Ask Lemmy

Inflation of good with no matching inflation of pay.

Phone upgrades even though there’s barely any change from the last model.

Cars are a huge one. I know Lemmy is very radically against cars, but they are basically necessary for many (most?) Americans.

What is not necessary is the average price of a new car nearly doubling in 10 years. A $50k car should be a big luxury, not the fucking national average.

In order to afford a car that pricey, most people will have to severely compromise their savings, and/or get a loan that will last as long or longer than the car.

A thread on rising credit card debt in the US, combined with news of sustained spending levels and a rosy outlook on the economy at the surface got me thinking about this.

Recent trends that I thought of:

• Those "Pay over X months" schemes for smaller purchases than before.
• Tip amounts appearing in more places than they need to be, and increasing.
• Inflation of the prices of basic necessities and everything else
• Everything becoming a monthly subscription
• Deregulation of online gambling and related ads

I'm hoping for more recent trends and things I might not have considered like social media, but I also welcome personal experiences, expanding on any of the above and historical examples.

Buying giant SUVs no one needs with huge loans. Paying through the nose for corporate chain coffee.

Subscriptions everywhere. Video, credit, energy bills (subscription for repairs/maintenance), music, news sites, YouTubers, CARS, etc. I can't fucking escape this hell!

The most sinister is an almost inescapable one, where companies intentionally build things (larger appliances are a huge offender) to fail within 3 to 5 years.

It's the "a poor man can't afford cheap shoes" thing.

They love to "sell" this concept that making items cheaper means consumers can more frequently replace as their styles change. Fuck you, give me a white fridge that never breaks, I don't care if I have to pay double up front.

Buy now pay later schemes like Klarna.

You can spread the cost of a takeaway over 6 weeks. Wtf? If you can't afford a takeaway make a fucking sandwich.

They are paying 2/3rds of their income from a 80 hour warehouse job for a 1 futon closet in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, and then being told they are living too frivolously by assholes.

Trucks (In the USA)

I'm in this FB group that does financial advice with a little sarcasm and jokes mixed in. Suggest that someone should downsize to a car or get rid of their gas guzzling truck they have no real utility for and it's like you've insulted their religion. Never seen such a group of grown adults throwing temper tantrums like that in my life.

Dishwasher pods are convenient and cost 5x as much as the powder.

I was talking about groceries with a friend over in England a few nights ago. Apparently my pasta prices are 4x hers. And that's just the store brand dry noodles. If I found the cheapest deal I used to see from various places, it'd still be 2x. I'd need a pound of noodles for $0.49 to even be in the ballpark.

If a simple item like that is casually 4x more expensive, I'm sure everything else is also up there. I've been lucky that my income allows me to be a single family income provider and have money left over to throw around wherever I want, but just finding this out the other day really left a deep impression of just how sorry of a state things are in over here.

Iphones being some sort of standard

"here's a new credit offer, just spend X in 90 days and get free money!"

Yeah that one bit me

Just a persistent culture of materialism. That things will bring you happiness in some deeply rooted way that can't be matched. Add in an unhealthy dose of capitalistic mentality and there's also the push that if something costs more, it must be better.

So you get trapped in a cycle of buying things that have no real purpose, or can be better served by something cheaper, and feeling unfulfilled. So you look for something new to fill that emptiness that persists throughout the cycle.

not seeing your money is a factor.

if people can always see how fat or malnourished their wallet at the time of purchase, I am sure they'll double think.

but no, we solved that overthinking by means of credit cards.

or better yet, touchless payments. Just wave your magic cellphone and stuff is yours!

This ranks low in the scam scale, and it’s been around for decades, which leads me to believe it works well enough to keep around. At (some) supermarkets whenever an item is on sale the bright attention grabbing tag will say something like 3/$6 or 10/$10 leading you to believe you have to buy 3 or 10 or whatever at the same time to get the deal, when really the sale price is just $2 or $1 for the items in these examples, and you can buy however little you want.

Maybe adults don’t fall for it, but it sure worked on me when I was a dumb kid spending my few dollars I had on candy or whatever.

They're being sold to in terms of dollars per month, which makes a very oversized purchase sound reasonable if no one spells out the end results. We tend to value having the thing now more than being totally broke later.

Also, peoples means keep staying the same or shrinking while everyday purchases get more expensive.

Simply needing shelter

where i live renting a small room is more expensive than all minimum starting salaries i have seen, and you also need to pay two months rent upfront, and the security deposit is equal to 12 months of rent and because of high inflation that means you are literally paying an extra months worth of rent just on the deposit alone (which goes up by inflation).

so people telling me how much life is worth living? cause that's certainly beyond my means.

It's all falling apart. No future. No safety. No hope. Buy until you die.

BNPL ("buy now, pay later") is definitely amongst the worst problems

Buy Now Pay Later is what's exacerbating this. People are dumb, have short attention spans and most of them are statistically bad at basic math, so when they see a purchase that they can make without paying anything now they'll hit buy and they'll do it many times as the e-commerce platform will usually recommend other products to them they'll likely want, they won't do the calculation to see if they really can afford the split payments + the interest.

I paid like $29 for Taco Bell the other day 😉

One big thing is people will often buy for a niche that they don't need (like buying a big truck because they go to home depot once a month to get 2x4 and the other (in tech mostly) is "its for future proofing bro"

Monthly payments. Not just entertainment subscription devices but all kinds of stuff. Almost every product online now has a monthly cost option, a buy now pay later scheme. Another one I see a lot at the grocery store is organic/non GMO foods. They are always way more expensive but are usually the same food, and if they aren't organic will contain more pesticides without the "natural" immunity/resistance of GMOs. They aren't healthier, they don't taste any better, are worse for the environment and are much more expensive.

Second is expensive and humane meat. Most metrics these meats/eggs are graded by are so loose that they are still extremely inhumane. Unless they are from a local farm, that you can confirm are humane/free roam, just buy the cheapest meat and best marbling.

Computers. I'm a tech guy and the vast majority of people are still buying computers far more powerful than they need. Unless it's cad, programming or gaming you can use almost any computer. If you want it to be really fast install, or ask your local shit to install an SSD. Plus most reputable refurbishers will install SSDs on all laptops for sale. I recommend PC server and parts, good quality refurbishment and customer support. There may be a few dings/scratches but never severe or noticeable.

Premade/processed food. Either it's frozen meals or fast food these get expensive fast. Depending on where you live quality home cooked meals can be had for 1-3$ (based on the US). Ditch even storebought pasta sauce, it's not hard to make at home.

Wifi. Most ISPs will try to upsell you on everything but for most people an families the most you would ever need is 150-300 MBps. Also the max speed can only be reached with a hardwired Ethernet connection, WiFi speed is barely affected. If you have slow wifi use an old phone or laptop as a wifi amplifier, storebought solutions are criminally expensive.

That's enough for now but if you have more questions feel free to ask.