Household goods affordability

[krw]

That shows just how much more money people have, after the basics.

[krw]

I see no evidence that they're getting smaller. There are a dozen or so going up in my neighborhood, all of which are in the 3000-4000ft^2 range. All five and six bedroom. The smallest in the neighborhood is about 2500ft^2 but none of the new ones are that small. No one is building small houses (

[Stormin Mormon]

Or, the lack of education and parents in the home. No one knows how to cook, these days.

. Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

.

[Ed Pawlowski]

You have to measure them. Hard to see the changes on a daily basis, but if you measure them once a month you can see the shrinkage.

[krw]

How hard is it to throw a pizza into the microwave?

[CRNG]

On Mon, 14 Oct 2013 07:40:42 -0400, Ed Pawlowski wrote in Re Re: Household goods affordability:

I think that eating out when we were kids (in the 1950s) was a big deal because we had a father that worked all day and a mother that was a "housewife" all day. There wasn't enough income to splash around eating out and dinners were part of mom's job anyway.

Then by the 1980 we saw a metamorphosis to the "two-income" family. That brought in more income to pay for a larger and fancier house, a larger car (usually a gas guzzling SUV), a second car to support the second job and childcare for kids that were too young for school (which by then was nothing more than day care paid for by the state). The two jobs don't leave time for preparing dinners, hence the restaurant bonanza.

In effect, most husbands and wives decided to dump family living for conspicuous consumption and debt. The debt comes from the second job usually not bringing in enough after-tax income to pay for the larger house, second and larger car and all its costs, day care, eating out, etc. It just builds up on a credit card.

It would be fun to watch if it wasn't so pitiful.

[krw]

OTOH, we go out for, usually, three meals a week, have zero carryover on our cards, a 3600sq.ft. house (and a 2600sq.ft. that we're in the process of selling) and two new vehicles. Go figure.

[krw]

Does it have something to do with the expansion of the universe?

Seriously, it's hard to build a small house and make money. The $$/sf numbers just don't add up.

[Cindy Hamilton]

Kids? We elected not to have kids, which was a huge savings.

The women in my family have always worked. My grandmother worked retail, my mother was an office manager, and I am a computer programmer. I'd hate it if I couldn't pull my weight financially.

We go out together, usually, once a week, but each of us lunches out separately a few more times. A 1200 sq ft house and two older vehicles. Definitely not Keeping Up With the Joneses.

Cindy Hamilton

[Tony944]

You are right about eating out in my area it is cheaper eating out then cook at home the only thing is when you eat at home you know what are you eating!!!!

[The Daring Dufas]

I gave up on corporate America in the early 1980's due to Affirmative Action where women and minorities were promoted all around me and they couldn't do the job but I could. They didn't want to pay for my skills so I went out on my own and they had to call me when the morons couldn't make anything work. I did take an overseas job for The SDI program but that wasn't permanent. I do a lot of contract labor when I can but I don't have to tolerate ANY male bovine droppings. I can fire customers and have done so when they become troublesome and start to believe I'm their employee. Me and JH will often be the last people called in to fix a problem and when we ask, "Why didn't you call us first?" the answer is often, "You charge too much." I suppose the lack of math comprehension is due to government school education where management will pay three different companies $65/hr for a service call who can't fix it right rather than call us for $85/hr to fix it right the first trip. I know a guy who spent $100.00, $10.00 at a time trying to get an inkjet cartridge refilled rather than pay $30.00 for a remanufactured cartridge. The lack of understanding of simple math among the citizenry drives me nuts. o_O

TDD

[The Daring Dufas]

But pre-employment tests are racist. o_O

TDD

[The Daring Dufas]

The ultimate consequence of Affirmative Action is sitting in The White House. o_O

TDD

[The Daring Dufas]

********************Trim Da Phat********************

Back in the 1970's me and a several guys I knew decided to take a refresher course so we could obtain our First Class FCC license required for a job as a broadcast engineer. We already knew our electronics and had experience in the field but needed a little help to guarantee we passed our test. There was one gal in the class. She was nice and we all liked her but she didn't know one end of a soldering iron from the other but did know a screwdriver was for screwing. Everyone in the class passed the test and obtained our First Class FCC license. Guess who was immediately hired by a radio station? That was my first real brush with Affirmative Action. o_O

TDD

[Percival P. Cassidy]

About 30 years ago friends in California told me that they had been asked, "How can you afford to eat at home? Everything is so expensive."

Perce

[CRNG]

On Mon, 14 Oct 2013 18:47:50 GMT, [e-mail] (Cindy Hamilton) wrote in Re Re: Household goods affordability:

That is to be commended and admired IMO.

[The Daring Dufas]

[The Daring Dufas]

I've noticed that the cost of anything the government tampers with or interferes with, goes up. o_O

TDD

[Dean Hoffman]

The first paragraph of the article breaks the expense down to about

5.5% at home and about 4% away from home for 2009. I didn't see anything more at a quick glance.

Eating in town was a big deal especially for farm kids. I still remember a McDonalds in Lincoln, NE. It had the golden arches but no place to sit if I recall correctly. Small towns typically had bars/restaurants. Most of those would have a noon special. One could probably get a burger or pizza if the bartender was in a good mood in the evenings. I guess I did eat "in town" five days a week during the school year. That was mandatory.

[trader4]

Which universe is it that you're living in where it's cheaper to eat out than cook at home?