Why the cost increase?

Well now that you have explain who is raising the prices, I know who is gouging who? Is that your point?

No body had to raise anything but peoples wages and that has been due for 10 years..

I know exactly what you and every body else is SAYING.. The fact is they raised the prices WAY WAY WAY higher to gouge people while they CAN.. The purchasing agents at Lowe’s still passes on the cost to the consumer.. There is a reason for a purchasing agent? It’s not to find the product, BUT to keep the market as stable as they can for their company without earing a reputation for being price gouging thieves.. It’s pretty simple..

The price is high because the SELLER is charging that much.

Eggs, 3 times the price? Because they can, NO, Because we let them...
A pie in a store is 8.00. Do you understand what is in a pie?

What was put in stores to attract people is now there to GOUGE people.
A bakery in a food store with 8.00 dollar pies that cost 1.25 with labor and overhead.

NO, There is a lot of gouging going on and more so over the last 18 months..

No it’s not going to get worse.. IT WILL GET BETTER.. People are going be held accountable for gouging.. I may get in trouble for calling a thief a thief in his own store, but I don’t have to go their either.. SO who is the big winner as I stand outside and picket the joint...??? That is the American WAY!!! IF you or me has the stones to stand a picket.. I sure have... Nasty one’s too..

Come to think of it, when was the last time there was  picket line for better "something or other"?

Do people even protest their screwed up wages and ZERO bennies and no retirement? UNIONS.. YES!!!

Regards

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.

Like I said,I truly hope I'm wrong. I've never wanted to be more wrong in my life. 

It's because we went off the Bitcoin standard in the '70s.

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.

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I could not have said it more clearly..

I don't take advantage of people, you clearly think that if there is a will there is a way? If there is a a scam take advantage of it?

I see exactly where you're coming from, just like with skimming the coffers of SS, you think it's alright to take money from someone else's interest earnings and call it your own because of what reason?

Because a damn thief wrote a law and did just that? I called Nixon what he was A THIEF. Remember "I'm not a crook"? I do , HE was a crook, of the highest magnitude. The worst of the worst...

If you can justify that alone your probably ok with 9.75 % sales tax too.

10 cents on a dollar? ARE YOU KIDDING?

The "illegal SS contribution"? You are thick.....

People in this country use false SS numbers to obtain employment.

Where the HECK is the money going? We are talking BILLIONS of dollars being siphoned to WHERE?

WHERE IS THE MONEY GOING?... That is the issue I'm having?

Receiving stolen monies into our coffers, you're ok with that? Then it is stolen again by some thief posing as an agent for OUR GOVERNMENT to do with as they see fit?

Does Guns for Drugs, Ollie North, Iran Contra, Mena Arkansas, Bill Clinton and George W and Jr Bush, ring any bells.. THAT is what happens when people with OUR money , that aren't watched do behind the American people's backs.. Very  BAD THINGS... 

America is still the greatest country in the world, now let's clean it UP..
And act like it is.. The language when I walk outside.. When was the last time YOU told someone to watch their language? WHEN???

Gouging is NOT American.. But Picketing is...