few years ago before they died. They also bought imported food from the grocery store. Yes, life is different and in some ways we consume more than they did when they were young parents in the 50s-60s. But we don't actually have higher expectations than they did in 2000 or 2020, when most were alive and also lived with modern technology, food supplies, etc.

I also think raising kids is more expensive now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Things were cheaper when our clothing was made by the slaves who slept 10 to a room on a shack on the plantation and were paid in gruel

Has this actually changed? If so how?

[Anonymous]

Look at the corporate salaries and businesses. So many of the companies crying inflation are actually enormously profitable. A lot of the inflation is smoke and mirrors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CEO's and their bonuses.

This right here ^^^

we are being conned

[Anonymous]

It's in part because we paid a lot of people a lot of money not to work during the pandemic, and people's expenses cratered when the did nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's in part because we paid a lot of people a lot of money not to work during the pandemic, and people's expenses cratered when the did nothing.

No because inflation is global. US stimulus didn’t make oil prices higher.