What Happened to Prices ?

[AtomicNo13]

Just imagine what 10 napkins cost! That's why a hamburger now costs $7... absurd!

Do you ever say out loud what something costs? To me it always seems different out loud..... holy crap.... this 2014 Airstream costs $102000 !!!!
I bought my PanAmerica new for around $60k and my Excella mostly never used for mid $20k.... for that I suppose I can afford top shelf hamburgers.
I have to admit I am feeling old and stuck in the past... everything is so expensive, lackluster quality, and generally disposable.

[Pick]

I remember buying a new Chevy pickup in 1973 for $3500. Payments were $97 for 3 years. You could also get a burger, fries and a coke, for under a dollar at the golden arches.

[Ag&Au]

There is one thing you cannot dispute. Every living person on this earth is getting older up until the second they die. From that point on, they not only stop getting older, they also stop complaining about the price of everything.

Therefore it is only logical to conclude that getting older is the cause of the whole inflation problem.


Ken

[robwok]

before you start complaining too much, you may want to pull up the average salaries back when burgers were .19 cents.

I make 5 times what I did 20 years ago, and I'm glad for that increase, though the job I did 20 years ago only pays 50% more.

[ALANSD]

I agree with robwok. When I started as teacher in 1975, my annual pay was 9000. My rent was 125 a month, and i drove a 500 car.
Things change...prices go up, incomes go up all that is relative. With Airstreams the vintage ones are going up more and more as they gain in popularity. The bargains are fewer and farther in between.
Its like the barn find cars,,,not many barns left to explore.

[Belbein]

Originally Posted by AtomicNo13

everything is so expensive, lackluster quality, and generally disposable.

I think you forgot to add, "Except Airstreams," right?

[Belbein]

Originally Posted by Ag&Au

There is one thing you cannot dispute. Every living person on this earth is getting older up until the second they die. From that point on, they not only stop getting older, they also stop complaining about the price of everything.

Therefore it is only logical to conclude that getting older is the cause of the whole inflation problem.


Ken

Is that kind'a like my theory that bifocals cause gravity to increase? Because about the time I got my bifocals, I found it a lot harder to get up off the floor. (Don't get me started on trifocals!)

[Ag&Au]

Originally Posted by Belbein

Is that kind'a like my theory that bifocals cause gravity to increase? Because about the time I got my bifocals, I found it a lot harder to get up off the floor. (Don't get me started on trifocals!)

That's totally true.

You will remember that before you got bifocals, everything you saw was slightly fuzzy. This is because it was less dense. Just as fuzzy cotton candy is fuzzier and less dense than the sugar that it is made from.

Your bifocals focused the available light and other energy in your vicinity. This concentrated focused light and energy caused the fuzzy shrouds to melt back into their original sources. In a very short time all fuzziness was eliminated and the fuzziness's mass was absorbed into and combined with the earth's mass. This increased the earth's total mass and obviously therefor it's gravitational force.

Had your bifocals been much stronger, you might be still be struggling to get up, unable to reach escape velocity.

Had you gotten trifocals, you would right now be lying on the floor unable to get the moon lifted off from on top of you.

Ken

[graysailor]

In 1967 I bought a new Corvette. $4800.00 out the door. Can't recall what the payments were but essentially gave it away in '70 for $2000.00. Could not afford the insurance.

[Mexray]

In a recent video interview, Bob Wheeler (AS CEO) said AS is increasing marketing effort toward luxury buyers with exposure in more places than traditional RV venues...in as much saying that AS's elevated pricing has limited it's sales with traditional RV buyers...

AS's can't build enough of em' currently to match demand...Raising prices is taking advantage of this market - profit while you can...!

[cdmagda]

Originally Posted by Foiled Again

Yes, but consider this: I went through a fast food drive-thru where in 2007 I used to get a 3 piece chicken dinner with two sides and a small soft drink for $5.50. Today the same thing cost $8.75. Local prepared food tax went up from 8% to 11% in that time, the rest is mostly accounted for in increases to wages - for the suppliers of the food, transporters, deliverers, and cooks and servers. The corporate franchisers are also raking it in too.

Moral - inflation isn't a mild benign thing... and we're on our way to post WWI German inflation if we just keep raising the debt and funding ever more grandiose government programs with non-existant income.

Paula

I like older, basic vehicles, I just rebuild the drive train when needed. Yea, I agree with you on that grandiose government program, the Military Industrial Complex is killing us...makes the rest of government spending paltry by comparison.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by cdmagda

Yea, I agree with you on that grandiose government program, the Military Industrial Complex is killing us...makes the rest of government spending paltry by comparison.

That sure came out of the blue! No one on any prior post on this thread mentioned the Military Industrial Complex, only "grandiose government programs."

So what are the gradiose government programs, really? You would be surprised. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the breakdown of the Federal budget in 2012 went like this:
22% Social Security, which I'm sure a significant fraction of Airstream owners draw.
21% Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Again, many Airstream owners benefit from this.
19% Defense and "International Security Assistance"— i.e. what in the days of Woodrow Wilson would have been called "Foreign Adventurism." But I'm one to talk, since I work for DoD.
12% so-called "Safety Net Programs" such as the oxymoronic Earned Income Tax Credit for people who earn just enough income to not qualify for direct handouts.
7% Benefits for Federal Retirees and Veterans. Which will include me starting next year. Interestingly enough, the old Civil Service Retirement System, which I still fall under, is self-sustaining, the way Social Security was pre-Nixon. Most of this 7% goes to veterans, and I don't begrudge that.
6% Interest on the national debt
3% Transportation infrastructure. Waterways, highways, rail, air.
2% science and medical research. Which happens to include NASA under the "science" part, by the way.
1% International humanitarian aid such as earthquake and tsunami relief.
7% everything else
Not meant as a political statement, just a bunch of statistics, to hopefully defuse a previous political statement.

[jcanavera]

As far as I'm concerned, the real sticker shock is the sales tax burden over the years. In some cases dependent upon what you are buying and at what location in our metro area, the burden is quite noticeable. For example visit an eating establishment in downtown St. Louis and be prepared to see almost 11% to be added on for sales taxes. Buy any kind of motor vehicle, boat, or towable and be prepared to write a check for 7%+ for sales tax at registration time.


Jack

[Skater]

I want a truck with all of the bells and whistles. We love our Lariat, aside from the lack of seat heaters (and its annoying tendency to blow coolant...but we may have that fixed).

I'm on vacation. I want to be comfortable. I want to drive a vehicle I enjoy driving, because I'm going to be spending much of my most precious time (vacation!) in it. Why should I have to suffer with a vehicle that has few comfort features while I'm on vacation? (Clearly, I'm pretty picky about cars.)

That said, $55K is a LOT to spend on a vehicle, especially when our current truck accumulated less than 20,000 miles over 2.5 years. We bought our truck used for a lot less. We'll go new, but we may lease the next one if it's significantly cheaper to do that. For now, we plan to keep ours for at least another 7 or 8 years (and add seat heaters).

[blmitch5]

Here is an article about Airstreams record sales growth. It was said earlier but supply and demand is everything.

http://info.airstream.com/stories/bi...ontent=4024837

[eubank]

I get the feeling that this is supply/demand with a twist. Airstream seems to have oriented itself to appeal to niche-market status involving high quality and historical status, and part of that business plan included raising prices above merely keeping up with inflation. The plan has worked out very, very well for them, and I congratulate them for their success!

Of course, I'm speculating about their business plan, but my gut-feel hunch is that I'm right about it. And given the success of this presumed business plan, would anybody reasonably expect them to lower their prices? Not on your life!


Lynn

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by eubank

Of course, I'm speculating about their business plan, but my gut-feel hunch is that I'm right about it. And given the success of this presumed business plan, would anybody reasonably expect them to lower their prices? Not on your life!

It's a reasonable speculation, as it allows Airstream to avoid competing with other THOR brands that fill other niches. It would be bad business for Airstream to compete with THOR's other travel trailers such as Coleman for the same market share.

It's the same philosophy that General Motors uses to justify keeping Cadillac as a separate marque from Chevrolet and Buick, each marque targeting a different segment of the market. And it's one reason why Chrysler kept Dodge but got rid of Plymouth, because they both targeted the same market segment and led to internal competition where sales of one hurt sales of the other.

[cdmagda]

Originally Posted by Protagonist

That sure came out of the blue! No one on any prior post on this thread mentioned the Military Industrial Complex, only "grandiose government programs."

So what are the gradiose government programs, really? You would be surprised. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the breakdown of the Federal budget in 2012 went like this:
22% Social Security, which I'm sure a significant fraction of Airstream owners draw.
21% Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Again, many Airstream owners benefit from this.
19% Defense and "International Security Assistance"— i.e. what in the days of Woodrow Wilson would have been called "Foreign Adventurism." But I'm one to talk, since I work for DoD.
12% so-called "Safety Net Programs" such as the oxymoronic Earned Income Tax Credit for people who earn just enough income to not qualify for direct handouts.
7% Benefits for Federal Retirees and Veterans. Which will include me starting next year. Interestingly enough, the old Civil Service Retirement System, which I still fall under, is self-sustaining, the way Social Security was pre-Nixon. Most of this 7% goes to veterans, and I don't begrudge that.
6% Interest on the national debt
3% Transportation infrastructure. Waterways, highways, rail, air.
2% science and medical research. Which happens to include NASA under the "science" part, by the way.
1% International humanitarian aid such as earthquake and tsunami relief.
7% everything else
Not meant as a political statement, just a bunch of statistics, to hopefully defuse a previous political statement.

If I could afford it, the Toyota Land Cruiser would be my pick for TV. I put 289,000 mi on it before retiring the old goat.

What other " grandiouse government program" more than doubled since 2001?
Defence spending 2001: 0.37 trillion
2013: 0.82 trillion
Not meant as a political statement, just a bunch of statistics.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by cdmagda

What other " grandiouse government program" more than doubled since 2001?
Defence spending 2001: 0.37 trillion
2013: 0.82 trillion

C'est la guerre. Literally.

[Tucumcari]

Does anyone know where I can get a manual for a 25 foot Land Yacht? Please contact me.