All very true, but what I was getting at is what drives the prices so high overall. Government 100% plays a big role in costs being high as well. Elected thieves. As far as the general population im referring to us having a "need" for things that are a lot more unnecessary. Expensive phones, expensive housing and vehicles, expensive clothes etc. How many people snub their nose at second hand clothes for example. Or there are the people who go broke making sure they always have the newest Iphone, then are furious if they dont get a raise and blame cost of living being high, not their own choices. Then on a larger scale are unions collectively doing the same thing. When wages go up, who ultimately pays for the increase? We all know it surely wont be shareholders in a major company, they will just raise prices to cover costs. But at what point can we say, I have enough, or I dont need all this extra such as cable, super fast internet, or a 1400 dollar cell phone. What Im presenting is that we flew right past happiness and dove head first in to servitude chasing a high we will never be able to maintain and it continues to drive the cost of living sky high, but not a "true" standard of living. Hence the American manufacturing sector having trouble with wages.
Most clothes are complete sh!t nowadays.
I grew up with an army surplus store that had been in business close to 100 years.
They literally had surplus clothing going back that far.
Clothing, and even military clothing, steadily declined in quality over the decades.
You can even see this in old photographs.
Clothing a 100 years ago, was made from better cloth.
The clothing also had extra cloth, because it was meant to be adjusted over time, if someone gained or lost weight, or if the clothing was given or sold to someone else.
Clothing was also much looser in cut, allowing it to be worn by a larger number of body types.
There were much better tailoring services available.
Most decent department stores had multiple tailors who would adjust a suit, or even regular clothing, within a week of the clothing being purchased.
Some stores still have this, but it’s a smaller number of high end stores, and it can take longer for adjustments to get made.
There also used to be tailoring services that were more readily available, such as “invisible weaving” were were new thread would get hand woven into worn or torn areas of suit fabric.
Good luck finding that easily available anymore.
Aa far as the $1400 cell phone goes, I suspect a lot of people use these instead of owning a separate computer in addition to a cell phone.
You also sort of need to replace your cell phone periodically.
You used to be able to just buy a new battery, but stand alone batteries used to cost more than it now costs to have Apple take your phone apart, and replace the more complex internal battery.
The operating systems for phones now also jerp getting “upgraded”, so the older phones in a lot of cases can’t even be used, or used easily, even if the phones would still function.
The “fancy phone” also has replaced multiple items you used to have or need, from a camera, to a music player, and a voice recorder, and a video recorder separate from the camera, and an address book and calendar, and phone book, etc.
Some people still own one of more of those things, way less than formerly.
and he’d rather be at work.