I’m reading Sowell’s Basic Economics now, and it’s fantastic. However, one of the things that I’m noticing is that one’s judgement of the “best” economic move is based largely upon one’s end goal.
From what I’m reading (and I’m admittedly brand new at this) Sowell prioritizes the lowest price on items, period. With open markets (which…
I’m reading Sowell’s Basic Economics now, and it’s fantastic. However, one of the things that I’m noticing is that one’s judgement of the “best” economic move is based largely upon one’s end goal.
From what I’m reading (and I’m admittedly brand new at this) Sowell prioritizes the lowest price on items, period. With open markets (which we don’t really have) it is definitely cheaper to produce certain items like coffee, sugar, produce, etc. in areas where they naturally grow and then export them. But most of us see the importance of rebuilding the American economy for reasons which include, but aren’t limited to, economics. Trump has a different end game, which will hopefully lead to more open markets that are able to react more normally without government manipulation.
Anywho, I’ll have to track down Sowell’s response and check it out. I have been thinking about him as I’ve watched this tariff news develop.
Well and I can't help but think low prices are not necessarily the be all end all for everything, perhaps groceries excluded. Cheap often does not jive with 'quality' - hence we replace appliances (which in real dollars are actually cheaper than they used to be) every 5-7 years instead of the 30 years we got from our Maytag washer that my husband's grandma gave him when he graduated college in 1985. My mom's year old coffeemaker just shot craps. Yes, it was cheap. Closets in 1950's era homes were a fraction of the walk in closets that are now size of my bedroom growing up. I have too many friends to count who can't park their cars in their garages due to them being full of either 'toys' or stuff they rarely or never use. Storage units popping up like mushrooms all over my town. Homes built today over twice the size they were in the 50's and 60's even as average family size has shrunk. https://www.newser.com/story/225645/average-size-of-us-homes-decade-by-decade.html
There were 4 of us girls who grew up in a 1000 sq ft home with my mom and dad. We survived. (although sharing a room with my messy sister was the source of more than a few conflicts, haha)
I am guilty too - I could go a month without doing laundry and still have clothes in my closet. But we CAN use our garage to park our cars, lol.
Bottom line the vast majority of us have way too much crap we don't really need or use. And don't get me started on all of the $5+ coffee places out there when most actually own a coffee pot that makes coffee for a fraction of that. There are 4 within a mile of my home and they all have lines at the drive throughs when I pass by. Higher prices may hurt in the short run but if we just focused on 'needs' over 'wants' we can get through this.
So right. I've been buying clean fish from small fishermen via the Sitka Seafood Market for several years, and even though it's expensive I couldn't be happier. More recently started buying meat from the Seven Sons regenerative farm in Indiana. I'm sure there are more sources out there, and hope their number is increasing. It costs a bit more to get healthy food, but it's worth it in the long run. Bonus: you get to feel virtuous!
My husband and I always roll our eyes when we drive past houses that have 75K worth of cars sitting in front of the garage and 3K worth of CRAP inside the garage.
When we moved back to the states in 1989 my dad said he would buy us a Whirlpool washer and dryer if we had a baby. Being the compliant daughter that I am, I got the washer and dryer and a year later along came the baby. The washer and dryer bit the dust about 8 years ago and I cried as they were hauled to the dump. My son will be 35 soon....he is still in good shape. It was a good deal.
Yes a guy in our neighborhood posted on our neighborhood FB page with a picture of his almost brand new car that was stolen out of his driveway overnight - probably a $50K car easy. I wanted to post (but didn't) saying 'what was it doing in the driveway? You have a garage!? At least half of the homes in our middle class neighborhood don't park their cars in their garages - I laugh as I back out of my (heated) garage on mornings they are out scraping ice/snow/frost off their running to warm up cars. Guess it's petty - our next door neighbors do have 4 kids and he has a handyman biz so I understand their 'having a lot of stuff' stage of life, but a lot of these folks don't even have kids still at home and still have full garages.
Well at least it's useful stuff. 😆 One neighbor was a professional magician and he kept all his show supplies + he used to put out a huge Halloween display that kids would come for blocks around to see. He retired from all that and sold off all that stuff, telling me, now we can finally park our cars in the garage! Five years later, cars are still sitting in the driveway - a squirrel got in under one of his cars and chewed up a bunch of wiring, complained it cost him $3 grand to fix. Don't know what's in that garage now!?
IN 11 years I have gone through 2 LG refrigerators. I am done with them. I just purchased a Whirlpool. I was looking at GE, but apparently China bought them.
There are no appliances made in America anymore. The last great hold out, kitchen aide, sold to whirlpool,which is all made in china. They are probably assembled here but all parts made in china. Sucks. Give me thirty year old kitchen aides and I’ll get another thirty years out of them
Where I live, the hard water is so bad that it destroys appliances. My condo was not built with a copper coil installed, so I am not able to install a water softener without spending thousands of dollars (and my crazy neighbor’s approval to dig under her garage, which is one of those garages full of crap mentioned in these comments.) so I’ve had to replace dishwasher and washing machine, and the ice maker in my fridge crusted over a while ago, so I just use ice trays.
Coffee makers only last a year with this water, so I have water delivered and only use the filtered water for coffee… my Nespresso machine has so far lasted 6 years, and I occasionally run the cleaner fluid through it. Much cheaper than Starbucks and I can make my own caramel macchiato at home.
The only thing I can do is add a filter to the output, like a shower head. I’ve had two different water filtration guys out to look at it. During construction, they needed to add a copper coil next to the water heater, and the original buyer did not add that option. (The same buyer selected granite countertops that look exactly like a chocolate chip protein bar. 😆) So they would need to run a pipe to the water source, which would require digging up concrete and going under the garage next door. That’s the only way I could add a filtration system to the overall water line that would run to washing machine upstairs, dishwasher downstairs, and all throughout the house.
I added the filtered water delivery, so I use that for drinking, cooking, coffee, etc., but that’s the only (affordable) option. It’s a real problem, as the hard water corrodes everything—I’ve had to completely replace the parts in the toilets, and all the other appliances have had to be replaced. I throw a half cup of Borax in the washer with each load, which helps a little bit (clothes washed in this water come out stiff and scratchy, even with fabric softener added.)
I was talking to a restaurant owner in my neighborhood and he invested thousands in a water filtration system in his restaurant to protect his investment in appliances.
Best car I had was a 35-year-old beetle. It was reliable.
And pretty. It got stolen.
Then I had (living in Europe) a Saab, Land Rover, Peugeot, Renault, Citroen. The LR was pretty good. ALL the others were unreliable expensive disasters.
Great points and I agree. Although personally I enjoy going to fancy coffee shops and having a nice pastry and coffee. Sure I can make coffee at home but it’s not the same. I can’t make a latte easily and sometimes I just like to go out 🤷♀️ It’s definitely not a need but that’s ok too, it’s like going out for lunch or dinner, for me, since I rarely do that. At least it’s not buying extra stuff I need a storage unit for 😉😆
But yes, price isn’t the be all and end all, for sure.
Another thing Sowell doesn’t seem to address is the lopsided nature of these tariffs. I can’t really support us having few or no tariffs when everyone else has numerous heavy tariffs for our exported goods. How is that fair or how is that helping our economy and our people??
Oh I meet people for coffee - both business and personal. Just not every day.
But many people make that a daily routine. My mom's caregiver would show up every day with a huge Starbucks coffee and then complained to her about having trouble paying her bills. My mom told her she could drink her coffee for free and that she needed to quit wasting money at Starbucks and save that money for her bills, lol. She just laughed and said she needed to treat herself in the mornings.
See, that’s the issue. Not having fancy coffee, having it every day when you are having trouble paying your bills. She needs a good dose of Dave Ramsey lol 😆
There's also the environmental impact of all the cheap garbage that ends up in a landfill in a very short time period. I sometimes think the global warming hysteria has been used to distract from our production of solid waste, a very real problem.
Agree. We did have a local place that carried parts and did repairs on all sorts of things and we do try to repair vs replace when we can. But the repair place went under (after 60 years in business) in 2021 - sad - I suppose a victim of our throw-away culture.
That book is currently on my desk and I've been reading it to help my son with his Econ requirement for high school. I greatly respect Thomas Sowell too but the thing I'm just now beginning to appreciate is how for all the talk about "free trade," we actually haven't had that in a long time. I will have to read what Sowell is saying about the tariffs.
Yes. I don't believe Reagan meant "free trade" to mean what it became. I believe he meant "fair trade" for both parties involved, not the host (the USA) getting sucked dry by the internal and external parasites and leaches.
If charity begins at home, so then prosperity as well. Producing high value manufactures domestically is not a mortal sin, it is the health and wealth of a nation. It is the future.
All the 'free trade' talk was Globalist nonsense cultivated in their schools and incestuous organization. Something had to be done about the massive trade imbalance. It was so bad that America had nothing further to lose. America was close to a total collapse.
Increasing manufacturing here in the US is important for things like medications. We really shouldn't be relying on China for antibiotics! Some things just mean more when it comes to National security, and override other interests.
Note
I’m reading Sowell’s Basic Economics now, and it’s fantastic. However, one of the things that I’m noticing is that one’s judgement of the “best” economic move is based largely upon one’s end goal.
From what I’m reading (and I’m admittedly brand new at this) Sowell prioritizes the lowest price on items, period. With open markets (which we don’t really have) it is definitely cheaper to produce certain items like coffee, sugar, produce, etc. in areas where they naturally grow and then export them. But most of us see the importance of rebuilding the American economy for reasons which include, but aren’t limited to, economics. Trump has a different end game, which will hopefully lead to more open markets that are able to react more normally without government manipulation.
Anywho, I’ll have to track down Sowell’s response and check it out. I have been thinking about him as I’ve watched this tariff news develop.
Well and I can't help but think low prices are not necessarily the be all end all for everything, perhaps groceries excluded. Cheap often does not jive with 'quality' - hence we replace appliances (which in real dollars are actually cheaper than they used to be) every 5-7 years instead of the 30 years we got from our Maytag washer that my husband's grandma gave him when he graduated college in 1985. My mom's year old coffeemaker just shot craps. Yes, it was cheap. Closets in 1950's era homes were a fraction of the walk in closets that are now size of my bedroom growing up. I have too many friends to count who can't park their cars in their garages due to them being full of either 'toys' or stuff they rarely or never use. Storage units popping up like mushrooms all over my town. Homes built today over twice the size they were in the 50's and 60's even as average family size has shrunk. https://www.newser.com/story/225645/average-size-of-us-homes-decade-by-decade.html
There were 4 of us girls who grew up in a 1000 sq ft home with my mom and dad. We survived. (although sharing a room with my messy sister was the source of more than a few conflicts, haha)
I am guilty too - I could go a month without doing laundry and still have clothes in my closet. But we CAN use our garage to park our cars, lol.
Bottom line the vast majority of us have way too much crap we don't really need or use. And don't get me started on all of the $5+ coffee places out there when most actually own a coffee pot that makes coffee for a fraction of that. There are 4 within a mile of my home and they all have lines at the drive throughs when I pass by. Higher prices may hurt in the short run but if we just focused on 'needs' over 'wants' we can get through this.
Totally. Price isn't the end all. I'd pay double for meat that comes from happily raised and cared for animals. And similar for other goods.
Health is Wealth.
So right. I've been buying clean fish from small fishermen via the Sitka Seafood Market for several years, and even though it's expensive I couldn't be happier. More recently started buying meat from the Seven Sons regenerative farm in Indiana. I'm sure there are more sources out there, and hope their number is increasing. It costs a bit more to get healthy food, but it's worth it in the long run. Bonus: you get to feel virtuous!
My husband and I always roll our eyes when we drive past houses that have 75K worth of cars sitting in front of the garage and 3K worth of CRAP inside the garage.
When we moved back to the states in 1989 my dad said he would buy us a Whirlpool washer and dryer if we had a baby. Being the compliant daughter that I am, I got the washer and dryer and a year later along came the baby. The washer and dryer bit the dust about 8 years ago and I cried as they were hauled to the dump. My son will be 35 soon....he is still in good shape. It was a good deal.
Yes a guy in our neighborhood posted on our neighborhood FB page with a picture of his almost brand new car that was stolen out of his driveway overnight - probably a $50K car easy. I wanted to post (but didn't) saying 'what was it doing in the driveway? You have a garage!? At least half of the homes in our middle class neighborhood don't park their cars in their garages - I laugh as I back out of my (heated) garage on mornings they are out scraping ice/snow/frost off their running to warm up cars. Guess it's petty - our next door neighbors do have 4 kids and he has a handyman biz so I understand their 'having a lot of stuff' stage of life, but a lot of these folks don't even have kids still at home and still have full garages.
My garage is my shop. No car has been in it since 1990.
Well at least it's useful stuff. 😆 One neighbor was a professional magician and he kept all his show supplies + he used to put out a huge Halloween display that kids would come for blocks around to see. He retired from all that and sold off all that stuff, telling me, now we can finally park our cars in the garage! Five years later, cars are still sitting in the driveway - a squirrel got in under one of his cars and chewed up a bunch of wiring, complained it cost him $3 grand to fix. Don't know what's in that garage now!?
Petty....I am with you. Scrape away!!
A great deal! 💖
Cheap crap from China. Time to wean off it.
IN 11 years I have gone through 2 LG refrigerators. I am done with them. I just purchased a Whirlpool. I was looking at GE, but apparently China bought them.
There are no appliances made in America anymore. The last great hold out, kitchen aide, sold to whirlpool,which is all made in china. They are probably assembled here but all parts made in china. Sucks. Give me thirty year old kitchen aides and I’ll get another thirty years out of them
Have you looked at Speed Queen? I think they may be made in USA, components though I'm unsure.
But I agree, using an old laundry set of Sears Kenmore.
My refrigerator came from Sears - model year 2000. Still works great.
Where I live, the hard water is so bad that it destroys appliances. My condo was not built with a copper coil installed, so I am not able to install a water softener without spending thousands of dollars (and my crazy neighbor’s approval to dig under her garage, which is one of those garages full of crap mentioned in these comments.) so I’ve had to replace dishwasher and washing machine, and the ice maker in my fridge crusted over a while ago, so I just use ice trays.
Coffee makers only last a year with this water, so I have water delivered and only use the filtered water for coffee… my Nespresso machine has so far lasted 6 years, and I occasionally run the cleaner fluid through it. Much cheaper than Starbucks and I can make my own caramel macchiato at home.
@Starsky- you can't plumb a filter into the line? We have hard water, too.
The only thing I can do is add a filter to the output, like a shower head. I’ve had two different water filtration guys out to look at it. During construction, they needed to add a copper coil next to the water heater, and the original buyer did not add that option. (The same buyer selected granite countertops that look exactly like a chocolate chip protein bar. 😆) So they would need to run a pipe to the water source, which would require digging up concrete and going under the garage next door. That’s the only way I could add a filtration system to the overall water line that would run to washing machine upstairs, dishwasher downstairs, and all throughout the house.
I added the filtered water delivery, so I use that for drinking, cooking, coffee, etc., but that’s the only (affordable) option. It’s a real problem, as the hard water corrodes everything—I’ve had to completely replace the parts in the toilets, and all the other appliances have had to be replaced. I throw a half cup of Borax in the washer with each load, which helps a little bit (clothes washed in this water come out stiff and scratchy, even with fabric softener added.)
I was talking to a restaurant owner in my neighborhood and he invested thousands in a water filtration system in his restaurant to protect his investment in appliances.
@Starskey- oh, I get the hard water stuff. Try baking soda in the wash. It'll soften the water, kill bacteria, and get things nice and clean.
You took the thoughts right out of my head - described our current situation perfectly. Thanks!
Best car I had was a 35-year-old beetle. It was reliable.
And pretty. It got stolen.
Then I had (living in Europe) a Saab, Land Rover, Peugeot, Renault, Citroen. The LR was pretty good. ALL the others were unreliable expensive disasters.
we had an ancient citroen when I was growing up, and my dad kept it running long past it's due date. We all loved that car.
The only foreign stuff that is(was?) Really good are high end German cars and appliances. I had an amazing Gaggenau oven for 25 years.
@Astra- I just sold my 2001 LR Disco II 2 years ago. I absolutely loved that thing and thenew owner loves it, too.
Great points and I agree. Although personally I enjoy going to fancy coffee shops and having a nice pastry and coffee. Sure I can make coffee at home but it’s not the same. I can’t make a latte easily and sometimes I just like to go out 🤷♀️ It’s definitely not a need but that’s ok too, it’s like going out for lunch or dinner, for me, since I rarely do that. At least it’s not buying extra stuff I need a storage unit for 😉😆
But yes, price isn’t the be all and end all, for sure.
Another thing Sowell doesn’t seem to address is the lopsided nature of these tariffs. I can’t really support us having few or no tariffs when everyone else has numerous heavy tariffs for our exported goods. How is that fair or how is that helping our economy and our people??
Coffee shops are where I go to have a coffee & covid discussion with a friend or someone who is possessed with TDS.
Oh I meet people for coffee - both business and personal. Just not every day.
But many people make that a daily routine. My mom's caregiver would show up every day with a huge Starbucks coffee and then complained to her about having trouble paying her bills. My mom told her she could drink her coffee for free and that she needed to quit wasting money at Starbucks and save that money for her bills, lol. She just laughed and said she needed to treat herself in the mornings.
See, that’s the issue. Not having fancy coffee, having it every day when you are having trouble paying your bills. She needs a good dose of Dave Ramsey lol 😆
Davism: "if you're in debt the only way you should see the inside of a restaurant is if you're working there to pay off debt" 😆
There's also the environmental impact of all the cheap garbage that ends up in a landfill in a very short time period. I sometimes think the global warming hysteria has been used to distract from our production of solid waste, a very real problem.
Agree. We did have a local place that carried parts and did repairs on all sorts of things and we do try to repair vs replace when we can. But the repair place went under (after 60 years in business) in 2021 - sad - I suppose a victim of our throw-away culture.
That book is currently on my desk and I've been reading it to help my son with his Econ requirement for high school. I greatly respect Thomas Sowell too but the thing I'm just now beginning to appreciate is how for all the talk about "free trade," we actually haven't had that in a long time. I will have to read what Sowell is saying about the tariffs.
Trump seems more focused on fair trade rather than misnamed free trade.
I agree. I didn't have any idea about how unfair trade conditions have been historically.
Fair Trade instead of Free Trade. Great way to frame it.
Considering the Trump Tariffs are just reciprocal (same as they are imposing on us) then that seems reasonable.
Yes. I don't believe Reagan meant "free trade" to mean what it became. I believe he meant "fair trade" for both parties involved, not the host (the USA) getting sucked dry by the internal and external parasites and leaches.
If charity begins at home, so then prosperity as well. Producing high value manufactures domestically is not a mortal sin, it is the health and wealth of a nation. It is the future.
All the 'free trade' talk was Globalist nonsense cultivated in their schools and incestuous organization. Something had to be done about the massive trade imbalance. It was so bad that America had nothing further to lose. America was close to a total collapse.
Increasing manufacturing here in the US is important for things like medications. We really shouldn't be relying on China for antibiotics! Some things just mean more when it comes to National security, and override other interests.
AND remember the shortages of stuff during the Pandemic?
But how to we trust the nations drug manufacturers again?
Pfizer, Astra-Zeneca, J&J?
Thanks for that assessment!