Things are expensive

[Aaron_W]

My grandparents were both farmers. My dad's were Portuguese dairymen, and my mom's an Okie row cropper in Dos Palos. They did ok because compared to the Depression and the Dust Bowl everything else was a breeze. Talk about tough, my Okie grandpa hopped a freight car to CA during the Dust Bowl. You never wanted to complain to him about how hard work was. He'd just give you that stare that would loosen your bowels and tell you how lucky you were to have a job. I learned self reliance and not tossing stuff from them.

My Great Grandfather on my Dad's side came to California from Oklahoma during the Dustbowl years. He was what today would probably be referred to as a Coyote. He got a job delivering a bunch of new Buicks to California, so rounded up friends and family to drive the cars, then brought the cars to California packed with people. If you've seen the Grapes of Wrath in the 1930s Dust Bowl residents were looked on much as those south of the border are today, so rolling into the state in new Buicks instead of Beverly Hillbillies style got them past roadblocks trying to keep the Okies out.

Without falling into a political quagmire, it is also important to acknowledge that energy, and oil are controlled by by relatively few large companies and organizations, including a cartel. Cartels, and big players tend to make their own rules, because they can. Yes, they can be influenced by world events like everyone else, but they can also manipulate supply for their own benefit. This is different from many other businesses.

This is a problem with most everything. A handful of companies in each industry dominate so there is little real competition and any disruption in production from one of these corporations results in massive supply disruptions as seen with the baby formula fiasco, where there are only three major producers in the US.

 

[C-Bag]

For me the mechanic in me is always trying to figure out how something works. Often things are obscured by technical terms and then the added taboos of seen as political and it seems to add to the “don’t look at that guy behind the curtain “ type of world we live in. Then add to that the recent ultimate bugaboo, conspiracy theory. I’ve always hated politics and economics so was handicapped.

Now mods don’t worry, I’m not going to go to the dark side and start slinging muck.

But it’s gotten even harder to understand as there are just so many “truth” merchants out there. I try and take in as many sober views as possible without falling into the black hole that it takes to be “certain“ these days. So I appreciate how this thread has gone so far. Jus’ sayin.

 

[Aaron_W]

The other day I stopped at our local station because premium was about $0.20 a gallon less than the Chevron a couple blicks away. And, the local guy pumps the gas. I told him there were two things I never thought I would say: First is “Gas is six dollars a gallon!” Second is “And that’s a great price!”

Yeah, I was pretty stoked last week when gas at Costco was down to $5.87 from $6.17 the week before. So thankful that I get paid mileage when I work.

 

[Aaron_W]

For me the mechanic in me is always trying to figure out how something works. Often things are obscured by technical terms and then the added taboos of seen as political and it seems to add to the “don’t look at that guy behind the curtain “ type of world we live in. Then add to that the recent ultimate bugaboo, conspiracy theory. I’ve always hated politics and economics so was handicapped.

Now mods don’t worry, I’m not going to go to the dark side and start slinging muck.

But it’s gotten even harder to understand as there are just so many “truth” merchants out there. I try and take in as many sober views as possible without falling into the black hole that it takes to be “certain“ these days. So I appreciate how this thread has gone so far. Jus’ sayin.

I'm not sure how the conspiracy theorists are making it today with the cost of aluminum foil.

 

[WobblyHand]

For me the mechanic in me is always trying to figure out how something works. Often things are obscured by technical terms and then the added taboos of seen as political and it seems to add to the “don’t look at that guy behind the curtain “ type of world we live in. Then add to that the recent ultimate bugaboo, conspiracy theory. I’ve always hated politics and economics so was handicapped.

Now mods don’t worry, I’m not going to go to the dark side and start slinging muck.

But it’s gotten even harder to understand as there are just so many “truth” merchants out there. I try and take in as many sober views as possible without falling into the black hole that it takes to be “certain“ these days. So I appreciate how this thread has gone so far. Jus’ sayin.

I'm not jumping in, nor turning to the dark side either. I appreciate your comments. It's tough these days. Seems like "we" are being manipulated, in various ways. Wish it weren't so. But, can't say this is a new phenomonon either. Market manipulation has been rather common over the years, decades, centuries, millennia...

 

[jeffkash]

Yeah, I was pretty stoked last week when gas at Costco was down to $5.87 from $6.17 the week before. So thankful that I get paid mileage when I work.

Got gas at Costco this morning in Woodstock, GA $3.99 a gallon for regular!

 

[Beckerkumm]

Farm input costs are 20-30% higher this year ( I do a lot of accounting for farmers ) so food prices will not go down soon. The economy is energy based so inflation will stay for an extended period as well. It is easy to blame corporations for being greedy and forget many were losing money in 2020 and into 2021. If I sold Widjets at a loss in 2020 and they were now in short supply, I would not sell them for less than the market would bear, particularly if the government told me they were going to replace my widjets with something else as soon as possible and erode the value of my investment. Historically, inflation is cured with a recession so don't expect an easy fix. Dave

 

[woodchucker]

it's all related to greed. Talk to the oil companies. They are the beginning of the problem.
Not the only problem, but a super large part. Look at their profits. They on the other hand are telling you to look elsewhere, there's nothing here. This is politically motivated and greed motivated.

 

[woodchucker]

Got gas at Costco this morning in Woodstock, GA $3.99 a gallon for regular!

NJ just allowed Costco to pull out of the general gas pool. In NJ up until 2 weeks ago, you could not have a company privately selling to a smaller group. Costco asked to be exempt and they allowed them. so for us gas shot up quite a bit. they were cheaper than everyone else. That's how our state legislators work to protect the people.. They screw them over.

 

[matthewsx]

Here's how I get save money on commuting, company test rider program. Never needs gas ever, if I need to top up it just uses that little grey cable on the table in front of it. Otherwise I just plug it in when I drop it off in the morning at prototype & test.



John