Why the cost increase?


I went to buy materials for a speaker project. I also priced some T-111 siding on 8" centers, 5/8 thick, Ship lap.
I hadn’t picked up any sheets or anything in over 18 months.

48" x 96 x 5/8 wood siding was 19-26.00 and on sale 15-20.00 per sheet, NOW 74-84.00 per sheet.

MDF 3/4" 48 x 96" if you can find it. 45-55.00 per sheet it was 22.00 to 27.00 per sheet.

2x4x8 DF stud grade 1.99-3.00 per. Now 4-6.00 per stud,

There is no shortage but there sure is a LOT of price gouging. NOTHING changed. Just the price..

The quality is worse. The workers aren’t paid worth a crap...Why the increase?

I’m getting ready to finish my home out. WOW.. I might have to rethink this a bit..

The price all most tripled in 12-18 months.. This kind of stuff is NOT cool at ALL.

Just my opinion of course. Any projects you’re doing get put on hold or STOPED?

YES I’m very frugal. Money never came easy, and it leaves the same way..

oldhvymec
" Any projects you’re doing get put on hold or STOPED?"

Yes. I put off building a house. Not only did plywood and OSB quadruple, but all the other materials (siding, shingles, copper, etc.) increased also. Simple supply/demand. The lumber mills shut down decreasing supply and the government paid people to stay at home and use up that dwindling supply. When the government spends above its means, it creates inflation. Money is not created out of thin air without ramifications. Between the pandemic payouts and the infrastructure spending, you can expect more inflation.

Lumber prices are coming down, and I expect to build the house next year, but I still expect it to cost $50,000 more than a year and a half ago, and I don't expect prices of goods - any goods - to go all the way back to what they were pre-pandemic. Which means, I won't spend more, I'll just cut back my purchases. But most people won't, thereby supporting inflation.
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For instance, 50% of those who frequent this site have illusions that they are one percenters….or they would be if the gubment would just get out of the way.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

What constitutes a 1% and who said the government was in the way?
I say money grubbin' greedy people and ZERO interest from the a government to not call a thief a thief a pretty serious issue.

If you look at fuel for an example. In ONE weekend a gouging gas station can and DOES make 40k for 3 days an someone else is pumping fuel into their own car. NOT a word said.  That's 20,000 gallons if he pumped 40,000 double that again.. 

I ask you WHO owns the gas stations? These people don't just get buy in America the become multi millionaires building brand new gas stations and mini marts. The only clean food in the store are the daily deliveries of milk. They offer ZERO in real world. They might have a car wash that cost another million or so to install. BUT LABOR.. ZERO. I can't get most of them off the phone to take the money. If you aren't family or indentured (and most of the workers are) YOU or ME CAN'T get hired..

Try to get hired to work in a gas station.

I'm tell everyone. Pay attention to the little thing that are really REALLY big. Like who owns you local fuel stations? NOT rents the land OWNS the land.. Who do you think is buying up huge lots of land in Canada, USA and any one who will sell in the Americas?

Why do you think Cuba is all in an uproar?

There are land grabs going on all over the world BECAUSE, Trump lost, not because of Biden WINNING.. One of sweetest deals on the planet right now is CUBA..

So when all the "Philosophers, lawyers, economist, politicians, (most) actors, and all nonprofit organizations are seen as the problem they are verses the problems they cause vs who actually profits from their actual existence. THEN do something about it.  Things will change.

I think it's time to have a voice that is held accountable. 

Giving away money and people getting paid to say "WE'RE CLOSED" would stop Monday morning.. Report to work and work. Or stay home and not get paid..

If manual labor is a problem in this country, then lets pull together and do the work, get the mills back up and running and PAY the workers.
Set up OUR 100 year plan..  I'm not as worried about workers from the Americas I'm very concerned about the other 3/4 of the worlds population buying AMERICA. From the top of Canada to the bottom of Brazil.

How do you think the world EATS.. Eastern blocks have reindeer. When was the last time you ate Reindeer. I know NEVER. When was the last time they ate BEEF.. Yesterday.. Do you understand..

Again gold and silver will not feed a town or a family, BUT an acre of land will. Who owns the land? Who controls the fuel? Who controls the food?
Who controls the medications, vaccines and the medical tech? Who manufactures and maintain enough Rare Earth supplies for computer gear? Who has the most satellite in orbit? GUESS who has control of the UPPER, mid and lower orbit skies? A flip of a switch.. the world is turned OFF

Think Toilet paper for just one minute. Again WE as a nation have a very short sided view.. Like two weeks if most are that SMART.. Not lucky, that smart.. I mean I read the whole thread..

Who is suspiciously absent from this conversation?

People who are in the KNOW? I think so... The bunker crowd is what all of America need to move towards. 6-10 weeks will outlast this lazy world.

You'd have to hold your nose for the next 2 years. Pigs and dogs would be a problem.. Who is hunting who?

Crank up the Victrola.. We're on the mend...

Time to feed the chickens..
This hypothetical lays the issue out pretty clearly:


"Consider a hypothetical world where the pandemic had never happened, and instead the economy kept growing as forecasters in January 2020 had expected it would, with the various segments of G.D.P. retaining a steady share of the economic pie.

Services consumption in the second quarter remained 7.4 percent below the level it would have maintained in that alternate universe, while spending on durable goods remained 34 percent higher.

Those are extraordinary shifts in what the economy is being asked to produce, and it is hardly shocking that the physical goods side of the economy would be straining at capacity in light of such an epic reallocation of demand."


None of this surprising. I'm not even going to get into micro economic analysis. Crazy pricing within individual markets is likely to be the new norm going into future.

I believe we are now in the beginning days of a new realization of increasingly scarce resources. We will see a coming devaluation of equity the world has never seen. Panic and reactionary thinking taking hold, division and angst clearly seen. The glass is no longer half full, better see the glass with reality eyes. Of course, there will still be winners, but many more losers. Limited short term vision always puts us in worse positions than enlightened self interest would take us. Sorry for the bad news. If someone has a reality based positive future lets hear it,  will take innovations not yet produced.