OT--Rant for today!!

I just got back from town. Since I don't get out very often, I was amazed/angry, at what price increases I found. Everything I have purchased lately, has almost doubled in price!!
I do ALL my Tractor-Auto-Home repair and service. Electrical "old work" boxes have almost doubled in price in one year. But the big disappointment was Electrical Romex wire!!--just a few years ago, I bought two 250 ft. rolls at a cost of app. $32.00--then the next I bought was $60.00, then, last year, a single roll cost $90.00. Today it was $126.00 !!!!
I know we can all blame these price increases to Global Economy and China buying up all the copper they can!!
I think our government could control this, if they chose to!
Just wish I had the foresight to have bought several rolls, years ago!!

Government has to much control now thats why prices are high.Jim

I had to do some plumbing repair in the barn a few months ago and it cost me $89.99 for a 21 foot length of 3/4 inch galvanized pipe. Didn't make me happy,BUT....when I spent a day hauling junk to the crusher,I came home with over $3,150. So....it's a tradeoff I guess.

I have also found it to be inferior quality wise. Will twist off a lot quicker with wire connectors. As least what I have used.

Prices today are high due to MONOPOLY big box stores and corporations that control the market.
No such thing as competition anymore,they are so big they buy thier competitors out . My rant for the day!

As external_link was sworn in, didn't you just know that brighter days were ahead? High inflation is just one of the downsides of having such a growing economy. You can't generally have both low unemployment and low inflation at the same time. Since inflation and unemployment work against each other, whenever we have such low unemployment, we are bound to have higher inflation. The upside is that a president would have to be either a complete idiot or intentionally working against America to end up with both high unemployment and inflation. Fortunately that will never happen.

I agree that monopolies are causing prices to rise, but, it's not limited to box stores. In every industry government regulations are being used to prevent competitors from selling lower priced goods and services. The worst pretext being spread as to what justifies the restrictions is climate change, but terrorism, food quality and other excusses are also used to effectively ban competition, and maintain high prices. I'm sure everyone here knows that there is nothing in last years "Food Safety" law that isn't designed to limit the competition that major food producers would have to face. I personally think Washington is a big money laundering racket, where companies donate money to candidates to have the money returned from the national treasury, generally at an increase, in the form of tax credits or incentives, and laws are then passed to favor the companies that have giving money to the politicans. If private companies were to operate in such manner, they would be listed as a Mafia.

Just curious as to how you think the gov could regulate the price,especialy if its already too high?. I think they could drive the price up for sure, but regulating it down would simply make folks stop making/importing it because it wasnt profitable in my opinion. Demand for copper world wide in developing markets is what drives the price,if the gov fixed the price here they would simply sell it elsewhere. Your right though ,I get mad every time i walk in a store. But unions demanding more and more money,everyone wanting the mythical "living wage",raising minimum wage ,affects the price also. Add to that the fact that when you pay folks more money they spend more and demand increases ,it simply becomes a vicious circle. Personally what i think its going to take to stop it is for folks to just step back and say we are simply not going to pay it. Get away from being a consumer oriented society so to speak and kind of get back to the make do type of thinking instead of always wanting more and more or the latest and greatest.,,thats MY rant,,LOL

Consider the lightbulb. GE makes a bulb that cost far more than the traditional bulb, but doesn't save that much in power, nor does it last long enough to be a better deal, so no one pays them. The company contributes to politicans. The politicans pass incentives to repay the original GE investment, and also passes a law banning the lightbulb that threatens the profit margin of the more expensive bulb. We the American people are told that this ban was made to improve the enviornment, despite the reality that the new required bulbs are full of mercury, making that claim an outright lie. So for the benefit of a company that "Contributes" to individual politicans, any bulb that would threaten their profit is simply outlawed.

I know what you mean. Pratically every day prices seem to go up. Question about the Romex? Was this just white nmd90(14/2) or the black barn stuff or?

The big box stores are there because we shop price rather than quality. in the beginning, they tried to keep quality to a degree, but as we get hooked more and more and the small stores go out of business because we don"t visit them, the quality goes down in a hurry. I hear people gripe about Wal-mart putting this or that store out of business and I do upset the applecart because I tell them that we puut the small stores out of business by not shopping them first. just my .02. James

The Romex I looked at was 12-2 with ground regular residental indoor wire. I will, most likely, pay more later--but I didn't pay today!

I think your all wron on this one most of it is high fuel price coupled to high metal price and so on.

Yeah, government price controls. That's always a good idea...

I understand your frustration. I bought 2 rolls of wire about 5 years ago, sure was better than money in the bank!

I think the issue is more to do with our poor dollar value. Or dollar declined in value a while ago, compared to other countries.

Now, other countries are having real bad issues too, but in the meantime we printed a lot of fake money to try to spend oureselves out of our problems, and declaired we would have very very low intrest for aeveral years. This was an effort to kickstart our ecconomy, but it didn't work well, and instead it's kept us down with the rest of the world. Sometimes that kick-start works so it was worth trying, but this time didn't, and now we are way behind, by spending way more than we take in.

The silver lining is that it hads made our exports look real good - like corn, beans, wheat. We are kinda near the end of that run, but it's been a good 5-6 years or so.

As well, it has brought more manufaturing jobs back here to the USA. It doesn't show up much, but the seeds have been sown, and we should see a little more Made in USA, as well as having a few more manufatured things exported. Long term this is good for USA, and it is a direct result of the poor dollar & high metals, grains, etc.

So, there are some silver linings to this, as frustrating as it can be when you go to the hardware or fuel stores.....

I'd sure hope the govt does not 'do something about it' as it is really the only hope we have, as we have used up most of the other options. It would be a very dark day if the govt takes action on your issues, it would really destroy the USA.

Give it a little time. We lived a little too high up for a time there, now we need to live a little too low for a bit to balance it out. Sucks, but how it has to go...

--->Paul

Government price controls, great plan. Read up on the 1970's and see how that worked out for the USA, or, for a more up to date example, look at the robust economy of Cuba, after 52 years of absolute government controls I hear you can get a sack of beans if you know the right person. My Dad did some work in Cuba in the early 50's setting up a cow testing association and he told me that it was the best cattle country he had ever seen and had more cows than people, today it is a crime to possess beef without a government permit.

And the government says inflation is only about 1.5%---

Its really the value of the US Dollar you're holding going down in value because the Federal Reserve is 'printing' money like its coming out of thin air or something which of course is exactly where its coming from.And its going to get a whole lot worse.Jim Rogers says all paper curriencies will collapse and the Euro is heading that way with the US Dollar right behind it.

[b:3983eb04c5]"I think our government could control this, if they chose to! "[/b:3983eb04c5] My quote above--suggest that our government might have some control in what is exported from this country and the amount.
I am definately [b:3983eb04c5]not for more government control [/b:3983eb04c5]but if there was a limit to the export of copper, would that have made a difference.
From what I have read, China is buying all the copper they can get. Surely someone realised this would happen.

From what i understand, the confederate dollar is now worth more than the US federal reserve note dollar. One of them is being printed by the trillions.

I think the big box stores offer competition to keep prices lower. When I was wiring houses 20 years ago I could get good deals on wire by buying it a pallet at the time from the local building and electrical suppliers. Then I started buying from Lowes and Home Depot because I could get it cheaper and not have to buy so much at one time. I also priced shopped between the 2 stores and several times took advantage of the meet the competitor price and 10 percent reduction on top of that. I did that just last week with Lowes and TSC. It was a 189 dollar item at Lowes. While standing in the Lowes store I looked the item up on my IPhone and found it at TSC for $179.00. I went to the sales clerk and showed him the TSC price. He filled out the paper work and I got the item for $ 162.00. Saved enough to cover the cost of the data plan on my phone for 2 months.

(quoted from post at 15:43:00 12/15/11) The Romex I looked at was 12-2 with ground regular residental indoor wire. I will, most likely, pay more later--but I didn't pay today!

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So now you have the opportunity to buy some extra rolls before it goes up again like you wish you had done e few years ago.

that adds to it,BUT what drives those prices are demand.let me give you an example:
say a wire meking operation moves overseas,as a lot has.that company hires say 200 workers.to be effecient and to have a steady reliable workforce those workers must live close enough to be able to get to work on time.they cant live thirty miles away and walk or take a used up bus to work.so they need housing,housing means wire,pipes,nails,wood, all the rest,just as it does here.that increases demand.then when those folks go from a subsistance type of living to recieving a steady paycheck they also want extras,a rug on the floor,a chair,a table,a bed,possibly a radio or tv,even a new pan instead of the old tin can or bucket they cooked with in their huts on the farm.they want gas to cook with because there not enough trees,they want flour from sacks instead of grinding it out of their fields like they did on the farm. All this slowly but continuously increases demand.
heres another example.My wife supports through some christian charity org a young girl in africa.Last year she sent her a some money for christmas, not much but a few dollars or so. These folks live in a villiage where her father raises cows, he owns four or five,and farms by hand a small plot . We recieved a picture from this family showing what they bought with this money.It was a pair of tennis shoes and two store bought sack dresses for the girl,the first she(or anyone in her family) owned. A blue plastic tarp,a length of rope for a clothes line,a sack of flour( also the first they ever bought),a five gallon plastic water container,one of those white metal wash basins,and a real pot to cook in. doesnt sound like much to you and me,but someone had to make those things.and as sure as can be it increased demand.