"Adam Corolla" wrote in message
...

"Trevor Jones" wrote in message
newsDRRi.20450$G25.20306@edtnps89...
Harold and Susan Vordos wrote:
"Adam Corolla" wrote in message
...

"Richard J Kinch" wrote in message
. 131...

Lead is at $1.80/lb these days, up from 40 cents a year ago and 20
cents
five years ago.

http://www.kitcometals.com/charts/lead_historical.html

What is the problem with world market for this metal?

Suddenly those neurotic hoards of old car batteries in the back yard
don't
look so crazy.

It looks like the price of all the metals listed on that site (Aluminum,
zinc, nickel and copper in addition to lead) have undergone dramatic
increases in the last two years.

Though lead has increased more than other metals, my take is that the
metals aren't increasing in value so much as the value of the dollar is
dropping.



An excellent observation. You want to put it in perspective?

An ounce of gold still weighs 480 grains, but it now takes about $760 of
our useless dollars to purchase one. Official gold valuation, prior to
1933, was $20.67/ounce.

Harold
Really, Harold.

Out of context, this looks like a huge devaluation. In context, not so
much.

Better comparisons would be to look at the price of gold, etc, against
the monthly average wage.

Wages have increased a great deal, also, in the time frame. A guy that
could buy an ounce of gold on his payday then, can still pretty much buy
one now.

Inflation sucks, but comparing just one data point, such as "the price
then was..." is pretty much useless info.

Compare how long a person could live, on the sale of an ounce of gold,
then to current state.

That would be a little better comparison.

Cheers
Trevor Jones

Agreed.

However, something odd has happened with the prices of aluminum, tin,
zinc, nickel, copper, lead, silver, gold and platinum. Over the past five
years the price increase of all these has averaged way more than 100%;
however, if you look at the prices on a graph, the increase was more
gradual up to fall of 2005, then the rate of increase took a sharp upturn.

What happened in the fall of 2005 to account for this?


My opinion?

The perceived "success" of China. They're busy selling goods made by wages
that are considerably lower than those in other countries. Needless to
say, demand is high, even with questionable quality, and in order to
provide, they must have raw materials. There's nothing better than a
shortage of any substance to create an unreasonable market.

My thoughts on this entire matter are that those of us that have had things
good---have lost our perspective. We are used to unearned money, and
continue to demand ever more. Along comes China, a country that is willing
to work for little, and floods the world with goods at low prices. Pretty
soon, the guy that's been building widgets, earning his $30/hr wages is no
longer in demand, for the guy in China, that's being paid far less, is
willing to make widgets. That concept cascades, and soon the only products
that are made here are those that are proprietary, if even them.

Our unquenched greed is coming home to roost.

Everyone is in for one hell of a shock as we come to realize we are no
longer an island, that we are, indeed, part of the balance of the world, and
in order for us to exist, we must be competitive with the average. The
day of unearned money is gone----and many will suffer the consequences of
having demanded pay beyond their worth.

None of this is news, is it? Didn't this get started back in the 70's?
Weren't the majority of machine tool builders gone by the mid 90's-----no
longer able to compete? Any of this surprises you?

Harold