remember when things use to be cheap just a few short years ago

pre- 911 gas was $1 and i remember them saying the new building would be done by 2009

a 27" tv was considered big and cost a few $100 now buying a good tv cost $1000 + and i didnt have to pay extra monthly $$ for having cable boxes as the line was cable ready

you could get good lights like fenix lumapower terralux stuff etc for $30-40 and now its $50-150 , we all complained of high price surefires and now the fenix has a $150 light but yes surefire inflated along too so its offset, but in perspective back in the day i never thought of paying 150 on a fenix

cigarretes were $2-4 a pack now they are $7-8

mass transit "trains & buses" were $1 now its $2 and possible raise in near future

it feels like everything is going up except my paycheck

Most electronic items have come down in cost, if you look at a fixed capability (e.g. a 27" TV then and now). Sure, the best of the best items may cost more, but here you're using a moving standard.

For flashlights, consider the Arc LS sold in 2003, versus the Fenix P1D Q5 now. The newer light is vastly brighter, has more functions, and costs half of what the older one did.

It`s not toy`s that worry me. It`s main staples. My electric company just raised thier rates last month (Tampa electric co.).. My water company raised their rates a few months ago. Steak...I love beef...can`t afford it anymore. Changes in housing codes mean that when I need to replace my roof it will cost 1/3 more than a year ago. Gas slowly seems to be on the rise again.

Meanwhile I`ve lost plenty of "wealth" in the economic downturn.

Maybe I should head to Mexico where I might be able to stay alive. Not sure if they will let us imigrate there much longer...might not want us. :mecry:Guess it doesn`t matter...wouldn`t be able to sell my house anyhow.

qip said:

you could get good lights like fenix lumapower terralux stuff etc for $30-40 and now its $50-150 , we all complained of high price surefires and now the fenix has a $150 light but yes surefire inflated along too so its offset, but in perspective back in the day i never thought of paying 150 on a fenix

Click to expand...

Are you kidding?

A few years ago; I paid $80 for a Longbow Micra that put out a paltry @20 lumens! Then I paid $60 for a Inova XO3 that put out a shockingly low 42 lumens! Both lights had one mode and took expensive CR123A batteries. No rechargeable options existed. Runtimes were 1-2 hours on the ONE mode available.

Last November I bought a Fenix L2D for $60. It has five modes, runtimes from 2-10 hours and is signficantly brighter than any LED light I could have bought "a few years ago." It also takes cheap AA NiMH rechargeable Sanyos that don't self-discharge at any significant rate.

You can focus on the negatives of the present, or you can change perspective and see how good things actually are compared to a few years ago. Fenix may have a $150 light but they also have $50 lights that blow away the old stuff.

Badbeams3 said:

Maybe I should head to Mexico where I might be able to stay alive. Not sure if they will let us imigrate there much longer...might not want us. :mecry:Guess it doesn`t matter...wouldn`t be able to sell my house anyhow.

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Can't stop laughing at that comment. I was in Mexico recently. You aren't going to stay alive down there for long. I saw the Federalies' building in La Mision that was shot about 30 times by a drug cartel. All the bullet holes had been patched. I drove along the "freeway" that was a toll road, and even that seemed dangerous. If you veer off the road, you end up in a deep ditch, wedged against a cliff face, before a large boulder falls on your car, crushing you to death. This can easily happen trying to avoid one of the many crazy drivers. The roads are lined with crosses of people who have died in car accidents. Try drinking the water or have ice in your drink and you'll be in a hospital for 5 or 6 months, if you survive.

No matter how bad it is where you live, there's always somewhere else that has it worse. Don't judge a place simply by how cheap it is to live there. If you buy a home in Mexico, the government can take it away anytime they want. You basically have to be a Mexican citizen to have the right to buy and keep property. What you pay more for in the states is probably cheaper than what you'll pay in Mexico in the long run. Many of the freeways are toll roads. You have to buy all bottled water. "Property" goes to the water level, not the 100 year flood plain. Building construction isn't as safe. Health codes for handling food are nonexistent. Government services such as firefighters, police (that help you), and medical services are lacking. You can't even flush toilet paper without the toilet clogging (smaller plumbing pipes).

You're certainly not living in the part of US where I live. let me guess, you're living in southern state like Georgia?

Yeah, actually I miss the day when a gallon of gas were $1.29. (they sell it at $0.99 at atlanta at the time) The gas back then and the gas right now is the same thing, only the price hiked up. That's a pain.

But, in case of electronics like TV, its not the same thing. I think its so much better than that of pre 911, and that somewhat justifies price differences.

Well... inflation, technology, time value of money stuff etc etc. It's natural thing. Our only grief would be the fact, prices of goods have gone up quite badly, but our income haven't.

well of course tv's and electronics are better than they were but at least stay in the same price range , in general it feels it got so high priced so fast....cars for example , hybrids new technology is a huge jump from a car that didnt have it back then but at least its in a reachable ballpark figure, example a 2001 camry new was like 20k , a 2009 camry hybrid is 25k...pretty reasonable ....vs a big $2-300 tv to a $1000 lcd....thats triple inflation ,though i did spend nearly 2K on my tv"xmas for me",coulda bought a used car .... thank god the camry wasnt $80k

Those 27" TVs are now littering the sidewalks in my area. Much of everything using electronics will become outdated in about three years. Even my solid and reliable GPS from three years ago is looked upon as a dinosour from a previous generation because it doesn't have the latest whistles and bells.

I also have been thinking of
moving to south America Argentina is great this time
of year I worked down there for
5 years. Loved the place. I believe my retirement will go a long ways down there. Going to fly down next month for a look see

Actually hourly wage workers have been losing ground since the 1970s. I remember at one time a father working at an average job could support a family, and in a fairly decent manner. Nowadays both spouses have to work. Even then things are often tight. The only reason people were able to buy extras, at least for a while, was due to cashing out the equity in their homes which were rising way faster than inflation due to speculators, cheap loans, etc. Those days are over. Housing is now in the process of correcting itself to where it would have been without the external influences I mentioned. It will probably never rise at more than the rate of inflation again. That leaves salaries as the sole source of income for most people. This is why they're hurting. Salaries aren't adequate. They weren't adequate for a long time, but all sorts of easy credit made up the difference. IMHO easy credit was a bad thing. It kept pay rates artificially low by providing another source of income. It also caused people to spend more than they made. Now things are finally being normalized. What you spend will have to be no more than what you earn. It's painful, but it had to happen. Long term I suspect either pay rates will rise, or the prices of a lot of commodities will fall. If not, then the economy will continue to tank as people simply won't be able to afford to buy things.

On another note, people have come to expect more material things in their lives. Since the price of a lot of these "extras" has gone up, even if they are indeed better than what existed years ago, this reinforces the perception that things used to be cheap. Years ago people had one TV and were happy. A traveling vacation was something you did a few times in your life, not several times a year. And many didn't even own cars, yet nowadays virtually everyone outside of a few large cities has one. Even in cities like New York, where car ownership is definitely not even remotely necessary for most, many choose to own a car. A car is a huge expense. Owning one leaves lot less cash for other things. So when these other things go up in price, you feel squeezed. But look at the prices of a lot of things nowadays relative to comparable items from years ago. Our 1978 refrigerator cost about $400. That's probably about $1800 in today's money. $1800 these days will get you a huge refrigerator with digital controls, ice and cold water, stainless steel exterior. A basic model similar to the one we bought can be had for about $400. This is a fraction of what such an item used to cost in real dollars. Ditto for air conditioners. 15 years ago a decent small one ran about $300. Now you can get one with digital controls for about $100. Less in actual dollars, even less in real dollars. Same with lots of our other toys. A 27" TV might have run you about $300 ten years ago (the $100 models were usually either closeouts or floor models, and mainly appeared as CRTs were starting to be phased out). In today's dollars that's perhaps $500. $500 will indeed get you a much better 27" to 32" HDTV these days, and the prices are still dropping. Long term LCD TVs will likely be cheaper than their tube counterparts. And I certainly won't miss the bulk or weight of CRTs. Good riddance I say. In short, a lot things these days are a bargain. It doesn't feel that way because necessities like food and housing have risen faster than inflation, leaving less for discretionary spending. Throw a car or two into the mix and it's easy to end up broke without even buying extras. The prices of food and housing are what need to come down as both are overpriced. And it wouldn't hurt to push legislators to build more public transit so as the decrease the need for car ownership. The extra tax dollars to fund public transit are more than offset by the savings of not owning a car. But unfortunately most of the American public never learned this as it was outside their realm of experience.

bearhunter said:

I also have been thinking of
moving to south America Argentina is great this time
of year I worked down there for
5 years. Loved the place. I believe my retirement will go a long ways down there. Going to fly down next month for a look see

Click to expand...

I hear Panama is, or was affordable as well. A few years ago I was looking at realestate on the internet...I saw some condos that looked real nice...overlooking the ocean...great views. Prices were around $60,000 if I remember right. I think they had maids quaters as well...not that I could afford a maid...

The thing which best measures how cheap things used to be before versus how expensive now is gold, as in physical gold in your hand. Electronics have evolved so fast that their prices have hidden underlying economic trends.

With that, I agree with the OP. Wish I had a crystal ball back then. Could still use one now....

nerdengineer,

I bought into gold back when it was $325/oz., and kept buying into it until a few months ago. I would have stopped earlier, but it went back down towards $700, so I kept in a little longer. Now, as it goes up towards $1,000 I don't think it is such a bargain anymore, although real gold nut cases are absolutely sure it will easily hit $3,000 per oz. (which I'm personally not going to bet on!!!)

I've actually switched to buying stocks now, as I think they are undervalued as evidenced by a number of crucial indicators. Fear is driving the market right now, not rationality. When others are fearful, be greedy, as Warren Buffet says! So, many stocks are a good bargain right now, I think. (I'm currently investing in Fidelity Contra Fund, which has Apple and Google in the mix, which I like. Computers and the internet are not going away no matter what the economy does--on the contrary.)

But, more along the lines of what you are thinking, my own personal crystal ball tells me (for whatever that's worth) that SILVER is a heck of a bargain right now for a number of reasons.

1. It used to be absurdly undervalued for various reasons, and it's current price of about $13/oz looks expensive compared to that, but it's still cheap. People just don't believe it yet.

2. It is far more useful in industrial processes and thus there is a demand for it that has nothing to do with the mad rush of buying and selling and profiteering. There will continue to be a demand for it in the future, no matter what, in other words.

3. The supply of silver is far more limited than the projected future demand for it.

In my opinion (again, for whatever that's worth), silver will easily hit $100 per oz. in the next decade or two. This is an eight fold increase over its current value! (if I'm right). And more importantly, as something with intrinsic value, it is a great inflation hedge! And inflation is almost guaranteed given the course we are currently on.

I bought into silver by buying a lot of so-called "junk" silver coins for $4.35 per oz. (4 times face value). And that was just 7 or 8 years ago. Of course, I wasn't betting on my precious metal investments making huge returns. I was just concerned with getting a fundament of real value in my portfolio that couldn't disappear over night, or in a few months. The fact that I knew silver and gold were undervalued was just a huge bonus on top of that.

So, anyway . . . that's what my crystal ball tells me. Take it or leave it.

I hope your right JS I own a number of lbs of Silver purchased back when it was just over 3 bucks an ounce.

Bill

JTR's right. It's not so much the high cost of living, as the cost of high living. Saw a bumper sticker awhile back that I really liked; "Debt is normal. Be abnormal.". People will have to learn to live within their means. I hear ads on the radio for cars and the price of the vehicle isn't even announced, just the monthly payment. Such short-sighted thinking boggles my mind.

I thought the original post was amusing. I've never had a tv bigger than 13" and I've never paid more than $5 for it. Never paid for cable or satellite tv, never will. Just not worth much of anything to me. That said, I'm well aware that I've bought lots of things that other people would consider as useless as I consider tv to be.

:buddies:

To me it remains relatively stable. The areas that strike me initially are gas and some other utilities.

I paid $900 for a 27" direct view wayyy back. Now that $900 will get a modest 37-42" 1080P LCD. Certain items of quality I might prefer many years back. Even here, new technology in manufacturing it can be quite good. So it is a YMMV...

I think the cost of living is increasing every week. I do mean the staples - bread, meat, cheese, paper goods, etc.....

I do all the grocery shopping, as my wife hardly ever leaves the house any more and I have seen large increases in food and necessary non-food items. Some have risen almost 100% in the past 3 months and some only 10-20%, but on a fixed income, with no increase in that income, it's a killer. We eat very little meat any more, but even pasta and rice and dried goods are going thru the roof.

For a while everyone said "oh it's because of the gas prices", but when gas came down, everything just kept going up! We own our home and our car, but we may just loose it anyhow. Electric and Gas (not gasoline) prices shot up and we have kept from using the heat/AC and the bills are still much higher than they were last year. When you reach "that age" you shouldn't have to worry, but who can predict that 10-20 years in the future, your "retirement" won't be worth a thing because prices have gone up so much.

I don't see it getting better soon either. It seems to get worse every day.

I mean, we don't buy anything. We don't use phones, or TV and the internet connection for $20 a month is our only means communication any more. Hard to drop anything else off the budget except stop eating....

If I didn't make a little off each sale here, I wouldn't be doing this any more either. That's why I don't keep any of my lights....

But hey, I woke up today and that gives me an opportunity to complain for one more day.:thumbsup:

I rememebr when gas broke the 1$ mark in the 90's, it was before 9/11, I don't know why the Op wants to try and blame 9/11 but it was before then.

Hey I remember when stuff was cheap, but I also remember when my salary straight out of engineering collage was a quarter of what it is today.

Engineering jobs seem to keep up or beat inflation :thumbsup: