Inflation check: Gas, cars, truck prices rising

I agree inflation will be a hot campaign issue for next years midterms. Along with illegal immigration, crime etc. But 2020 wasn't a choice of this. It boiled down to swing voters, independents who decided to get rid of Trump by a 54-41 margin voting for Biden. Swing voters, independents aren't political junkies and their decision was made with what was happening at the time. After 4 years of Trump childish antics like name calling and throwing temper tantrums along with his 3rd grade schoolyard bullying tactics, his thirst for political revenge grating on them. They decided to put politics, policy on the backseat and vote more or less for personality, voting for the only candidate that behaved like an adult, like a president.

It wasn't a vote for Democratic policies, quite the contrary when one looks at the whole election. 2020 was a vote against Trump by swing voters, independents only. They gave Trump 41% of their vote. But 48% of independents, swing voters voted for Republican congressional candidate allowing the GOP to pick up 13 house seats. 51% of independents voted for Republican senatorial candidates and 52% for Republican governor candidates.

For independents, Trump had to go. But the rest of the Republicans on the ballot received good support from them. Quite a lot of independents voted for Biden, against Trump, then voted Republican down ballot. That's not an endorsement nor a rejection of either party's policies or agenda. 2020 was a rejection of just one man for his very rude, obnoxious personality.

If one follows the generic congressional polls, when Trump is front and center in then news, the Democrats chances in the midterm improve, when there's no Trump in the news, the Republicans chances improve. You can take this as you like. But it doesn't take a political rocket scientist to see Trump is at the moment an albatross around the Republicans neck when it comes to regaining the House and Senate in 2022. Independents, swing voters just plain don't like Trump. This isn't saying they didn't like his ideas or policies, just the man himself. History has shown folks don't usually vote for someone they dislike. Regardless of policies and stances on the issues.

I'd say Trump had the right message, but was the wrong messenger. As long as Trump is the messenger, independents, swing voters aren't listening to the message. But his is a GOP problem. They'll either solve it or not.

 

Come on, there was no inflation under Trump.
Everything started under Biden.

 

I guess people still have money so they do not want to work. Too much money was distributed in different forms.
They should have stopped it in March, instead they doubled down on hand outs,
That was a mistake.

 

DENIAL of REALITY on YOUR part does NOT alter reality one iota!

Sad!

 

I am not a democratic voter but I can tell you that the inflation for some of the things on your list has nothing to do with the American election. For example one of the primary reason for increase car prices is because of the computer chip shortage. That started way before the election. If you followed the PS5 and GPU shortages back in 2020 you know the issue. Prices for computer chip are up world wide. I held off building a new computer for the last 6-8 months because I could not get a decent GPU at a reasonable price. I didn't want to pay 5X retail in the after market.

Try googling each of the items on your list and do some research for what caused the price increase.

 

I don't think that is the issue.

Reasons:
- Abundance of jobs have people shopping around for best offer
- Abundance of jobs have people quitting existing jobs and taking new ones
- Lot of people lost well paying jobs last year, and don't want to take min-wage jobs
- Fear of Covid at the work place
- Understaffed companies over-work existing employees who walk out
- People rather quit and look for work-from-home jobs than return to the office
- 2020 closedowns / layoffs forced people to move out of town, and didnt come back after re-opening

I've never seen so many people quit, and I am talking about highly compensated professionals. They don't stay home, they take other jobs, and leave behind an opening on the old company and now others are working harder to get all the work done. Competing companies are poaching their rivals employees.

We have a problem, and its called worker shortage.

 

Correct. Air-fare, hotels etc were near zero last year this time, and the inflation numbers are generated by comparing to the situation a year ago, so of course they look high. Same with used cars. Rental car companies dumped their inventory last year when no one was renting cars, and now they are not supplying the used car lots like they usually do, and they don't have enough cars to rent out, hence higher rental prices. There is also shortages of a vast array of imports due to global shut downs last year. Lumber prices were through the roof due to Canadian lumber yards being closes down, but that has already corrected itself for the most part.

 

Yes, but still, people have a lot of money on their hands, that is why they are so picky.
Those money came from federal government I guess.
In that environment to push trillions dollars more in form of hand outs is an extreme stupidity.

 

if you vote within the USA you participate in the democratic process. You can then choose to vote Democrat or Republican if you want to support either of the 2 major parties

But, let us not confuse a democratic process with the Democrat party. They are not the same. In fact, as each year passes, the Democrat party wants to eradicate the democratic process

I'd love for you to educate yourself as to why foundries had to leave CA and TX
I'd love for you to educate yourself on why many raw materials had to leave the USA

Yes, Democrat policies killed them.

The killing of this nation didn't happen overnight but it did happen thanks to Democrat voters

Democrat votes have consequences; never good

 

Only in terms of inflation. I still have all mine. Threw it all in a saving account where it still sits paying me a massive 10 cents in interest per month.

 

Why? Did I start threads talking about those issues. The reason I told you to google the cause for inflation of those products or industries was because like cars I knew the reason had nothing to do with the election. What does Biden's election have to do with a world wide computer chip shortage?

Computer and electronics will probably continue to rise because now we have a capacitor shortage. Production in Malaysia and Indonesia has declined due to covid and the epidemic has cause a world wide surge in demand.

For the other items on your list take a look at a post from @Pro_Line_FL in this thread. He gives you an explanation for why there was inflation in each of the areas you listed.

Thanks for you opinion. I am not a fan of many Democrat policies either but I try not to blame them for things they had nothing to do with like you just did.

 

you brought up chip supplies and prices and I wanted to take you back to policies that caused.................the why

you want none of that as it fills you full of holes.

an honest person would open their eyes to just how harmful all of this havoc within the USA can be traced back to a Democrat policy

 

I brought up chip supplies as a specific reason for the increase in vehicle prices as oppose to you blaming democrat voters. If you want to start a thread and talk about past policies that lead specific manufacturing to leave the country, I would gladly participate.

 

I waited 6 months for outboard motors, and I think that is a good example of how things are overseas. Manufactures wait for parts, part suppliers wait for materials, and everyone seems to be waiting for someone, or something which is why everything slowed down.

 

Whose idea was this interdependent global economy anyway?

 

Free market capitalists. You know, people like Ronald Reagan. You might not like every aspect of it, especially now that is it being demonized, but it has created lot of wealth and has increased our standard of living.

As for outboards, the Japanese ones are the best. Evinrude was made in US (although owned by a Canadian company) and was is considered the most un-reliable motor in the market, and even if had wanted to buy one, I couldn't have done so since they discontinued making outboards in 2020.

 

Suzuki and Mercury are both fine outboards. You don't need a Yamaha

Oh, and I put many hours on an Evinrude engine and towed many a Chrysler/Force back to the dock (you wanna talk worst outboards)

I'm now a sterndrive guy again because I do my own work and can repower for a fraction of the cost when the time comes

 

Suzuki and Yamaha are obviously made in Japan, and are indeed good choices, although if you pick Yamaha, you are paying extra just for the name.

Mercury also had a very long waiting time (at least 4 months). Mercury was able to grease up Trump admin officials to avoid tariffs on their Chinese made outboards.

Mercury Marine Manufacturing Locations
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, USA
Juárez, Mexico
Komagane, Japan (TMC joint venture)
Petit-Rechain, Belgium
St. Cloud, Florida, USA
Suzhou, China

I live in Florida and sterndrive is a bad choice unless you have a boatlift, or keep it in dry storage.

 

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rack and stack and check out www.superflushsystems.com i just did my risers check and they were good.

 

Just In Time Supply Chain falls apart when there is a disruption of any kind. If manufacturing or transportation encounter any delays the JIT model collapses. It was started as a means to save costs on stocking supply inventory needed for manufacturing but the losses incurred by having idle factories and shipping have far outweighed whatever savings were achieved.