Why is everything so expensive (general rant)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Life is about choices, your post is a "me", not "we" post. We do our own repairs. We don't travel. We do fast casual as a nice dinner out. We shop at Walmart and Aldi's. Things are expensive because you feed into the culture.

I think the point is more that previously middle class and upper middle class professionals could easily afford some luxuries that they can't now. No one likes to feel like there is a drop in their purchasing power. A Friday night takeout or date night on the weekend at a casual restaurant were not seen as real luxuries but were part of the middle class/upper middle class lifestyle. Eating out now is literally insane--we are lucky enough to be able to afford many luxuries but I know many people now that simply can not swing it even though they make the same income as before. Even family style/casual restaurants in suburban NY are charging 35 plus dollars for average entrees. The same dish just 4 years ago was close to half the price. And the same thing applies for almost every aspect of life.

The cost of repairing items particularly appliances is insane. Our oven (reputable brand), only 3 years old and just out of warranty had a $1000 repair. We certainly don't know how to repair this ourselves. I don't think the focus is simply that people should want less, there should be a real understanding as to what has caused such a CHANGE in purchasing power.

But the people in this category have affordable mortgages, how do they not have the cash flow to manage the price increases?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Life is about choices, your post is a "me", not "we" post. We do our own repairs. We don't travel. We do fast casual as a nice dinner out. We shop at Walmart and Aldi's. Things are expensive because you feed into the culture.

I think the point is more that previously middle class and upper middle class professionals could easily afford some luxuries that they can't now. No one likes to feel like there is a drop in their purchasing power. A Friday night takeout or date night on the weekend at a casual restaurant were not seen as real luxuries but were part of the middle class/upper middle class lifestyle. Eating out now is literally insane--we are lucky enough to be able to afford many luxuries but I know many people now that simply can not swing it even though they make the same income as before. Even family style/casual restaurants in suburban NY are charging 35 plus dollars for average entrees. The same dish just 4 years ago was close to half the price. And the same thing applies for almost every aspect of life.

The cost of repairing items particularly appliances is insane. Our oven (reputable brand), only 3 years old and just out of warranty had a $1000 repair. We certainly don't know how to repair this ourselves. I don't think the focus is simply that people should want less, there should be a real understanding as to what has caused such a CHANGE in purchasing power.

But the people in this category have affordable mortgages, how do they not have the cash flow to manage the price increases?

Prices of everything are more expensive, and salaries have not gone up, so it is harder to save unless you adjust behavior. We don't eat out anymore for the most part.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Life is about choices, your post is a "me", not "we" post. We do our own repairs. We don't travel. We do fast casual as a nice dinner out. We shop at Walmart and Aldi's. Things are expensive because you feed into the culture.

I think the point is more that previously middle class and upper middle class professionals could easily afford some luxuries that they can't now. No one likes to feel like there is a drop in their purchasing power. A Friday night takeout or date night on the weekend at a casual restaurant were not seen as real luxuries but were part of the middle class/upper middle class lifestyle. Eating out now is literally insane--we are lucky enough to be able to afford many luxuries but I know many people now that simply can not swing it even though they make the same income as before. Even family style/casual restaurants in suburban NY are charging 35 plus dollars for average entrees. The same dish just 4 years ago was close to half the price. And the same thing applies for almost every aspect of life.

The cost of repairing items particularly appliances is insane. Our oven (reputable brand), only 3 years old and just out of warranty had a $1000 repair. We certainly don't know how to repair this ourselves. I don't think the focus is simply that people should want less, there should be a real understanding as to what has caused such a CHANGE in purchasing power.

This. We're managers in IT and we're financially worse off now than we were before the pandemic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe the impact of the Baby Boomers retiring en mass has not been properly accounted for in the inflation narrative, particularly when it comes to the price of services.

Back when we bought our house in 2017, we got a few handyman recommendations and some of these were men were pushing 60. They actually took time to do a decent job and their rates were very affordable. Now? They've left the labor force - many left the area completely. Their replacements are younger subcontractors who don't speak much English and their bosses charge high rates.

Boomers who already had some assets they bought cheaply - a paid off truck, an older modest home out in PG or HoCo or Up-County MoCo - didn't demand a ton of money for their wages. They didn't have high overhead.

The same thing was prevalent when we were renting in DC - I would usually rent from someone who had owned the property for 20-30 years. They were not price sensitive because the home was either paid off or bought for a song with a stupid-low mortgage. As soon as that Boomer sold the RE for huge appreciation, the next owner would need to jack up the rent to cover the big mortgage.

I think the narrative of the "missing" Baby Boomers has received short shrift in our discussion about prices. When we see this generational turnover in the workplace AND with long-held asset sales, it spurs inflationary pressures.

This is a very stupid opinion. It's the liberal covid and other policies driving this inflation, not boomers. Boomers couldn't get these high prices for their homes if it wasn't for inflation. The younger generation couldn't charge insanely high prices for goods and services if not for the inflation that happened when the dems kept schools closed and paid people to sit at home long after we knew it wasn't necessary.

Quit trying to blame boomers (no, I'm not a boomer). It's the latest leftists talking point and it's just more gaslighting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Life is about choices, your post is a "me", not "we" post. We do our own repairs. We don't travel. We do fast casual as a nice dinner out. We shop at Walmart and Aldi's. Things are expensive because you feed into the culture.

I think the point is more that previously middle class and upper middle class professionals could easily afford some luxuries that they can't now. No one likes to feel like there is a drop in their purchasing power. A Friday night takeout or date night on the weekend at a casual restaurant were not seen as real luxuries but were part of the middle class/upper middle class lifestyle. Eating out now is literally insane--we are lucky enough to be able to afford many luxuries but I know many people now that simply can not swing it even though they make the same income as before. Even family style/casual restaurants in suburban NY are charging 35 plus dollars for average entrees. The same dish just 4 years ago was close to half the price. And the same thing applies for almost every aspect of life.

The cost of repairing items particularly appliances is insane. Our oven (reputable brand), only 3 years old and just out of warranty had a $1000 repair. We certainly don't know how to repair this ourselves. I don't think the focus is simply that people should want less, there should be a real understanding as to what has caused such a CHANGE in purchasing power.

But the people in this category have affordable mortgages, how do they not have the cash flow to manage the price increases?

Prices of everything are more expensive, and salaries have not gone up, so it is harder to save unless you adjust behavior. We don't eat out anymore for the most part.

It’s greed. This is a recurring phenomenon when they take the foot off the breaks due to an unusual economic events. Most recently, it was started by the Covid, then the supply chain breakdown, then the gas shortage, other shortages. They caused spike in prices. These stressors have subsided, but the greedy companies are continuing to jack up the prices. Last month the Fed Chairman admitted that even though the inflation has come down, unfortunately he does not expect the prices to come down also.

[Anonymous]

Bidenomics sucks!

My paycheck has effectively shrunk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Someone has to pay for those minimum wage increases.

+1000 everyone was for paying unskilled, uneducated workers (who are NEVER helpful to customers) at target $20 a hour and mcdonalds people more but then complain when they have to pay more, Where did you think the money was going to come from?

I haven't been to Mcdonalds in 5 years and a target in about 4 years. I'm better for it. Won't use these places ever again.

I go to McDonald's regularly (sorry not sorry) and I get really good customer service there. I have had bad customer service in a McDonald's of course, but it's not universal and usually I have a very good experience. The one near me that I go to most often is staffed by middle-aged immigrant women from central and South America, some of whom have been there for years. I think they must have good management because they are all really pleasant and friendly and do their jobs well.

Target is more hit or miss.

The problem with a lot of places like this is not the customer service, but the fact that they are filled with homeless people, people on drugs, panhandlers, shoplifters, etc. Targets in cities and in middle and working class neighborhoods, deal with this, and that's what makes the shopping experience so miserable. It also makes it hard to hire and retain good workers because why would anyone who is any good at their job want to spend their day being harassed by non-paying customers? Do you want to be the person at Target tasked with unlocking the detergent for people who actually want to buy it while standing your ground agains the many people trying to steal it so they can sell it in the parking lot? $20 per hour is not enough money for that specific job, at least not for more than a few months until you find something better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bidenomics sucks!

My paycheck has effectively shrunk.

While I agree that Biden sucks, no president have that much impact on the economy. Presidents don’t make the waves, they are only the surfers.. of course some better than others. Trump sucked too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Life is about choices, your post is a "me", not "we" post. We do our own repairs. We don't travel. We do fast casual as a nice dinner out. We shop at Walmart and Aldi's. Things are expensive because you feed into the culture.

I think the point is more that previously middle class and upper middle class professionals could easily afford some luxuries that they can't now. No one likes to feel like there is a drop in their purchasing power. A Friday night takeout or date night on the weekend at a casual restaurant were not seen as real luxuries but were part of the middle class/upper middle class lifestyle. Eating out now is literally insane--we are lucky enough to be able to afford many luxuries but I know many people now that simply can not swing it even though they make the same income as before. Even family style/casual restaurants in suburban NY are charging 35 plus dollars for average entrees. The same dish just 4 years ago was close to half the price. And the same thing applies for almost every aspect of life.

The cost of repairing items particularly appliances is insane. Our oven (reputable brand), only 3 years old and just out of warranty had a $1000 repair. We certainly don't know how to repair this ourselves. I don't think the focus is simply that people should want less, there should be a real understanding as to what has caused such a CHANGE in purchasing power.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Life is about choices, your post is a "me", not "we" post. We do our own repairs. We don't travel. We do fast casual as a nice dinner out. We shop at Walmart and Aldi's. Things are expensive because you feed into the culture.

I think the point is more that previously middle class and upper middle class professionals could easily afford some luxuries that they can't now. No one likes to feel like there is a drop in their purchasing power. A Friday night takeout or date night on the weekend at a casual restaurant were not seen as real luxuries but were part of the middle class/upper middle class lifestyle. Eating out now is literally insane--we are lucky enough to be able to afford many luxuries but I know many people now that simply can not swing it even though they make the same income as before. Even family style/casual restaurants in suburban NY are charging 35 plus dollars for average entrees. The same dish just 4 years ago was close to half the price. And the same thing applies for almost every aspect of life.

The cost of repairing items particularly appliances is insane. Our oven (reputable brand), only 3 years old and just out of warranty had a $1000 repair. We certainly don't know how to repair this ourselves. I don't think the focus is simply that people should want less, there should be a real understanding as to what has caused such a CHANGE in purchasing power.

But the people in this category have affordable mortgages, how do they not have the cash flow to manage the price increases?

Prices of everything are more expensive, and salaries have not gone up, so it is harder to save unless you adjust behavior. We don't eat out anymore for the most part.

It’s greed. This is a recurring phenomenon when they take the foot off the breaks due to an unusual economic events. Most recently, it was started by the Covid, then the supply chain breakdown, then the gas shortage, other shortages. They caused spike in prices. These stressors have subsided, but the greedy companies are continuing to jack up the prices. Last month the Fed Chairman admitted that even though the inflation has come down, unfortunately he does not expect the prices to come down also.

+1 prices only go up, never meaningfully down. A few things have come down in price from peak Covid, mostly groceries. But they’re still high compared to pre-COVID. We’re all going to end up shopping at dollar stores and off price/off brand stores like Aldi a lot more I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:inflation is much higher than stated. Things like car repairs, maintenance, etc have gone up astronomically and are hard to measure. Paying people to sit at home was incredibly disruptive to the labor market and was a failed experiment.

Remember how the Biden administration kept using the term “transitory inflation?”

Biden’s government is incapable of being honest.

Inflation has been under 3% for months now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's my enlightened centrist take:

Both the political right and left are correct. There are winners and losers in economic policy, whether Biden or Trump, and the middle class is getting squeezed, at least the presumed white collar, professional-managerial class. In fact, I think the whole concept of the college educated white collar middle class is about to face a real reckoning.

Biden's and Democratic policies have been a win for blue collar service economy workers to an extent. Their wages have gone up, in many cases significantly, and LMC had more social safety nets during the pandemic. There have also been laudable efforts to give the worst-off people a break: forgiving $10K of student loan debt (makes much more of a difference for those who never finished their degrees or went to CCs or lower tier schools with fewer opportunities than someone with an expensive degree), child tax credits, stimulus payments, etc. I don't actually think this all contributes as much to inflation as the right thinks, I really do think inflation originated more with supply chains and then just continued because of the "vibe" and companies knowing they can get away with it. But generally yes, blue collar/service worker people have been somewhat better off.

The other winners from both Biden AND Trump Covid and post-Covid policies are the corporate executives. Airlines for example got huge bailouts and there were no enforcement mechanisms to ensure they held onto their end of the bargain and not lay off people. The thing that the right wing understands but the idealist left does not, is that there is virtually no government regulation or economic policy that can force down executive pay or limit shareholder profits. There simply isn't. Every restriction, tax, regulation, impact fee, you name it, imposed on businesses will be pushed back to the consumer. Every. Single. One. Yes, I hate it too. But it's true. So the left is correct that "corporate greed" is the source of inflation but the left is wrong that they can do anything about it. The only thing they can do is respond to incentives.

Now back to the white collar middle class. The "losers" of this economy are the traditional knowledge-economy, middle management, corporate ladder but non-C-suite jobs. They see prices going up, executive bonuses going up, service workers wages going up, but their own wages are stagnant. As all kinds of products and services go up in cost, companies are cutting other costs elsewhere, such as professional services, consulting, IT, anything knowledge and "analysis" based that doesn't connect to raw materials or jobs affected by minimum wage hikes. So your white collar analyst/consultant/middle manager making $75K-150K is not going to be making any more money if they are even lucky enough not to be laid off. They are finding their earning power to be closer to that of a fast food worker than the corporate ladder they aspired to. The uncomfortable truth is that the market actually calls for much more makers and doers than thinkers and analyzers. And this is doubly unfortunate for people who took out student loans to get into the knowledge economy. We'll see where AI fits into the mix but really, recession-era millennials were really sold a bad batch of goods when they were told that college degrees and knowledge economy were the surefire tickets to the American Dream. Hustle, skills, and luck are, and there is nothing the government can do to change that.

What about consumer protection rules, antitrust, etc? It would be even worse without these. And if they were more robust, things would be better…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It didn't help that Trump's tariff's drove up the cost of consumer goods. And it came out of nowhere so businesses and consumers both got got screwed!

Now, I think that corporations feel they can get away with charging $$$.

I agree, it's crazy. Things that I didn't used to worry about or thought I wouldn't have to think twice about-- hotel room at a 2 or 3-star hotel or a 2-hour flight cost 2 to 3 times what they used. So you have to think twice.

Yep. I just spent $1200 for a 1.5 hour plane ride in “economy”. Insane.

This is because the gov doesn’t allow airlines to go bankrupt, like it ought to do.

Must be a special place that no other plane flies. We flew to EU paying $1000 roundtrip, 4 planes.

[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.

Hundred percent agree. We are in the top 2-3 percent for HHI and just seems like we cannot afford most of these things.

[Anonymous]

Biden. The answer is always Biden.