Quote:
Originally Posted by special-K
It's true the dollar doesn't spend at all like it used to, and that affects everything. But, we are talking about this bubble here. The devaluation of the dollar isn't what makes a radio delete go from $30 to $60 in one sale. It's not what took a set of disc brake factory wheels from $100 a set to people wanting what the 8" go for ($400).
When you talk about how much less things used to cost someone always says, "Yeah, but people made less money, too". Well, after WWII houses in sub-divisions were going for $7-8k, which is equivalent to $75-80 today. If you find anything around here for under $200k you'll have a project on your hands. New homes start at around $400k. That's 50x more and wages wages have increased under half that much. But that took 70 years to create such a huge wage vs income differential. true, it's only getting worse at a faster pace now.
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Those houses built after WWII were also only 1,200 SF. Try selling someone a 1,200 SF house nowadays. We have PLENTY of those 40's-50's neighborhoods around here still, and most of the houses are 1,200-1,500 SF single story. Also, most have no garage, and I'd say about half have a one or two car attached open car port thing.
The standard "norm" for a house now is 2,400-2,800 SF, two story WITH an attached 2 car garage. Not exactly an apples to apples comparison, but you can still buy a very nice +/- 2,000-2,500 SF home here for 150-200K (double the SF of the 50's homes... so about on par???)
Anyway, just thought I'd point that out. Cars have also exceeded inflation in price, buy my God, look at what goes into them now. 60 years ago they were a frame, drivetrain, and some sheetmetal thrown together. I could completely disassemble a 67 C10 by myself in a weekend. I'd be lucky to have the drivetrain out of a 2015 after a weekend.
Anyway, certain parts for these trucks have been crazy high for Years.
Tach dash, factory shoulder belts, and tow hooks are a few that come to mind.
I know some stuff is $$$, but on the flip side, be thankful that you can buy a wiring harness that is plug and play and don't have to make your own, etc. 5-10 years ago you had to splice together a good junkyard harness or a painless harness that is anything but...