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DJIA, Pickup Trucks, Cost of Living

Ladies and gentlemen,

The Dow closed above 21,700 yesterday. Remember in crazy 1987 when it moved up to 2700 or so, then crashed into the teens? Do you recall when trucks were mostly for farmers? Now, many a city dweller is driving a $35,000 pickup. When I was a young man $35,000 bought a nice house.

On the one hand, we function day to day, dealing with today's prices and values. But for those of us who have been around a while, I think we often shake our heads at how inflation has impacted prices. For example, at the market yesterday I saw three short ribs in a package; the sticker said $19. Crazy.

I remember when gas was twenty cents a gallon, and $3.25 an hour was a really good wage. How the heck could three little short ribs cost $19?

If you are over 55 or so, do you ever scratch your head about this stuff?

Mac
 
There are times I wonder how homes and vehicles can be so expensive, but then I think about how little folks were paid years ago. My in-laws paid just over 12k for their home on a half acre lot. Today that home is worth around 140k. However, he retired making many times more than when he purchased the home. A starting wage today is more than folks made decades ago.

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Wow cheap concert tickets. I also remember paying 75 cents to see a movie. My mom has even better stories. But I also remember paying $400 for a stereo vcr and nearly $2000 for a 50 mhz computer with a 170 mb hard drive and 4 mb of ram with a 2400 baud modem. I'm holding a far more advanced machine in my hands that's less than 10 percent of the cost
 
The cost of vehicles, particularly trucks, is ridiculous. I drive a 1999 model that is worn out and needs replaced. But the cost of a similarly equipped (not top of the line) new truck would pay off my home mortgage.

It is absurd. And don't get me started on the cost of medical care.

Wages may have gone up, but they haven't gone up that much. At least in rural impoverished areas. There is no doubt in my mind that the middle class in the US is shrinking.
 
I can remember gas under $.30 and $.25 for a pack of cigs ($2.38 a carton). Wages were crap, yet somehow my mom and step-dad were able to buy a house, afford a new Olds every 3 years and send me to a college in another State that cost $25-$28 a credit hour with a dorm cost of $500 a semester. The first new car I bought was a '66 LeMans, V8 & 4-speed, for $2700. As I remember, a '66 GTO would have run about $3,200, but I didn't have the extra cash. In '71 my wife and I sold the LeMans. Like most cars back then, it was rusting out and falling apart after 4-5 years. We bought a new Toyota Corona in '71 for about the same $2700. Unlike today, there was no problem finding jobs that paid the bills.
 
I want to know where you can get a new truck for 35K. I live out in the sticks, and the closest dealers here are charging 70 freaking thousand dollars for a dang pickup truck that will be rusted out before you ever get it paid off.

I just paid 17K for my house. Yeah it needed some work, but I've still got less than 45K in it all total!

I'm only 45, but still remember when I got out of school gas was 80 cents a gallon, and a carton of Marlborough was under 10 dollars. Today it's $2.45 and $76....
 

ouch

Stjynnkii membörd dummpsjterd
Wow cheap concert tickets.

May 1973- Leo Kottke, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Frank Zappa at the Nassau Coliseum. $8
July 1977- Pink Floyd at Madison Square Garden, 2nd row center. $10.50
 
I want to know where you can get a new truck for 35K. I live out in the sticks, and the closest dealers here are charging 70 freaking thousand dollars for a dang pickup truck that will be rusted out before you ever get it paid off.

I just paid 17K for my house. Yeah it needed some work, but I've still got less than 45K in it all total!

I'm only 45, but still remember when I got out of school gas was 80 cents a gallon, and a carton of Marlborough was under 10 dollars. Today it's $2.45 and $76....

Home price sounds good! 70k for a truck does not. There are buying services that will get you the vehicle you want at a modest price over dealer cost. You might look into that. Check Edmunds, Consumer Reports, Costco, etc.
 
I want to know where you can get a new truck for 35K. I live out in the sticks, and the closest dealers here are charging 70 freaking thousand dollars for a dang pickup truck that will be rusted out before you ever get it paid off.

I just paid 17K for my house. Yeah it needed some work, but I've still got less than 45K in it all total!

I'm only 45, but still remember when I got out of school gas was 80 cents a gallon, and a carton of Marlborough was under 10 dollars. Today it's $2.45 and $76....

I love the lather on the goggles.
 
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I want to know where you can get a new truck for 35K.

I priced a Toyota pickup in 2003 and it was over $30k. We wound up buying a '04 Honda Accord for about $25k. The Accord is still running fine, as is my wife's '05 Odyssey, but I still wish I had a pickup.

Last "big-name" concert we went to was Dylan's Rolling Thunder tour in 1976. Tickets were $8. My wife and I even took our 6 year old daughter, who had a ball singing along to the Dylan, Baez, McGuinn and Kinky Friedman songs.
 
If you priced that same 2003 Toyota pickup today, it'd probably still be hovering near $30k. Slight exaggeration there...but only slight.
 
Okay, here's another one. Haircut. The cheap chains here charge $14 to $16. Not very good. And they have help wanted signs in the window. Regular shops are $17 to $24. Got my hair cut today by a master barber. $22 with senior discount plus $3 tip. Lord have mercy.

I recall $1.50 haircuts, $2 haircuts.
 
Lots on my street around 25'x100', so called 1 1/2 storey house was just up for sale, if i could stand in the 1/2 storey it would be only in the center strip down the middle of the room, same height and width as the doorway in, i couldn't stand in the finished basement. House maybe a 20'x 30' footprint. Listed at 439k sold in a couple weeks.

Another that just sold. Fixer up, true 1 1/2 storey, holes in the wall, ceiling damage, floor damage, much much work to be done everywhere, apparently stunk to high heaven, 24'x100' lot, no driveway. Listed at 250k, again sold in a couple weeks.

We are way over value, thank you Toronto!

I've got a Rolling Stones ticket stub here, Maple Leaf Gardens Toronto, Wednesday June 18 1975 8:00PM, day of my last high school exam, Floor, Row N Seat 13 (high school went to grade 13 then), Price $9.09 + RST 0.91. My part time job in an unionized grocery store would have paid $2.50- $3.00 an hour.

dave
 
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In Michigan the places you want to live are not affordable and the places that are affordable, you don't want to live.

I hear you can buy houses in Flint darn cheap.
 
If you are over 55 or so, do you ever scratch your head about this stuff?

I'm not over 55, but my study of history showed that mild deflation was the status quo in the 18th and 19th centuries. Then things changed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It used to be a thing to talk about how expensive things were back in the day.

Inflation is great for debtors, but horrible for creditors (you are a creditor if you have cash savings). Is it any wonder that consumer and public debt are both racing away at exponential rates?
 
We have inflation; goods and services increase in price. Yet cash assets provide no real return. My bank is flogging CDs that pay 1.25 to 1.75%. Yipee.

Returns in the stock market are great-- until the next rush for the exit.
 
Okay, here's another one. Haircut. The cheap chains here charge $14 to $16. Not very good. And they have help wanted signs in the window. Regular shops are $17 to $24. Got my hair cut today by a master barber. $22 with senior discount plus $3 tip. Lord have mercy.

I recall $1.50 haircuts, $2 haircuts.

That's why I decided to go bald
 
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