Stupid, Ridiculous Prices for Stuff

[Kenomac]

A few yours back, I was on the local police list to pick up deer that had been hit by cars. It worked out nice a couple of times, up until they began calling me for deer that had obviously been dead for a while. I politely said no thanks.

[IdoraKeeper]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Thanks a64. I missed the last 12 hours of insults, so I was sad to wake up to see the thread closed. It had been interesting, and fun. Hope it can resume.

OK, here's my beef ... food. Food prices seem to be on a serious rise, at least here in Canada and also in the USA (at least where I'm travelling in the PNW). I've been unpleasantly surprised at how much basic food costs here on the Washington/Oregon coast. By my standards booze (at least basic booze) is cheap. Gas is cheap. But food costs seem to be higher here than what I'm used to coming from the Canadian north.

Mike, Glad to see you mucking around down here and enjoying yourself. I go north and enjoy Canada when I can. Skiing and sailing mostly. Re the high price of food you have noticed...often when something is out of whack like that it presents a business opportunity for folks who are positioned to respond to the situation. In the case of food, there is a functioning/profitable group of farmers who are marketing veggies and area specific foods via a network of cooperating farms up and down the west coast of the continent. I buy a weeks worth of veggies (the most I can keep fresh) for around 40% of the cost of a standard super market. For example, all summer and fall tomato qty was great and quality excellent. Now in the onset of winter we revert to hot house tomato from BC. Price gouging has created an opportunity.

On a different note. I suffer from Oyster envy, I had always thought Kenomac was a fortunate gazillionaire enjoying life in the Med..not so it seems. Just goes to show what you can do if you keep your priorities straight.

Glad A64 has showed some faith in us and allowed us to keep talking. The conflict between labor and capital will always be with us. When leaders act on self serving dogma results are poor (see Venezuela or Argentina). Two sides of the same coin. There are many ways to waste capital. Too much accumulation is as bad as too much debt. In the USA we err on the accumulation side at the expense of infrastructure and social progress. In the long run it leads to instability...Not what we want to leave our kids.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by IdoraKeeper

On a different note. I suffer from Oyster envy, I had always thought Kenomac was a fortunate gazillionaire enjoying life in the Med..not so it seems. Just goes to show what you can do if you keep your priorities straight.

Sorry to disappoint. I'm just a regular guy looking along the side of the road for fresh roadkill.

[sailorboy1]

Cost involved in deer hunting (or picking up road kill) seem really really cheap compared to the fishing guys around my local area. I just don't see a cost comparison to deer hunting and owning a 30' power boat with twin 300 HP engines that burn $300 of gas in order to get out to George's Bank in only 2 hours, all to maybe try to catch a $20 fish.

[senormechanico]

For those of you who have a deer problem in your yard, these really work.

Orbit Yard Enforcer Pest Deterrent Sprinkler (62100) - Impulse Sprinklers - Ace Hardware

They probably would keep deer off my boat as well.
Come to think of it, I ought to hook up one on my dock to chase away the river otters.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by IdoraKeeper

...In the case of food, there is a functioning/profitable group of farmers who are marketing veggies and area specific foods via a network of cooperating farms up and down the west coast of the continent. I buy a weeks worth of veggies (the most I can keep fresh) for around 40% of the cost of a standard super market.

That raises a question for cruisers ... how to find the local deals when you're never a "local." I'm "cruising" around the PNW right now (via motorcycle). We're going slow, camping when we can, and spending sometimes a week two (or more) in one location. It takes about that much time (for me anyway) to begin to get to know the area well enough so we can tap into good local knowledge. Of course this is in a country I know pretty well, in a language I speak, and with a culture that I understand. I'm sure travelling to more foreign lands will make the finding of local deals even harder.

Originally Posted by IdoraKeeper

Glad A64 has showed some faith in us and allowed us to keep talking. The conflict between labor and capital will always be with us. ... Two sides of the same coin. There are many ways to waste capital (and labour ).

Fully agree Idora. Owners and labour are power brokers in the struggle to maximize economic benefits for their own. Those who berate unions and organized labour fail to understand they are simply one of the power centres in this economic dance. Unions can be as corrupt and as self-serving as the nastiest owner. They can also be as benevolent and generous as the kindest of owners. In a perfect world, with perfect people, we'd need neither. Haven't found that utopia yet ... and never will.

But people fail to understand that an economy is simply the way a community distributes its resources. The economy is not some thing out there. It is not something we are to serve. It serves us. But when power become unbalanced (as it is now) the "us" group grows smaller and smaller. That's when we run into problems.

Originally Posted by IdoraKeeper

On a different note. I suffer from Oyster envy, I had always thought Kenomac was a fortunate gazillionaire enjoying life in the Med..not so it seems. Just goes to show what you can do if you keep your priorities straight.

Oh, I don't envy Ken. He doesn't even have a pot to piss in -- at least when it comes to holding tanks . But I do look forward to sharing an anchorage someday.

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by daletournier

In regards to screwing around with its currency less (Usd)SNIP

Also as mentioned inflation is when there's alot of demand for less widgets, but alot of demand is being created by easy credit ie. The housing bubble 2008! Houses didn't become suddenly rare, finance become easy to get, so it's abit of a twist on the supply and demand fundamentals.

SNIP

There is a little more to the housing bubble than just easy credit. The CRA was a government program that forced banks to make loans they would not normally make based on the ability of the customer to repay. As a result a lot more houses were built because the government not only forced banks to make what were basically unsecured loans the government also said they would repay the bad loans.

Sure this was a bad idea from a classical economics viewpoint. But it was not nearly as bad as what China did in terms of building so many cities that are still ghost towns because no one could afford to live in them. While it is true some of them are sorta resort towns this is not the way classical economics would suggest for efficient development.

Again I am not suggesting the US dollar does not have problems, just that compared to the alternatives it is the best bad option.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Venison. The most riculously high priced meat in America is whitetail deer meat. If I add up all the money spent on hunting trips, clothing, ammo, gas, food and tolls, lures, tree stands.... one pound of venison probably costs over $100.

As you may have guessed, I just came back from another trip where no white tailed deer were harmed in any way.

Lures & tree stands? That's not "hunting"!

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Abgreenbank

We stalk ours in open mountains, no sitting in high seats, spend lots of time spoting with binocs, then often a big walk/crawl, lots of deer but twice as many eyes looking for you, can be hard work but expect at least one most days. We have no tag system, when the deer are on your land they belong to you.

We also don't have to wear some of that wonderful orange camouflage.

Yep, that's hunting!

[l2ridehd]

When I read the title of this post I thought it had to be how ridiculous the cost of boat parts were. A swivel anchor shackle was $44 for a part that should be $5, maybe $8. And any thing that says "marine" the price goes up 10 fold. Bottom paint $250 a gallon. Now that is stupid ridiculous.

But then reading the thread everyone is complaining about things that are double in price and ignoring those that are 10 times what they should be. One has to wonder.

[avb3]

Just had an interesting discussion with a friend down in Tampa. She was telling me that avocados were on sale at Aldi's there. Interestingly enough, they are also on sale here today.

After I did the dollar conversion, it was .09 each cheaper in Canada than in Tampa. I suspect that is because both are being sourced out of Mexico, and Alberta is 1000 miles closer to the source than Tampa. I find that broccoli is always cheaper in Canada than in the US always.

Guess real economics kicks in. The avocado is ripe, and a surplus needs to be shipped in Mexico, hence cheap, and transportation costs are real.

[senormechanico]

Those avocados are about the same price on Whidbey Island as they are in Mexico.
Only one problem, here they're priced in Dollars and in Mexico, Pesos.
The exchange rate is what? 16:1?

[mausgras]

Nineteen pages and although I did not read them all the themes seemed pretty consistant. Some services are ridiculously expensive, it costs a lot of money to work, some countries are more expensive than others, but all (western) countries are really the same cost of living overall, taxes are too high;. "same same but different" as they say here.

But I live in a country where the minimum wage is around $10 a day, a bottle of milk costs more than a bottle of beer and a pack of cigarettes cost around $2. Medical insurances is virtually nonexistant and dental care ... what's that? All but the poorest people have at least a motorbike to get around and a smartphone that can get the internet, young people seem to have enough money to buy fashionable clothes and everyone has pleanty to eat. People complain about the traffic and corruption in government but rarely complain about the cost of living and never about taxes.

Myself, I also complain about the govt all the time andthe cost of importing parts for the boat but for the most part I have plenty af wonderful friends although I would like to find that one special person ... otherwise life is good.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by avb3

Just had an interesting discussion with a friend down in Tampa. She was telling me that avocados were on sale at Aldi's there. Interestingly enough, they are also on sale here today.

After I did the dollar conversion, it was .09 each cheaper in Canada than in Tampa. I suspect that is because both are being sourced out of Mexico, and Alberta is 1000 miles closer to the source than Tampa. I find that broccoli is always cheaper in Canada than in the US always.

Guess real economics kicks in. The avocado is ripe, and a surplus needs to be shipped in Mexico, hence cheap, and transportation costs are real.

Hmmmm, that didn't ring right AVB, so checking the god of google maps tells me the distances are:

Mexico City to Tampa: 3,500 km or 2200 miles
Mexico City to Edmonton: 4930 km or 3,063 miles

I don't know where avocados ship from, but the god of Wiki tells me "México, Morelos, Nayarit, Puebla, and Michoacan which accounts for 86% of the total production..." and looking at the map, these states are centred near central Mexico, so I took the City as the mark. I suppose if you measure from the NW corner of Mexico to Edmonton it would be closer (by about 500 km), but I kinda doubt that's where all the avocados ship from.

So I don't think you can claim they are cheaper b/c Alberta is closer, if that's what you are saying. Perhaps it's due to volume? But I kinda doubt Albertans are more into avocados than Floridians. No ... it's priced the way it is b/c that's what the market will bear. It's the same reason a swivel costs $44 and bottom paint is $250/gallon.

That, my friend, is "real" economics in a consumer-capitalist economy.

[mausgras]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

So I don't think you can claim they are cheaper b/c Alberta is closer, if that's what you are saying. Perhaps it's due to volume? But I kinda doubt Albertans are more into avocados than Floridians. No ... it's priced the way it is b/c that's what the market will bear. It's the same reason a swivel costs $44 and bottom paint is $250/gallon.

That, my friend, is "real" economics in a consumer-capitalist economy.

You are absolutely right. It is the same reason I could have bought my new Raymarine mfd chartplotter on ebay for around $1500, in an Australian store for closer to $2500 and supplied and fitted here in Phuket for around $3000