Quote:
Originally Posted by Zacharias
Better statistically, which is to say the jobs aren't what we used to refer to as good jobs.
Absolutely. The price of food has only begun its rise, from what I can tell. I am single but overextended due to my own stupidity. I cannot imagine what working people with a family are having to do to get by, between the price of food and the ridiculous property and rental markets in some part of the country.
Possible but it will take so much time. We have become accustomed to having piles of personal possessions, the ownership of which is only possible at Chinese-labour prices. But then we get Chinese quality, which means the whole exercise is a dog eating its tail as the stuff isn't remotely durable or repairable.
I heard an interesting reflection the other day: the 'personal storage facility' industry didn't exist 20 years ago in Canada. Now they're springing up everywhere.
We're drowning in our cr@p.
Sorry I guess I took this even further off topic. I had never actually seen this thread before and it's very sobering.
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What I have noticed is two things. Everytime I go to town that is four miles away. The money I expend is much more than it was in the 2008-2009 period.
The other item is we are fortunate to have surplus income. The surplus is now somewhat smaller each year. It is not our buying and spending habits as at our age they are pretty static.
An example that is perhaps not typical. I needed some brushed nickle trim today for a granite tile countertop. The last time I purchased some it was twelve dollars a length. Perhaps two to three years ago but no longer.
It was twenty one dollars and some change a length today. So eight lengths were not 96.00 but 170.00. Gas was also 5.89 an imperial gallon in town today. Or 4.97 per american gallon.
Wages are definatly not on the increase yet. So it has to be hurting many. You are right in that we have become by and large a more materialistic society as well.
Perhaps about the most noticeable change in our buying habits is I source a lot of items off ebay and the web now on a very frequent basis. Usually after mailing costs I pay approxamatly 50 percent or less of the average local retail prices. Also save the 15 percent sales tax as well on most transactions.
I also expect the job market to shrink further for young people just starting out. There was an expression coined years ago about the lost generation. I hope it is not going to be that one as well that is seriously impacted by circumstances.