Inflation of good with no matching inflation of pay.
Phone upgrades even though there’s barely any change from the last model.
Since 2018, the trend seemed to be going toward removing features instead… sd card slot, headphone jack, physical buttons, intrusions of screen space…
consumers have noticed, since sales of smartphones have plateaued
Foldable are pretty neat, but still too expensive for most
Been eyeing that (still on a 6 year old phone), actual compactness is one of the few things I’d be willing to sacrifice most of the smartphone things I like for.
I have the fold and I wouldn’t call it compact, the flip style phones seem better for that aspect, I just enjoy the large screen when I use it for gaming or watching videos, it’s certainly more compact then if I had a tablet instead I suppose.
Might be better to wait and let it mature a bit if size is your main concern.
I was going to go with the Z Flip over the Fold, I’d want that half size phone.
The flip is pretty great, you can close the pockets on the front of your shirt now if you wear those type. First phone I’ve managed to not smash or send up a grain auger.
I think that’s the hidden cause of increasing phone pricing. I’m still using my note 9. The battery is starting to give so maybe this time next year I finally upgrade.
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.
Those “Pay over X months” schemes for smaller purchases than before.
Some people don’t realize each one of those is a new line of credit…
You can fuck your credit up for a very long time messing around with those on stupid shit.
The scarier thing is that they are designed to be less than six months to avoid federal loan regulations and are reported to credit agencies as some new kind of installment loan (I forget the exact term/acronym). Many lenders are refusing to lend to anyone who has even taken one out in the past 2-3 years since they are seen as such a high risk indicator.
It’s not just one, it’s that credit checks are big factor in credit scores.
Normally you get an infinite amount in a 2 week period as one check for when you’re shopping around
If someone does one of these every other month, that’s 6 credit checks in a year. Even if you pay them all back asap, it fucks your credit up.
And it’ll show as an open line of credit on your report forever. Which is normally a good thing, but it brings your average credit per account down which hurts you further.
People do t know all that, and their fucking up their credit without knowing it. Then if they have to do a big loan for home/car/whatever, they get a worse rate
Subscriptions everywhere. Video, credit, energy bills (subscription for repairs/maintenance), music, news sites, YouTubers, CARS, etc. I can’t fucking escape this hell!
Energy bills aren’t really subscriptions like the others though. You pay for the energy you use.
Whereas with the others, you’re paying the same price every month regardless of how much you use.
Yours doesn’t come with a delivery fee that you’d have to pay every month regardless of any usage?
Oh yeah. Does that count as a subscription too?
The maintenance plan is in addition to the gas usage
Other than energy bills, you’ll just have to dodge the rest of the subscriptions as best you can.
I am doing my okayest.
I’ve done pretty well so far. Only subscription I have is for Spotify and 1Password.
Buying giant SUVs no one needs with huge loans. Paying through the nose for corporate chain coffee.
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.
I realized this was a significant part of my expenses about a decade ago now, and started researching and budgeting for higher-quality products that don’t get as much advertisement as their cheaper counterparts. It’s been great! What started as a larger expense on the front end has already broken about even on potential replacements that I didn’t end up needing, plus I get high-quality items to use the whole way through as well!
It’s definitely a good thing to pay attention to just how much you spend on replacing things that broke down unexpectedly quickly. The higher-quality items often exist, but a lot of times you need to seek out the niche communities that focus on those products to help find them and parse through the available options. I’m sure a lot of people just aren’t able to front the charge to make the change, though.
Got any tips on researching these things? I’m always concerned that “buy-it-for-life” testimonials are only so trustworthy when the item was made years ago already, and the manufacturing process could have changed since.
Professional grade items are usually a great start. Not normally advertised, ugly as hell, but powerful, reliable and have a spare part/repair market. A professional vacuum will be expensive but you will be able to give it to your children.
One thing that you can look for is repair manuals, schematics, and spare parts. If those are easy to find, the product may have been made to be repairable.
Use survivorship bias in your favour. I’ve a fridge from 1953, wonderful 60s gas stove, a can opener from 1915, pickup from 1983, motorcycle from 1969 etc.
So, just need to swing by 1953, 1960s, 1915 and 1983 on the way home.
I’ve collected most of that except the bike in the last 5 years, grew tired of new stuff failing and being mostly disposable. The can opener is really neat, seems like 110 years ago they knew how to make something that actually worked and opened cans without leaving sharp edges, much better built than what you get at a store today. theyre 10 bucks on ebay. https://www.ebay.ca/itm/335171281718?hash=item4e09c3e336:g:7LIAAOSwPrFlZofk&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA0Exx8HDDFCXcyRYMrVHWpfpb4KkPCs685zBXJr%2FZxP3vXqGhnb8Gz0hHopfDa%2BvUWB9Ul925P1z9C20IVf%2FMQyeN2cM75RwAQg4AMY8FoGc5XXor6AwQgO4mNJjIprA0RHqrSpsqQjSOkugWUJ5oAFiKYhwjMUJrROWGaksLXdLCuFHpVPzolYKOTB5dEPW7uTRpUULrD0YXtrKGZktbDCaKSCA%2F59wj2sh0FiXtT2OTNhFVaTllTptmBt57QcY9NSySvgwxX63NDsK9Xg47wEY%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR4iR0YGwYw
I try to find as many forums as I can for people who are more likely to know about the product, like enthusiast forums for things like headphones, and professional forums for things like washing machines. I try to get a feel for what parts of a product fail most often, then try to find products where people have specifically reported those things holding strong. There’s probably more I could do, but even just that has led me to finding products that have lasted far longer than buying the cheap stuff on amazon had gotten me.
Buying expensive things and imagining that they last longer just because of their price tag is also a good way to lose money faster.
Correct. That’s why I talked about finding niche communities to help find and parse through options. For example, I didn’t just buy an expensive vacuum, I found a few vacuum enthusiast forums and looked through several threads discussing the best products for my budget price.
I’ve spent the majority of my life connected in some way or another to the internet, starting as a kid on niche bbs in the 90s, and it never ceases to amaze me that there are vacuum enthusiast forums.
Everybody’s got a thing, and they’re usually happy to talk about it to someone who’s genuinely interested. Definitely helpful if you’re looking into that exact thing.
Yeah 100% and I’m glad that people have a place to talk enthusiastically about their thing!
It doesn’t even have to be intentional. So much shit is plastic now so everything breaks faster.
Producing superfluous items uses energy which also has to be paid for. A cost we all pay.
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.
thats just an average facebook group, for anything
Exactly
Dishwasher pods are convenient and cost 5x as much as the powder.
They really ain’t even that much more convenient, and a box of powder lasts forever
And the pods notoriously have way too much soap in them which often leaves a film on the dishes
In case someone hasn’t seen it and might, I’ll mention that Technology Connections has a few great videos on dishwashers and detergent on (your friendly ethical alternative to) Youtube.
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Iphones being some sort of standard
Peer pressure on behalf for corporations is such a silly thing in my opinion…
My preferences only extend to what I want, I don’t really care what others use unless they are looking for suggestions/advice.
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.
I will never be happy until I have my own private train, I guess ;)
Just pretend you own the metro but let everyone else use it out of the goodness of your heart.
Damn communist freeloaders
Aw, I like that idea!
Can you give me an example?
For me, if I am buying a tool (e.g. pliers) I will always look for an item that will last longer and be of better quality. But I will probably not go for the most expensive ones.
In contrast, I don’t give a fuck about many car features. So, I would always prefer to buy a small city car.
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.
security deposit is equal to 12 months of rent
Jeez. Why the hell are landlords asking for a downpayment on a home they are leasing?
Because some tenants will just stop paying and refuse to leave. Some will trash the place and sell everything they can pry off and either disappear or just move on. Trying to go after them is a long legal battle and the end result can be that they have no money and you’ll get nothing.
Security deposits are security deposits. 12 months sounds crazy though. That really is enough for a downpayment in many places.
cause they can, and it’s a good source for an interest free loan. i mean who would pass on the opportunity to get an interest free loan where you can arbitrarily deduct the amount you owe?
It’s all falling apart. No future. No safety. No hope. Buy until you die.
"Choose a life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers… " Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting
Simply needing shelter
Yeah, especially where I live, I have no idea how anyone is supposed to find dignified housing that isn’t in a well paying job, a DINK couple in a cramped apartment or a trust fund baby. Average asking rents are averaging close to $3k CAD ($2225 USD)!
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.
