Posted on 06/09/2021 6:12:55 PM PDT by blam
We are moving...movers hate our furniture...real oak and cherry...yeah we’re old
“The minimum standard of living has gone way, way up over the past several decades”
This is often forgotten in the doom and gloom. One fact I recently found is that since 1970 the size of the average American house has doubled.
Sure wages have been stagnant for almost 50 years, but you can buy a lot more for them than you could in 1970.
Well there you go. A family’s largest monthly expense, housing. Now some of the larger size might be due to modern construction methods that reduce the costs so a family can afford more sq ft, but I’d bet most of it is just people inflating their lifestyle.
1. They are functionally obsolete before they physically deteriorate (this would apply to almost anything with electronic components).
2. They are so inexpensive that people assume they're going to replace them whenever they move from one home to another (a lot of furniture fits this description).
The author’s choice of welders vs. robots is interesting. General manual welding is being moved to robotic systems in droves. Robotic welding is much more affordable and easier than the author implies for a majority of the applications in manufacturing.
Welders are in high demand because so few want to do it. Also, if a man is good at welding he is probably capable of performing other higher paying tasks that require less sweat.
Much of the labor force is now a mess and getting worse by the day.
I know he is using the welder as an example and I agree that the thought of using robots for maintenance and repair tasks is folly.
That said, welding isn’t rocket science for most mild steel and TIG is an art that can be taught. Most of the welders for production jackets all along the Texas Coast were latino welders. They learn fast and burn rod without taking breaks.
What I am more worried about is the fools rushing headlong into the dark with all this battery and green chit. They believe in magic that it will work and when they get to the wall at the end of the dark tunnel the petroleum industry will have been hammered. The cost of salvation from the green folly will be stupendous.
Good point. I also think the author misses that there are two important ways to substitute for welders:
1) Toss it. So many things that would have been repaired 30 years ago are now disposed of. Often because it is cheaper and easier to do that than arrange for a repair person.
2) Avoid metal: Related to the above, a lot of what used to be metal are now plastic or composites. Easy and cheap to form in a machine.
You can, but not at “furniture stores” except *maybe* Amish outlets, mom-and-pop custom furniture, and the occasional custom piece at a specialty store.
The prices are VERY high.
Once in awhile you can find at a garage sale or a large company’s “internal garage sale” where employees sell stuff to each other. I have a dining room table I bought used in ‘98 which was decent quality (it was probably 10-20 years old at that point), which is still in use today.
Sod off Swampy.
You can’t print trillions to fund lavish bureaucracies which produce nothing people WANT to purchase, without inducing inflation.
Heh. Sod Off, Swampy.
Back in the day, a father working on his salary alone could support a family, including buying a house and car, and vacationing every year.
And they didn’t have to move to an over-priced “developer row” with a name like ‘Towne & Country Deluxe Manor Estates Field II” just to avoid being mugged or shot by gang bangers or illegal immigrants.
LOVE Charles Hugh Smith! Thanks for posting. :)
BFL.
Back in the day, a father working on his salary alone could support a family, including buying a house and car, and vacationing every year
The big difference is the total TAX burden being paid then vs now, not dollar inflation, So go sod yourself clueless wonder.
There is a direct correlation of women HAVING to enter the workforce to pay for the additional tax burden so their families could maintain the same lifestyle. This has been well studied, a hard correlation. You are clueless on this subject and just spouting off ignorance.
You’re lying. There was a huge push to get women out of the “traditional jobs” (teacher, nurse) into the rest of the workforce.
Your propaganda is failing.
I looked at a couple sites for the median US Income by year, and tax tables by year, from 1968 (before stagnation of wages in 1970) to 2013 (when obviously women had entered the workforce).
https://dqydj.com/household-income-by-year/
https://files.taxfoundation.org/legacy/docs/fed_individual_rate_history_nominal.pdf
1968 $7,005.00 15%*1000 +16%*1000 + 17%*1000 + 19%/3005= 570+150+160+170=1050 ~14%
1969 $7,683.00
1970 $8,330.00
1971 $8,700.00
1972 $9,000.00
1973 $9,648.00
1974 $10,378.00
1975 $11,000.00
1976 $11,700.00
1977 $12,604.00
1978 $13,500.00
1979 $15,000.00
1980 $16,400.00
1981 $17,666.00
1982 $19,000.00
1983 $20,000.00
1984 $20,687.00
1985 $22,260.00
1986 $23,530.00
1987 $24,744.00
1988 $25,900.00
1989 $27,050.00
1990 $28,838.00
1991 $29,834.00
1992 $30,000.00
1993 $30,439.00
1994 $31,000.00
1995 $32,140.00
1996 $34,000.00
1997 $35,172.00
1998 $36,928.00
1999 $38,816.00
2000 $40,551.00
2001 $42,000.00
2002 $42,125.00
2003 $42,381.00
2004 $43,160.00
2005 $44,097.00
2006 $46,001.00
2007 $48,020.00
2008 $50,000.00
2009 $50,000.00
2010 $49,578.00
2011 $49,100.00
2012 $50,000.00
2013 $50,306.00 10%*17850 + 15%(50306-17850)=1785+4868=6653—>13.22% (so 14-13.22=0.78, 0.78/14=5% relative increase in taxes, doesn’t require a whole second income. Nice try.)
You use the federal tax rate table to try to prove your point, BUT IN THE REAL WORLD FINANCIAL IMBECILE, families pay not only federal taxes, but state, county, city/local income, property, and sales taxes. Those have greatly increased over the past several decades. Don’t try to be smart in an area you are PATHETICALLY CLUELESS in.
All caps means trolling.
The state, county, cit/local income, property and sales taxes do not increase monotonically across each and every state, nor at the same rate across states.
But women entering the workforce has happened all over the country.
Obvious troll is obvious.
Payroll taxes, gasoline taxes, utility taxes, phone taxes, personal property taxes, vehicle taxes, on on and on. TOTAL TAX BURDEN (what families actually pay) is way higher today than what it was 30 or 40 years ago.
You are a clueless idiot. Screw off.
Epic trolling fail on your part.
See ya next time, troll-boi.
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