I'm surprised there's not an inflation thread yet
POSTED BY: 6IXSTRINGJACK
UPDATED: Thursday, June 11, 2026 17:04
VIEWED: 37356
PAGE 43 of 84
I'm starting to think that we're not actually disagreeing on much on this topic and we're just so used to arguing about everything that the wires are getting crossed.
But seriously... Be careful with those computer desk chairs. I'm kind of terrified about sitting on mine that I bought almost 20 years ago now. I think I'm going to toss it and use one of the camping chairs instead. I like my rectum in one piece without a 3 foot rod and shrapnel shoved up it 100mph while my legs and ass hair catch on fire.
The fake leather has already long since started to peel off of it, and I see no ROI in keeping that thing around anymore when I've got plenty of other chairs to put in a spot where I'm not even regularly sitting down anyhow.
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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
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Quote:
SIGNYM:
The problem is that "capitalism" is an unstable state. It inevitably evolves to something that is NOT CAPITALISM.
Many books have been written about this evolution. You clearly haven't read them, either.
SECOND: Is it because of "something that is NOT CAPITALISM" that the economy does not always run smoothly? (The U.S. economy experienced serious recessions beginning in 1973, 1981, 1990, 2001, and 2007. Actually, the U.S. economy has been having recessions for hundreds of years.) List of 48 recessions in the United States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recessions_in_the_United_States
Signym, you might also want to look at A Short History of Prices, Inflation since the Founding of the U.S.
https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/regional-economist/second-quar
ter-2017/a-short-history-of-prices-inflation-since-founding-of-us
Signym, inflation is not "something that is NOT CAPITALISM". Inflation and Deflation have always been part of capitalism.
You keep referencing books and articles that you haven't even read, and concepts you don't understand.
Inflation is "Too much money chasing too few goods".
If there are "too few goods" .... not enough bread, or eggs, or toilet paper... what you have is a shortage. In worse case, a famine.
But once "money" comes into the picture, and it can be debased at will (including through coin clipping, counterfeiting, debt creation and fiat/electronic currency) inflation becomes a possibility. There was inflation in Imperial Rome. There was inflation in the Spanish empire, thanks to their habit of stealing gold from the New World to increase their coffers, but not investing to increase production. There was inflation in monarchical England ( https://britanniacoincompany.com/blog/coin-clipping-the-great-recoinag
e-of-1696/) and France.
Quote:
SECOND: Signym, you appreciate the virtues of a market economy and the power of the invisible hand.
No I appreciate the value of the Invisible Hand as a rationalization for unbridled greed.
BTW, "inflation" and "recession" are NOT opposites of each other. More concepts that you don't understand.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake
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Quote:You latched onto explanations as if you are talking about laws of physics when most of economics is the psychology of humans. It is as if you have never seen panicky people desperately outbidding one another for some commodity or, on the flip side, panicky people canceling orders because they suddenly feel poor. Probably you cannot see that economics is not at all like physics because you are that panicky person, not the stone-cold person watching your fearful behavior while they are testing to measure the highest price you will pay for a commodity. The testing consists of raising prices and measuring how much is sold.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Inflation is "Too much money chasing too few goods".
Signym, you would probably understand inflation better if you watch the price of natural gas skyrocket all over the world because the EU was fearful of what Russia was going to do. Here is a simpler commodity that doesn't fluctuate in price minute by minute. The prices only change at monthly intervals.
Inflation in action! The F-150 Lightning sells faster and faster as the price rises higher and higher, which means there will be even more price increases in the future until Ford discovers the highest price its customers will tolerate. If Ford gets too greedy, or customers start feeling fearful because the interest rate on their bank auto loan is too high, sales will collapse. When that happens, Ford offers price discounts and/or low-interest rate loans from Ford Credit.
The Ford F-150 Lightning Pro electric pickup truck is now 40% more expensive than it was when Ford officially started taking orders for it in January 2022. The vehicle went from $40,000 at launch to $47,000 in August and then $52,000 in October. The base Pro model is now $55,974.
Why can Ford keep raising prices? Because the F-150 Lightning price hikes don't seem to be deterring customers. Sales have increased throughout the year as more and more customers receive their pre-orders and rave reviews roll in, including a PCMag Editors' Choice award. Ford recently added a third shift at its Michigan plant in a bid to increase production capacity significantly next year, CNBC reports.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/ford-raises-price-on-f-150-lightning-ev-pic
kup-truck-for-third-time-in
Ford had originally planned to build about 40,000 Lightnings per year, in a new facility adjacent to its longtime pickup factory in Dearborn. But it decided to expand the factory to boost production after early demand for the electric truck exceeded its expectations. Ford is expanding the newly built facility to hit a top capacity of 150,000 units by next fall. The third shift was added in November, bumping up the electric truck plant’s employment from 500 to roughly 750 people. (That is less than 10 manhours of work per truck)
The plant is now running three rotating crews of workers on 10-hour shifts seven days a week, maintaining a high level of production even as construction workers scramble to complete an expansion of the facility.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/13/ford-moves-to-boost-production-of-elec
tric-f-150-lightning-pickup-truck.html
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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I'm going to be laughing at all of you regretting that Lightning purchase.
Have fun loading up that bed that wasn't meant to carry anything.
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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
I looked at my utility bill for last month. Had 2 different rates for Natural Gas.
Natural Gas cost was 0.52130 for 6 of the 30 days, and 1.14020 for 24 of the 30 days.
That's actually typical of the natural gas bills. Not the insane prices, but splitting them up based off of how many days into the month your billing cycle is. I assume it's because of monthly contracts. Bills in Indiana and Illinois are split like this too.
You're doing better than my old man in Illinois is. He was 62 cents in September and $1.31 in October.
Here in Indiana I was 24 cents in September and 56 cents in October.
Yeah... I'm much lower than both of you, but 56 cents is FAR more than I've ever paid before and it's only supposed to go up for everyone.
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Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus
We creeped up over 62 cents for December. If memory serves it was 64 cents.
This cold snap isn't going to help either, but I'm sure that I'll be WAY below the "efficient" neighbors when I get my energy report next month.
I just got mine for October/November and I was 28% less than the efficient neighbors. Now, with a huge swing down in temps and me keeping it as low as possible without worrying about pipes freezing it might actually end up being as much as 40% less than the ENs... Which is something I didn't think would be possible before.
58 degrees is what it's been set at all day while I could monitor it, down from the 60 I turned it to last night before I went to sleep. By tomorrow afternoon when we're solidly back in positive temps it will go back to 56 degrees.
I had it up to 60 most of last month when it wasn't super cold, and that got me the 28% less than stat. But after my monthly bill was $11 higher than the same month last year and that it means that I've now paid them $4 more than last year, down to 56 it will stay as long as there is no pipe freezing to worry about.
They will not win.
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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
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CNN: It’s freezing. Cranking up the heat is going to cost you
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/22/business/heating-expenses-winter-storm
Quote:
The average cost of home heating is projected to jump increase by 17.2% from last winter to $1,208, according to a November report from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association.
The cost to heat homes is expected to be 35.7% higher this winter than the 2020-2021 winter, the report said.
More than 100 million people across the United States are under winter weather and wind chill alerts. The National Weather Service is describing it as a “once-in-a-generation type event.”
The spike comes as prices for natural gas – the most popular way to heat homes in America – have surged. Electricity prices have also climbed sharply.
Not me. I'm only down $4 so far this winter over last year, and the nice warm temps next week are going to make up for the cold snap this week.
NYP: The pain isn’t goin’ away: Inflation cost households an extra $10K
https://nypost.com/2022/12/22/the-pain-isnt-goin-away-inflation-cost-h
ouseholds-an-extra-10k/
Quote:
$10K household woe
Finally, even normalizing the inflation rate does not cancel the price hikes of the past two years. Since President Biden took office, the cumulative 13.8% inflation is roughly 10% higher than the baseline rate. This has cost the typical household approximately $10,000 over two years.
Those household costs will continue rising even if the inflation rate normalizes. That is because this recent extra 10% inflation will remain embedded in prices moving forward. Inflation rates may return to 2% or 3%, but they will be applied to a permanently elevated price level. And with wage growth notably slower than price growth over the past two years — producing the steepest decline in real wages in decades — most families will remain behind.
In the meantime, families are heading into a holiday season with one-year price surges of 10.6% for food, 13.1% for energy (including gasoline) and 14.2% for transportation services. The new inflation report is welcome news, but it’s a small battle in a painful, extended war.
Not me. All of my expenses are done for the year and I'm only up about $1k from last year. More than half of that was car repairs I didn't have last year. Last year wasn't any more expensive than the previous year since I made other cuts to offset the higher gas prices.
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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
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Thermostat safely back down to 56 with no worries of pipes freezing anymore.
A toasty 4 degrees positive outside with a high of 11 on the way today. Wind Chill will drop to -11 at the warmest point, which will more or less be repeated on Christmas day, giving way to a high in the low to mid 20's on Monday, 30's on Tuesday, and then about a week of highs in the high 40's and 50's.
I plan to drop the thermostat back down to 53 once it's in the 40s/50s again to make up for the excess during this cold snap.
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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
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Back in 1965, $1 million would buy you almost 50 median-priced houses at $20,200 each.
Today you can buy two at $454,900 each if you're lucky enough to live in a median place.
Put a different way, for a 1965 millionaire an average house would amount to only a paltry 2% of his assets. For today's sham millionaires it's half their total wealth.
https://jabberwocking.com/whats-it-like-to-have-1-million-dr-evil/
Median Sales Price of Houses Sold for the United States (MSPUS)
Observation: Q3 2022: $454,900
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=Ybyr
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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OK, Apologist.
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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
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Quote:Inflation in the bigger world works the same as inflation of a single house's price. The seller will mow the lawn, edge the weeds taking over the driveway and flower beds, replace some rotten wood and slap a coat of paint on everything then ask 100% or 200% more than the seller paid. Some gullible buyer then pays the inflated price. That is how houses went from a median price of $20,000 in 1965 to $450,000 in the 3rd quarter of 2022. That is also how millions of different items' prices inflated by 100% since the last time you bought one. Sellers raise prices not because they must but because buyers will find a way to either pay or do without, to the everlasting benefit of sellers who control the transactions. It's always better to be a seller than a buyer because sellers have more control. Sadly, most people have nothing to sell for years, until they sell that house at a hugely inflated price and get a single taste of what it is like for the top 1% every working day of the year.
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
OK, Apologist.
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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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