Which is it? Personally, I’ve never agreed with the governments manipulative way of calculating inflation. Inflation should be reflective of costs of good people use to live. Food, beverages, utility bills, auto and gas costs, housing costs, etc. Those numbers would be too frightening for the public, so the government likes to use the costs of running a business, setting up a home office with a computer, etc. My family can’t survive by way of a computer. We need food and housing.The main principle of inflation is that prices go up and your dollar buys less.
Every day I go the store and the prices have up. The apple juice I buy for the kids was $7 per gallon last year. It is now $10. The milk and other dairy products have gone up over 30%. Bread and grains, fruits and vegetables have also gone up well over 30%. Some have doubled in cost. Unfortunately, the average workers wage has not gone up over the last 8 years, and savings have dropped over 30%. Are we there yet? I’d say so.
Deflation is a general decline in prices. Yes, my ipod is less money, but again, this matters little when you can’t afford to buy one because the cost of goods and services is too high. There is certainly deflation in the real estate bubble with housing prices going down. Unfortunately people are still paying for the inflated value they bought at or built at. The decreased money supply and credit would set the stage for deflation, but it’s important to me the prices that drop are for products used to sustain families.
Deflation is also defined by decreased goverment spending, and with that there is certainly no end in site. When we get raised (inflated) taxes, the government intends to spend more, even though it can’t manage what it does spend. It appears that we are headed for a depression because it is very likely unemployment is increasing and businesses will be closing. The goverment will have a very difficult time increasing the money supply and the increased cost of goods is not in areas where it benefits the job market.
Its quite a pickle because we have both sides next to each other. Increased money supply is what the current administration has been doing for years, hence the devaluation of our currency. It depends on which economic policy you believe in when you try to figure out what will work. That will be the dilemna of the next president and advisors. As it is, the spending has been increasing so much in government on everything from salaries (goverment employees get paid 2x that of private employees–why do you think government is expanding so quickly), to pet programs, etc. There is no need for all the agencies and their spending arms.
Sometimes I feel like we are in hyperinflation, where prices are shooting up over night. This can lead to a break down in the monetary system and we may be looking down that track. Right now it seems we are trying to stay away from stagflation, which will see a rise in unemployment and further inflation. Unemployment will grow if businesses can’t get loans or liquidity to buy and sell products. Businesses will close, lay off more workers, etc. Right now it’s easy to look at the auto industry. Few people can pay cash for cars, but right now there are few car loans or even leases happening….less autos made, more layoffs, etc. And that’s just one industry.
Perhaps I’m too doom and gloom. Something has got to change and I can see why people are willing to take significant risks with a preseidential candidate just to get away from this past boondoggle!
Government is not the only source of waste. We are also the source of waste, namely, gas. Why Vans or SUV’s if you don’t have more than 5 people to transport most of the time? Buying big for personal ego reasoning, and burn off those gas that is otherwise completely unnecessary. One must think that most people are in fact stupid, and should do plenty of research on long term effects before being one of the stupid groupie. Those soccer mom days are over, just how many soccer ball do you carry in that soccer mom’s SUV?
Do I just love to see all those privately owned trucks and SUV’s and van for sell all over the street, and no one would even want to pay half price for them now. Closing of car dealerships who couldn’t sell one more SUV? Loving it. Platinum pricing went way down because of the lack of new car order, excellent. We all did it to ourselves without me playing out any part of it, and that get to show that there are those everyday out there who doesn’t desire the rescue either. If you wasted your money on stupid things back then, of course you have less than what I have now.
Well yes and no. And gas has very little to do with the waste. The waste is how money is assigned and what it’s paying for. Padding every expnse and making it cost 2x or 3x as much as it should in the open market is waste. Padding salaries, wages, pork programs that suit agendas, that’s waste.
Buying water in plastic bottles…that’s waste too. Buying pre-made food, that’s waste. Most people drive mini vans becasue they need them. The jury is out on SUVs, though, with 4 kids and two dogs, you know I have one, although I try to drive it as little as possible.
And BTW, just try to get a car loan or lease right now….not good news for the economy, so don’t gloat over it. Just because you have two kids or one, doesn’t mean less fot those who have more kids. Don’t forget, they’re doing the work for those city slickers who are too self centered to do the work of providing responsible replacements for themselves on the planet!
We all have to take responsibility for ourselves and others as it turns out. It’s a trade off. You can take multiple trips to the grocery store, pick up kids or just one with a larger car..which s more efficient? Just firgure it out. There is never a need to be smug and antagonistic to people who’s kids play soccer or whatever sport. To each his/her own. I can’t wait to get a smaller car…..soon! But for now, basic understanidng and compassion is more powerful , than the other.
Yes, SUV was a bad idea, and now you have to deal with it. Nevermind about a car loan, no one would take your SUV even with a loan to begin with. I see them parked everywhere with a for sale sign. If you are not using it, and manage to get around and get by, seems like you didn’t need it to begin with.
No, it wasn’t a bad idea at all. I’ve used it more than it’s worth with driving kids, moving furniture (do you have any idea of delivery or moving costs?), and picking up lumber etc for building my house. It paid for itself in the first year and half if I had to pay cash to someone else to do all of the things I used it for.
It pays for itself every time we go camping or anywhere where we’d have to take two cars (since you’d have to cut you mileage in half driving two cars).
I like to walk and I like to plan, so, yes, I drive it as little as possible. Personally I find it inefficient to make multiple trips back and forth to the grocery store every day or up to an area that’s 20 miles away for one thing then drive the same direction the next day for something else. I’d say it’s hard to judge others based on where you live since you have more public transit where you are.
There are fuel efficient cars that could take ALL of you to places without taking all that excessive metal with you. SUV is no more than a symbol of control and self reassurance when one doesn’t has it inside. When you cannot find a parking spot that fits, you would then realize that your life is not in your hands but in the mercy of other SUV or larger verticals.
You are a fool as I thought. You not only think 6 people will fit into a Prius, you think it’s an environmentally friendly car. You think a mini van is an SUV, and you fail to see that people use their vehicles for their jobs, or their businesses.
You think $250k is a lot of money and you think the government is smarter than you and can spend your money more effectively than you can. You also think you will see some benefit from demotivating people who start businesses by telling them how much of their hard-earned money they can keep. You truly are a fool, because your benefit will not be worth the money taken.
I look not only at what a person says, but even more at what they do and who they associate with, to understand their personality and intentions. You and many in America have been fooled in your desperation to get away from our current president (who is leaving office regardless of the mess he helped create with the rest of both parties in Washington).
Neither candidate is in a good position right now with the issues they face, and frankly I’m disappointed with the two choices we’ve ended up with–but that too was a political strategy. I’m neither republican nor democrat, and I’m certainly no fool.
With increased taxes on those who employ people there will be fewer jobs. Go back to your history and economics books and you will get a taste for the depression that may soon follow these actions in this environment. And kiss your kids’ job opportunities good-bye while you’re at it.
And please don’t write in here anymore. I can’t waste any more of my time with your small minded foolishness. If you think you really like socialism or worse, try living in Chile or France or any other country for that matter and then ask yourself why people from every country try to come here for work and life? Then ask those who have managed to come here if they will go back to their own country, and try to understand their answers when they say no. Look at their employment and innovations….I digress and I’ve got more important things to write that will benefit people’s lives and their families lives rather than have this. And BTW, the people who make the most money in this country pay less than 20% in taxes and the 95% number is false.
Remember this:
Money Goes Where it is Treated Well.