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..

Ag insider logo xs@2xoldhvymec

Showing 6 responses by winnardt

oldhvymec

You did the classic "I don't like the guy so anything good he did must have been fake" bit. Sorry, but Clinton had 4 balanced budgets and even ran a surplus. It wasn't fake and he and Kasich deserve the credit. Just because Bush II came along and blew that out of the water by starting two wars doesn't mean Clinton doesn't deserve credit.
oldhvymec

You didn’t go deep enough on your research. What the government does when it appears to take money from Social Security is skim off earnings of the surplus that is invested in bond funds. Money that comes in today goes right back out tomorrow to pay benefits. Any remaining surplus is invested in bond funds. Those bond funds generate earnings and only those earnings are used by Congress on other projects. So they don’t actually "raid" the Social Security fund, they use the earnings from invested surplus. But maybe most telling in your reply was that you didn’t show even slightly how Clinton’s budgets weren’t balanced, regardless of what was done with Social Security. Instead you went off on some unrelated and pointless topics which will disappear anyway when this entire thread is deleted by the moderators.
oldhvymec

"I guess I must have hit a nerve.." Not so much. I can’t tell you why I do this, but I do have a small urge to set people straight who have said something that was incorrect (and there are countless of these people on the Internet). Taking money from the earnings on the surplus is not stealing. The surplus is the money that was paid into the SS program, was set aside for SS benefits, and has not been touched, so you were just wrong. You were also wrong about Bill Clinton and balanced budgets.
Now there are plenty of things wrong with the way things are done in the U.S., but what are the alternatives? Are you arguing for Socialism? I think you’re just angry that some people have figured out a way to make some money and you haven’t been able to either take advantage of it or beat them at their own game. If you had, you wouldn’t be so upset or feel like you live in the matrix. As for me, I don’t live in the matrix and deal with reality as it comes my way. It has worked out beautifully for me so far. If you were smart, you'd start a lumber company and charge $2 less per sheet of plywood than your competitors. That's how the system works.
I have no idea what an "illegal SS contribution" is. It appears maybe you were having a meltdown when you came up with that one.
Moderators delete threads all the time that veer far away from music and music systems, as this one has.
jssmith

I did something similar only not the degree you did it because I don't own individual stocks, I own mutual funds. When the crash started last year I had my financial advisor move money to bond funds and then when I though it was over, I had her move money back to the stock funds. She likes to say I can't time the market, but I missed the low point by one day, so I thought that was pretty good. Saved a bunch and then made a bunch.
oldhvymec

I never said a word about "scam". A scam implies an illegal activity. Have you been able to show that the prices being charged for lumber are illegal? If not, there's no scam and no reason for you to insinuate that there is.

And then you think you know what sales tax rate I support. Why would you even go there when you don't have a clue about me?

And why are you concerned about money being paid into the Social Security system using fake Social Security numbers which will never be paid back out to those who paid it? At most it likely comes to about $3.5 billion, so totally insignificant in the $6.55 trillion budget of the U.S. government. You should be happy those illegals are paying into the system and not taking the benefits, which likely means a lower tax rate for you. Your arguments are silly.

"America is still the greatest country in the world". Watch and learn something: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fTkA3dvpPM

If you want to enjoy free speech, then you have to take the bad with the good. Just remember, you don't have to deal with those people who curse all the time if you don't want to (so no need to tell them to watch their language), but you can rest assured that they likely lead pitiful and ignorant lives and those who do have to deal with them likely can't stand them. It's sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy that they will likely never be successful in business or surrounded by people who really care about them.

Now to the main point and the one you totally neglected to reply to. I said if you want to beat them at their own game, why don't you open a lumber yard and charge $2 less per sheet of plywood than your competitors? That's how the system works and that's the one you should have attempted a reply to, but you just ignored it because apparently you didn't have an answer for it. Of course I also said "If you were smart" and that may or may not be the case.
oldhvymec

So now you're calling me a scammer. I've never scammed anybody in my entire life and if you were any sort of polite person, you'd retract that. But I'm guessing you won't so maybe it's you who is the problem and not people who curse.

I'll tell you how I arrived at $3.5 billion. I assumed that on average the illegal workers make $40,000 per year, which is likely on the high side. 6.2% (the SS tax rate) of 40,000 is $2480. I have a source that says 1.4 million invalid SS numbers were used in 2019. So 1,400,000 times $2480 is $3,472,000,000 or approximately $3.5 billion per year. And when compared to the $6.55 trillion the government spends per year, it's totally insignificant. But worst of all, you didn't even acknowledge that it goes into the SS fund and never gets paid back out to the people who paid it in, so it BENEFITS you and yet you still complain about it. You're a totally illogical and completely wrong in your thinking on that one.

You have this terrible habit of ignoring the parts of my replies that are difficult or impossible for you to answer. That's how the incompetent debate, just ignore when bested. I got no reply from you on Clinton's balanced budgets, opening your own lumber yard to beat the price increasers (not scammers, price increasers) at their own game, and how illegal workers paying into SS actually benefits you. Maybe if you actually tried to reply to my actual statements, you wouldn't feel the need to go off on these bizarre tangents (see the next paragraph).

I don't have a clue why you are asking about my driving habits, but I follow all traffic laws and I never talk on my cell while driving. You make these crazy assumptions with no evidence and you just look foolish doing it, so just stop.