Investing Thread

[tower912]

Thinking about going full cabbage patch kid and buying up all of the toys I can and hoarding them until Christmas time.   Good investment?

[Uncle Rico]

Thinking about going full cabbage patch kid and buying up all of the toys I can and hoarding them until Christmas time.   Good investment?

In the 1940's, you couldn't afford to do that. 

[Hards Alumni]

I believe China ushered in the throw it away society.
Inexpensive, poorly made products.  When it breaks down, throw it away and get another one.
Do we now start to mend worn torn clothes, resole our shoes, fix our TVs?
Back in the 1920s,30s, 40s when majority of products were made in America, did people have as many pairs of shoes, cars, clothes, conveniences?
Will be interesting when items become more expensive.

They simply filled a need we required.  Market driven global economics.  The US consumer was wealthy and wanted things, but did not want to pay much for them... which just makes sense.  Labor makes up a chunk of the price of all goods, and China was able to have lower labor costs for decades.  Now, what they have as a strength is specialization and automation of those plants.  This allows them to have a near monopoly on production of many items.  Sure, the US could open up plants to replace those items, but the barrier to entry is incredibly high, and even IF the plant is built the workers have no experience making those products.  It'd take years and a ton of money to make an inferior product.  What foolish society would willingly do this to themselves?

Making *things* here is expensive and we don't do it because we've been accustomed to our current lifestyle.  From the Boomers until the current babies things have been this way. 

[Uncle Rico]

They simply filled a need we required.  Market driven global economics.  The US consumer was wealthy and wanted things, but did not want to pay much for them... which just makes sense.  Labor makes up a chunk of the price of all goods, and China was able to have lower labor costs for decades.  Now, what they have as a strength is specialization and automation of those plants.  This allows them to have a near monopoly on production of many items.  Sure, the US could open up plants to replace those items, but the barrier to entry is incredibly high, and even IF the plant is built the workers have no experience making those products.  It'd take years and a ton of money to make an inferior product.  What foolish society would willingly do this to themselves?

Making *things* here is expensive and we don't do it because we've been accustomed to our current lifestyle.  From the Boomers until the current babies things have been this way. 

Things were just better when we had factories.  More jobs, more happiness, less poverty and an economy that never was on the precipice

[NCMUFan]

They simply filled a need we required.  Market driven global economics.  The US consumer was wealthy and wanted things, but did not want to pay much for them... which just makes sense.  Labor makes up a chunk of the price of all goods, and China was able to have lower labor costs for decades.  Now, what they have as a strength is specialization and automation of those plants.  This allows them to have a near monopoly on production of many items.  Sure, the US could open up plants to replace those items, but the barrier to entry is incredibly high, and even IF the plant is built the workers have no experience making those products.  It'd take years and a ton of money to make an inferior product.  What foolish society would willingly do this to themselves?

Making *things* here is expensive and we don't do it because we've been accustomed to our current lifestyle.  From the Boomers until the current babies things have been this way. 

Shouldn't this be in the Daily Doom thread?

[Hards Alumni]

Shouldn't this be in the Daily Doom thread?

Nah, we are talking economy here.

The doom is still to come.

[NCMUFan]

Nah, we are talking economy here.

The doom is still to come.

Guess time to invest in cemetery plots.

[Hards Alumni]

Guess time to invest in cemetery plots.

People never appreciate them enough until they need them.   

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Wow, a thread that exists so people can brag about what stocks they made killings on to one on "human decency".  You look very very cute on your soap box.

The only person that bragged about their results--incessantly--was roqqet.

[MUBurrow]

Thinking about going full cabbage patch kid and buying up all of the toys I can and hoarding them until Christmas time.  Good investment?

[rocky_warrior]

Didn't take long for the "prices are too high" crowd to become the "prices are too low" crowd.

Right, inflation was the other guys fault.  Now we're fixing it by raising prices! 

I bought stock in shoesmiths today.  Lots of shoe repair coming I hear. 

[Scoop Snoop]

Thinking about going full cabbage patch kid and buying up all of the toys I can and hoarding them until Christmas time.  Good investment?

Too long of a wait to reap the rewards. Buy all the coffee you can with your investing dollars, and you will get a quick, substantial profit on your investment. It's going to be quite a while before McDermott's American based coffee plantations are producing. My source tells me he has already purchased suitable property in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Then "Blue Mountain" coffee will be from America rather than Jamaica. I'm hoping he will hire me to help manage the plantations. After all, I can ride a horse.

[dgies9156]

What folks don't understand is that from the 1970s onward, the most critically controlled element of the U.S. Economy was inflation. The 1970s had horrific inflation -- brought about by a number of factors, not the least of which was oil shocks. The Federal Reserve made the decision to tame inflation. By the mid-1980s, we had largely succeeded.

We controlled inflation by either lowering costs, which meant off-shoring production to developing parts of the world, or, by replacing man with machine. Open trade policy and agreements with Chine, Vietnam and other countries made this possible.

Where we could not off-shore, we "tolerated" illegal immigration. Millions of people came to our country to mow lawns, pick fruit and vegetables, do clean-up work and perform tasks that Americans didn't want to do for what folks were willing to pay. So we "off-shored it" by bringing the labor to us.

Now, we have a President who is tinkering both both trends.The result will take years to resolve if we don't abandon the current path.

It's interesting how Americans are willing to abandon their values to save a few cents or avoid inflation. In my wife's hometown, we were talking to well-educated friends about how child labor, low wages, horrible working conditions and theft of intellectual property was a hallmark off the Chinese. It's why we won't shop at Walmart. One person looked at us and said, "it must be nice to be rich enough to have ethics."

[Hards Alumni]

To piggy back here...

China has already moved much of the unskilled labor to other nearby countries, and you can probably guess why the Belt and Road initiative exists.  Africa is next.

[rocky_warrior]

It's why we won't shop at Walmart.

This is amusing to me.  For several years I effectively boycotted Walmart for being the "big bad retail giant".  For a myriad of reasons I've become pretty loyal to Walmart the past couple years.  Why funny?  Do people really think having Amazon (retail giant)  deliver things to them is better (in terms of local economy) than shopping at a local store?  Sure there are some actual "local stores" I visit occasionally.  I love that my Ace hardware is *pretty* local, but I still do plenty of shopping at Lowes & Home Depot.  I have a local-ish grocery store that I visit, but I do most of my shopping at the big chain groceries. 

Are you really shopping somewhere morally better than your local Walmart?  I think you're fooling yourself.

[tower912]

The world headquarters for Meijer is 5 miles from where I type this.  Shopping at Meijer is shopping local for me.   Woot.

[MU82]

Back in the 1920s,30s, 40s when majority of products were made in America, did people have as many pairs of shoes, cars, clothes, conveniences?

During the Great Depression, if clothes or shoes got holes in 'em, you'd patch 'em up. And then, when necessary, patch up the patches. But hey, they were America-made patches! And hardly anybody could afford "conveniences." An extravagance was putting one chicken wing in with the broth. But hey, it was an America-raised chicken wing, and the broth came from one of the few American factories that didn't go bankrupt!

And then came World War II, when corporations willingly stopped producing most of their own items so they could make bombs and tanks and bandages and hardware and other items vital to the war effort. America-made guns and ammo were the best, and they still are!

Ah, the 1930s and '40s. If only we could make America great like that again. Especially for women and people of color. They didn't need DEI to really have it great back then!

[tower912]

I like the inspiration to get greed out of Christmas.  To stop spoiling kids and teach them to be happy with the hand stitched rag doll from Etsy.  A reminder that Christmas is about Christ.  Born to a single mom.  Forced to flee into exile.  An immigrant.  Who thought us to love our neighbors as ourselves.

I doubt it leads to a sound investment strategy, as the American economy is consumer driven.  But I applaud the idea to stop being so greedy.  Dovetails nicely with my own minimalism and a good lesson for the kids.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

One person looked at us and said, "it must be nice to be rich enough to have ethics."

https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

[Jay Bee]

Thinking about going full cabbage patch kid and buying up all of the toys I can and hoarding them until Christmas time.   Good investment?

Check w Reeko. He recently did something similar, purchasing 50 Fleshlights

[Hards Alumni]

I like the inspiration to get greed out of Christmas.  To stop spoiling kids and teach them to be happy with the hand stitched rag doll from Etsy.  A reminder that Christmas is about Christ.  Born to a single mom.  Forced to flee into exile.  An immigrant.  Who thought us to love our neighbors as ourselves.

I doubt it leads to a sound investment strategy, as the American economy is consumer driven.  But I applaud the idea to stop being so greedy.  Dovetails nicely with my own minimalism and a good lesson for the kids.

Nah, you need those 30 dolls.

[GB Warrior]

I like the inspiration to get greed out of Christmas.  To stop spoiling kids and teach them to be happy with the hand stitched rag doll from Etsy.  A reminder that Christmas is about Christ.  Born to a single mom.  Forced to flee into exile.  An immigrant.  Who thought us to love our neighbors as ourselves.

I doubt it leads to a sound investment strategy, as the American economy is consumer driven.  But I applaud the idea to stop being so greedy.  Dovetails nicely with my own minimalism and a good lesson for the kids.

Tower, not disagreeing but there are a lot of mental gymnastics being done by some to suggest that higher prices are good, moral or whatever, and it overlooks that our most marginalized people are the ones that are most impacted.

I'm dubious that there will be any recalibration in American society. Eliminating greed doesn't run in our history

[Uncle Rico]

Check w Reeko. He recently did something similar, purchasing 50 Fleshlights

Thanks for ordering them all from me.

[Jay Bee]

Thanks for ordering them all from me.

Thanks 4 breakin em in for me

[Uncle Rico]

Thanks 4 breakin em in for me

In this economy, I'm glad you could afford them.