Hobby Inflation

Shooting is not the only sport that’s facing the problem of steep price increases. I think of this dynamic as “hobby inflation,” and it has affected quite literally every single one of my favorite recreational activities, including bourbon collecting (where the niche-but-attainable bottles I used to hoard on a meager Ph.D.-student budget have exploded in price) and fishing. And I’m not uniquely unlucky with my choice of pursuits. Hobby inflation can be seen in golf, skiing, indoor climbing, mountain biking, photography, knitting, tabletop games, and theatergoing. Articles and forum posts with titles such as “Why Is [Insert Hobby] So Expensive Now?” have become a genre of writing unto themselves.

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/a...itting/682497/

yep, even paywalls are getting expensive ...

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that's 10$/month or 120$/yr.

Just late stage capitalism. In the west we’ve had enough years of luxury goods and delicious food, overnight shipping, and billions spent every year on market research and advertising to psychoanalyze us and create an environment which more efficiently sucks up wealth from the lower and middle class.

Inflation used to be primarily caused by monetary policy, it now it’s driven by corporate profits / greedflation. Every company out there expects record revenue and record profits every quarter and won’t hesitate to get rid of executive that don’t utilize greedflation to drive growth. There is no fixing this without a major depression/war/coup/paradigm shift.

Industrial Revolution and capitalism saved the west at one point, and progressed the world’s standard of living and technology way better than any other economic system at the time was able to. But the golden age has come and gone, I hope all you boomers enjoyed your $10,000 houses and $2,000 cars and $5 blowjobs and $2 tee times while it lasted. A lot of yall even managed to earn a pension before taking that away from the future generations, Bravo.

I'm not salty, you are salty...

I thought we just had an election about expensive eggs. Isn't Trump going to fix it?

Tex is correct.
We've been asked to foster abandoned horses from places that board horses. We took in a couple that we can use for ranch work but have declined all older or otherwise useless pasture ornaments.
Grain prices and everything throughout that hobby world has gone through the roof resulting with city folks that thought horses are cute, without realizing how much horse care costs and walk away.

Another example of folks that simply should not be in whatever hobby is under discussion.

I thought we just had an election about expensive eggs. Isn't Trump going to fix it? Originally Posted by Anthonylewis50

Do you belive anything from Orange Glow & Eyeliner Boytoy & Musk Rat say's ?????

Just late stage capitalism. In the west we’ve had enough years of luxury goods and delicious food, overnight shipping, and billions spent every year on market research and advertising to psychoanalyze us and create an environment which more efficiently sucks up wealth from the lower and middle class.

Inflation used to be primarily caused by monetary policy, it now it’s driven by corporate profits / greedflation. Every company out there expects record revenue and record profits every quarter and won’t hesitate to get rid of executive that don’t utilize greedflation to drive growth. There is no fixing this without a major depression/war/coup/paradigm shift.

Industrial Revolution and capitalism saved the west at one point, and progressed the world’s standard of living and technology way better than any other economic system at the time was able to. But the golden age has come and gone, I hope all you boomers enjoyed your $10,000 houses and $2,000 cars and $5 blowjobs and $2 tee times while it lasted. A lot of yall even managed to earn a pension before taking that away from the future generations, Bravo. Originally Posted by buttermilkoperator

Well, with cheap manufacturing that happened in China, Corporate America bought shit dirt cheap from China and sold it at 70% margins. And we continued to consume as it was still cheaper, and we wanted more of that useless shit. Garages are full of unnecessary stuff or stuff used only once in an year, cars are twice the normal need, things don't get repaired anymore they are just tossed to landfill, and new shiny ones are bought at cheaper price, companies design products that will be obsolete in 2 yrs and then be thrown in landfill.

Same for food....serving sizes are twice the "required" needs, food is fancier, more exotic. Its like art piece, being fed to you for 2-3 times the price.

Essentially it's rampant consumerism. While Corporates feed on it and promote it, Consumers love endless supply, and feed the frenzy further.

But now with shit costing twice/thrice due to new global business paradigm, hopefully, everybody gets some sense, slows down a bit and be a bit more conscious.

I thought we just had an election about expensive eggs. Isn't Trump going to fix it? Originally Posted by Anthonylewis50

He sure fixed my 401k.

Just late stage capitalism. In the west we’ve had enough years of luxury goods and delicious food, overnight shipping, and billions spent every year on market research and advertising to psychoanalyze us and create an environment which more efficiently sucks up wealth from the lower and middle class.

Inflation used to be primarily caused by monetary policy, it now it’s driven by corporate profits / greedflation. Every company out there expects record revenue and record profits every quarter and won’t hesitate to get rid of executive that don’t utilize greedflation to drive growth. There is no fixing this without a major depression/war/coup/paradigm shift.

Industrial Revolution and capitalism saved the west at one point, and progressed the world’s standard of living and technology way better than any other economic system at the time was able to. But the golden age has come and gone, I hope all you boomers enjoyed your $10,000 houses and $2,000 cars and $5 blowjobs and $2 tee times while it lasted. A lot of yall even managed to earn a pension before taking that away from the future generations, Bravo. Originally Posted by buttermilkoperator

The Boomers embraced the lie of trickle down economics and turned on the thing making bjs $5: unions.
There has been, as Ross Perot was quoted, a giant sucking sound, more of money being syphoned from a solid middle class to the hands of just a few greedy deplorables.

He sure fixed my 401k. Originally Posted by Ralph Fults

Eggs and Nest Eggs both are fixed.

I wanna know where you are investing.. because my next egg is still a solid 8% below where it was at the start of the year.

down about 5.6% ytd.

i spread my traditional and my roth so i have a lot in large caps, a smaller percentage in mid-caps and a little in small caps.
more value than growth.
and about 60-65% equities & 35-40% in bonds & cash.
more equities than most models suggest for my age (early 70s).

low costs overall cos avg exp ratio is about 0.35%, no front-end load, no 12b fees, mostly in mutual funds, some etfs.

over past 25yrs, 6-7% annual return.
most of gain has been due to the overall economy.
resulting in having more today than when i left my last full-time job 11 yrs ago.
and that's *after* withdrawing about 40-60k a year + 30k roth conversion for last 4 yrs.


"hey darling, wanna cum up and see my portfolio charts??" :^}

Stocks down about 16% YEAR to date. Thankfully, I took a lot out of the market in November. So I’m maybe 30% in cash or cash equivalents. Most of the cash is in tax free accounts. Which I could have sold some of my long term tech stocks but have capital gains such that it would cost way too much.

Stocks overweight in tech, especially AMZN, AAPL, TSMD, ASML, MSFT, and NVDA. Mutual funds, the bulk of my holdings, probably down slightly less than 10%.

Very rough year so far. Going to get worse before it gets better, I fear.

.


"hey darling, wanna cum up and see my portfolio charts??" :^} Originally Posted by pmdelites

I'd do some wild things for a man with access to a Bloomberg Terminal