Comment by treis
4 months ago
Almost all my money goes to mortgage, shit from China, food, and the occasional service. It does make me wonder some times how it all works. But it's been working like this for a long time now.
4 months ago
Almost all my money goes to mortgage, shit from China, food, and the occasional service. It does make me wonder some times how it all works. But it's been working like this for a long time now.
Real estate. The US economy floats on the perpetually-increasing cost of land. Thats where your mortgage money goes, to a series of finacial instruments to allow others to benifit from the eternally rising value of "your" property.
Well, it is much worse elsewhere.
You should look at other countries where pay is much less and real estate is at similar levels of cost: from Europe, Canada, China, Australia and India.
Condos in Mumbai are priced similar to those in the major cities in the US.
https://www.reddit.com/r/mumbai/comments/zxsl8l/mumbai_real_...
And Mumbai is one of the more affordable cities globally.
Much worse the case in Canada & Australia unfortunately
It amuses me what's been true in the rest of the world (Vancouver, Sydney, Aukland and London come to mind but I'm sure it's not just the Anglosphere) for decades arrived in the US a couple of years ago and is suddenly a shocking new thing
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Maybe this is our "resource curse"? We just happened to get rid of all the other resources first to get to stuck with this remaining?
Part of it is a hidden tax on the young and workers, by making currency less valuable (what young people and workers have, the ability to earn cash) and transferring that wealth to old people and asset owners (to pay for pensions and healthcare).
That is why mortgages are (future) taxpayer subsidized. Without the subsidies from the future, the real estate prices would not be able to rise so much.
There is also economic agglomeration to exacerbate the issue.
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Why are you buying shit from China?
Apparently it's even hard to make molds in the US. China seems to be the top dog in the production chain. From design, to mold, to production, to packaging.
Fstopper has one or two nice videos about it. Can't even buy US made glass bottles that fits his needs in the US: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xewpuM1eJRg
It's very difficult if not impossible to avoid. Just how many hours do you want to spend doing research for _every single_ household item? It'd be genuinely difficult, and even plenty of stuff which claims to be "made in the USA" is actually just assembled here. It's possible to look these things up, but that takes time and it's difficult to get absolute certainty. And not all stuff from China is terrible, either. It's just an opportunity cost which is nearly impossible to avoid given just how common so much of the crap from China is.
A normal person who doesn't want to upend their life might have a few easier baby-steps: buy as little stuff as possible, and buy used whenever possible. The original country doesn't see any real direct benefit when you buy used.
It just depends how important you think it is to chose who gets your money, where raw materials are coming from and how things are made. I happen to think it’s the most important global issue right now. Come at me.
Its very difficult to buy something "made in china" that is actually made there, not just assembled there. Even if you get something like a DJI drone, you can do some quick research and find out the guts (SOC) is from a company in California using IP from Europe/USA (arm).
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Why, don't you? How would you have posted this message if you hadn't?
You got me. I buy old second hand phones because the planet is full of mugs.
I've started buying clothes from China. Quality and style is starting to really improve.
Makes you wonder how much we've been ripped off for years.
As a 6'5" male westerner finding the right size is next to impossible.
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Ripped off? I think it’s more that you are ripping off people from other countries, whilst undermining your own economy and draining your country of meaningful work. It’s nice to pay your neighbour properly for the work they do. How much clothes are you actually buying and why? The clothing industry is a horrible one, riddled with waste and slavery. You been to the factory where they’re making your clothes have you? Wake up man. This shit matters.
It cuts the middleman, supermarkets and online stores are 90% Chinese dropship these days. Why pay the 50-500% markup?
I have no idea what you’re talking about. What the heck are you people buying?! I mean, after some pots and pans and a couple of t-shirts what else is there?
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That's partially a euhpemism for imported stuff. But more to your general meaning the point of the article is that there's not a lot of slack. The US is pretty close to fully utilized and there's not a lot of slack to start making stuff here instead.
It's better quality. The people there are skilled and well-educated, and the factories and machinery are modern.
Where are you getting your shit from?
I have a deal with Cologuard.
Down the road where I can.
why not? I like high quality products at reasonable prices
I am delighted to hear from the actual FedEx’s own Chuck Noland! Getting this post to appear on this website using only vellum and iron gall ink is an incredible feat. Could you share some about your process (in many months time obviously)?
See this can be the issue with posting on the internet without directly using Chinese-built electronics: you have to periodically remind your seneschal what your various shorthand terms mean or they will make mistakes like forgetting what “ctrl+D” means and assuming you meant “downvote” and not “bookmark”
Prices going up 20-25% due to excessive money printed and hence high inflation during last administration don't help.
The stimulus spending started under the administration prior to the last one.
In the United States, elections were held on November 2020. A new administration would’ve started in January 2021.
The extent to which media and the public both blame Biden for events prior to his administration's start is deeply concerning.
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Oh, come on. Why don't you mention the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)? Which actually stoked the inflation by increasing government spending when the labor market was very tight?
IRA's pie in the sky green energy cost reductions were going to take years at least to show any benefits - assuming there were any benefits.
High inflation belongs to Democrats just as much as it belongs to Republicans.
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Are you ignoring the inflation from COVID that occurred globally on purpose? Trump won, there is no need for you to keep spreading MAGA propaganda.
Federal taxes are #1 expense for most people. People forget to think about it because of direct deduction.
This isn't true. At 70k (much higher than the median income), the effective federal tax rate is under 10%. People generally spend more than 10% of their income on housing. If taxes are your number one expense you likely have a significantly larger than average income.