I saw a post, or two about shrinking food packages. The pound of spaghetti
is now 13 ounces, the 44 cookie Oreos are now 39.

With shrinking packs and price hikes, it's going to get a lot harder to do
much of anything. Like feed the family after home repairs. Anyone but me
feeling the squeeze?

What's next? A 100 ounce gallon of paint?

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On Jun 7, 10:18*am, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:
I saw a post, or two about shrinking food packages. The pound of spaghetti
is now 13 ounces, the 44 cookie Oreos are now 39.

With shrinking packs and price hikes, it's going to get a lot harder to do
much of anything. Like feed the family after home repairs. Anyone but me
feeling the squeeze?

What's next? A 100 ounce gallon of paint?

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
*www.lds.org
.

yeah life sucks right now for everyone but he super wealthy......
everything has shrinking package sizing, just look at ice cream.......

On Jun 7, 7:18*am, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:
I saw a post, or two about shrinking food packages. The pound of spaghetti
is now 13 ounces, the 44 cookie Oreos are now 39.

With shrinking packs and price hikes, it's going to get a lot harder to do
much of anything. Like feed the family after home repairs. Anyone but me
feeling the squeeze?

What's next? A 100 ounce gallon of paint?

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
*www.lds.org
.

Probably what you’re really noticing is that your earnings aren’t
keeping-up with inflation like it used to or else you wouldn’t even
care and the reason for that is because you’re competing against
Chinese, Indian and South American workers. That’s what you get when
politicians give big corporate CEOs free trade policy and let them run
amok.

On Jun 7, 11:16*am, Molly Brown wrote:
On Jun 7, 7:18*am, "Stormin Mormon"

wrote:
I saw a post, or two about shrinking food packages. The pound of spaghetti
is now 13 ounces, the 44 cookie Oreos are now 39.

With shrinking packs and price hikes, it's going to get a lot harder to do
much of anything. Like feed the family after home repairs. Anyone but me
feeling the squeeze?

What's next? A 100 ounce gallon of paint?

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
*www.lds.org
.

Probably what you’re really noticing is that your earnings aren’t
keeping-up with inflation like it used to or else you wouldn’t even
care and the reason for that is because you’re competing against
Chinese, Indian and South American workers. That’s what you get when
politicians give big corporate CEOs free trade policy and let them run
amok.

Of course you're ignoring the other side, which
is the positive effect. Which is
today you can buy many products for a lot less than you could if
they were made here. That translates into people having to work
less to earn the money to buy those products. I've yet to see
a case where protectionism produced a better result than free
markets. In fact, if you look back at a similar time, the 1930's,
economists generally agree that the protectionist trade measures
that were adopted made the depression worse.

BOOHOOOOO !

SOME PEOPLE CANT AFFORD OR EVEN GET SPAGHETTI OR COOKIES, PERIOD.

YOU ARE DEPRESSING THE FILTHY RICH WITH YOUR CONSTANT COMPLAINING.
BOOWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

REEXAMINE YOUR FAITH AND WALK IN LIFE...IS IT REALLY THAT ROUGH?
STOP WHINING BEFORE THEY AIR APPARENTLY POOR CHILDREN IN FOREIGN
COUNTRIES HALF NAKED & STARVED AGAIN......IT'S SO DEPRESSING !;(

PAT ECUM
TGITM

"Stormin Mormon" writes:

I saw a post, or two about shrinking food packages. The pound of spaghetti
is now 13 ounces, the 44 cookie Oreos are now 39.

With shrinking packs and price hikes, it's going to get a lot harder to do
much of anything. Like feed the family after home repairs. Anyone but me
feeling the squeeze?

Didn't you post a while back that you were having trouble finding work?

No squeeze here but I have work when I want it.

--
Dan Espen

On Jun 7, 11:43*am, "
wrote:
On Jun 7, 11:16*am, Molly Brown wrote:





On Jun 7, 7:18*am, "Stormin Mormon"

wrote:
I saw a post, or two about shrinking food packages. The pound of spaghetti
is now 13 ounces, the 44 cookie Oreos are now 39.

With shrinking packs and price hikes, it's going to get a lot harder to do
much of anything. Like feed the family after home repairs. Anyone but me
feeling the squeeze?

What's next? A 100 ounce gallon of paint?

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
*www.lds.org
.

Probably what you’re really noticing is that your earnings aren’t
keeping-up with inflation like it used to or else you wouldn’t even
care and the reason for that is because you’re competing against
Chinese, Indian and South American workers. That’s what you get when
politicians give big corporate CEOs free trade policy and let them run
amok.

Of course you're ignoring the other side, which
is the positive effect. *Which is
today you can buy many products for a lot less than you could if
they were made here. *That translates into people having to work
less to earn the money to buy those products. *I've yet to see
a case where protectionism produced a better result than free
markets. *In fact, if you look back at a similar time, the 1930's,
economists generally agree that the protectionist trade measures
that were adopted made the depression worse.

yep the junk chinese products are cheap. thats a good thing since most
people are having trouble earning enough to live......

On 06/07/12 10:18 am, Stormin Mormon wrote:

I saw a post, or two about shrinking food packages. The pound of spaghetti
is now 13 ounces, the 44 cookie Oreos are now 39.

With shrinking packs and price hikes, it's going to get a lot harder to do
much of anything. Like feed the family after home repairs. Anyone but me
feeling the squeeze?

What's next? A 100 ounce gallon of paint?

Even 128-ounce gallons aren't real gallons because the 8 pints of which
each gallon is composed contain only 16 ounces each, There are 20 ounces
to a real pint.

Perce

On Thu, 7 Jun 2012 08:43:28 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

On Jun 7, 11:16*am, Molly Brown wrote:
On Jun 7, 7:18*am, "Stormin Mormon"

wrote:
I saw a post, or two about shrinking food packages. The pound of spaghetti
is now 13 ounces, the 44 cookie Oreos are now 39.

With shrinking packs and price hikes, it's going to get a lot harder to do
much of anything. Like feed the family after home repairs. Anyone but me
feeling the squeeze?

What's next? A 100 ounce gallon of paint?

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
*www.lds.org
.

Probably what you’re really noticing is that your earnings aren’t
keeping-up with inflation like it used to or else you wouldn’t even
care and the reason for that is because you’re competing against
Chinese, Indian and South American workers. That’s what you get when
politicians give big corporate CEOs free trade policy and let them run
amok.

Of course you're ignoring the other side, which
is the positive effect. Which is
today you can buy many products for a lot less than you could if
they were made here. That translates into people having to work
less to earn the money to buy those products. I've yet to see
a case where protectionism produced a better result than free
markets. In fact, if you look back at a similar time, the 1930's,
economists generally agree that the protectionist trade measures
that were adopted made the depression worse.


I don't agree tho I'm not economist. I do know that some local mfgrs
here in the oil n gas business (Texas) now have clients that do NOT
want products made in China or India due to inferior quality. It
sounds like they are willing to pay more for the quality.

"Stormin Mormon" wrote in message
...
I saw a post, or two about shrinking food packages. The pound of spaghetti
is now 13 ounces, the 44 cookie Oreos are now 39.

With shrinking packs and price hikes, it's going to get a lot harder to do
much of anything. Like feed the family after home repairs. Anyone but me
feeling the squeeze?

What's next? A 100 ounce gallon of paint?

Actually, that has happened in Canada. I still have a couple of cans with
one gallon of paint, this was a Canadian gallon which was made up of four 40
ounce quarts or 160 ounces, as opposed to a US gallon made up of four 32
ounce quarts or 128 ounces. When Canada went metric, the paint companies all
reduced the size to 4 liters, now they have "standardized" on a US gallon
which is smaller again at 3.95 liters. It won't be long before they find a
smaller size to use.

By the way, the price never went down with the contents instead it went up.

On Jun 7, 5:02*pm, "Doug" wrote:
On Thu, 7 Jun 2012 08:43:28 -0700 (PDT), "





wrote:
On Jun 7, 11:16 am, Molly Brown wrote:
On Jun 7, 7:18 am, "Stormin Mormon"

wrote:
I saw a post, or two about shrinking food packages. The pound of spaghetti
is now 13 ounces, the 44 cookie Oreos are now 39.

With shrinking packs and price hikes, it's going to get a lot harder to do
much of anything. Like feed the family after home repairs. Anyone but me
feeling the squeeze?

What's next? A 100 ounce gallon of paint?

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
.

Probably what you re really noticing is that your earnings aren t
keeping-up with inflation like it used to or else you wouldn t even
care and the reason for that is because you re competing against
Chinese, Indian and South American workers. That s what you get when
politicians give big corporate CEOs free trade policy and let them run
amok.

Of course you're ignoring the other side, which
is the positive effect. *Which is
today you can buy many products for a lot less than you could if
they were made here. *That translates into people having to work
less to earn the money to buy those products. *I've yet to see
a case where protectionism produced a better result than free
markets. *In fact, if you look back at a similar time, the 1930's,
economists generally agree that the protectionist trade measures
that were adopted made the depression worse.

I don't agree tho I'm not economist. *I do know that some local mfgrs
here in the oil n gas business (Texas) now have clients that do NOT
want products made in China or India due to inferior quality. *It
sounds like they are willing to pay more for the quality.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Then a market should exist for those products from sources
other than China or India. If you believe that there is really
a market for those products, then ask yourself why no company
is building them here. I think when you really look into it,
what most of those people really want is the superior product
that lasts, etc but only costs about what the cheap one does.

And a lot of the loss of manufacturing to overseas competitors
wasn't a direct result of price. Look at the evolution of the US
auto industry and what happened there. It wasn't that the
Japanese were making cheap, junk cars. It was that they
were making cars that had much better quality, less repair
problems, better features, etc.

I think it was Mulalley that took over as CEO at Ford that told
his staff during one of his first meetings that he wanted
everyone of them to drive a particular Toyota. I don't
remember the model, but it was one of their top sellers.
The answer was, "We don't have any". That's right.
In the entire company they didn't have one of their
competitors top products to even compare.
Then he found out the top executives were not even
driving Fords because they were being chaufered
around.

Not saying that unfair foreign competition doesn't exist.
In some cases it does.

On 6/7/2012 10:18 AM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
I saw a post, or two about shrinking food packages. The pound of spaghetti
is now 13 ounces, the 44 cookie Oreos are now 39.

With shrinking packs and price hikes, it's going to get a lot harder to do
much of anything. Like feed the family after home repairs. Anyone but me
feeling the squeeze?

What's next? A 100 ounce gallon of paint?

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
.



I just had to roll over an IRA - 0.25% for 14 months.
Could have gotten 0.4% for much longer time. Might as well spend the
money now or put it under my mattress.

On Thu, 7 Jun 2012 14:49:10 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

On Jun 7, 5:02*pm, "Doug" wrote:
On Thu, 7 Jun 2012 08:43:28 -0700 (PDT), "





wrote:
On Jun 7, 11:16 am, Molly Brown wrote:
On Jun 7, 7:18 am, "Stormin Mormon"

wrote:
I saw a post, or two about shrinking food packages. The pound of spaghetti
is now 13 ounces, the 44 cookie Oreos are now 39.

With shrinking packs and price hikes, it's going to get a lot harder to do
much of anything. Like feed the family after home repairs. Anyone but me
feeling the squeeze?

What's next? A 100 ounce gallon of paint?

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
.

Probably what you re really noticing is that your earnings aren t
keeping-up with inflation like it used to or else you wouldn t even
care and the reason for that is because you re competing against
Chinese, Indian and South American workers. That s what you get when
politicians give big corporate CEOs free trade policy and let them run
amok.

Of course you're ignoring the other side, which
is the positive effect. *Which is
today you can buy many products for a lot less than you could if
they were made here. *That translates into people having to work
less to earn the money to buy those products. *I've yet to see
a case where protectionism produced a better result than free
markets. *In fact, if you look back at a similar time, the 1930's,
economists generally agree that the protectionist trade measures
that were adopted made the depression worse.

I don't agree tho I'm not economist. *I do know that some local mfgrs
here in the oil n gas business (Texas) now have clients that do NOT
want products made in China or India due to inferior quality. *It
sounds like they are willing to pay more for the quality.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Then a market should exist for those products from sources
other than China or India. If you believe that there is really
a market for those products, then ask yourself why no company
is building them here. I think when you really look into it,
what most of those people really want is the superior product
that lasts, etc but only costs about what the cheap one does.

And a lot of the loss of manufacturing to overseas competitors
wasn't a direct result of price. Look at the evolution of the US
auto industry and what happened there. It wasn't that the
Japanese were making cheap, junk cars. It was that they
were making cars that had much better quality, less repair
problems, better features, etc.

I think it was Mulalley that took over as CEO at Ford that told
his staff during one of his first meetings that he wanted
everyone of them to drive a particular Toyota. I don't
remember the model, but it was one of their top sellers.
The answer was, "We don't have any". That's right.
In the entire company they didn't have one of their
competitors top products to even compare.
Then he found out the top executives were not even
driving Fords because they were being chaufered
around.

Not saying that unfair foreign competition doesn't exist.
In some cases it does.

Dumping *did* exist. It's interesting to note that most of the foreign auto
manufacturers are now building cars here, albeit in right-to-work states and
without union thuggery.

On Thu, 07 Jun 2012 15:36:49 -0400, "Percival P. Cassidy"
wrote:

On 06/07/12 10:18 am, Stormin Mormon wrote:

I saw a post, or two about shrinking food packages. The pound of spaghetti
is now 13 ounces, the 44 cookie Oreos are now 39.

With shrinking packs and price hikes, it's going to get a lot harder to do
much of anything. Like feed the family after home repairs. Anyone but me
feeling the squeeze?

What's next? A 100 ounce gallon of paint?

Even 128-ounce gallons aren't real gallons because the 8 pints of which
each gallon is composed contain only 16 ounces each, There are 20 ounces
to a real pint.

That must be your SI pint. ;-)

On Thu, 07 Jun 2012 19:08:31 -0400, Frank
wrote:

On 6/7/2012 10:18 AM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
I saw a post, or two about shrinking food packages. The pound of spaghetti
is now 13 ounces, the 44 cookie Oreos are now 39.

With shrinking packs and price hikes, it's going to get a lot harder to do
much of anything. Like feed the family after home repairs. Anyone but me
feeling the squeeze?

What's next? A 100 ounce gallon of paint?

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
.



I just had to roll over an IRA - 0.25% for 14 months.
Could have gotten 0.4% for much longer time. Might as well spend the
money now or put it under my mattress.

Or put it somewhere other than a bank.

On Jun 7, 8:43*am, "
wrote:
On Jun 7, 11:16*am, Molly Brown wrote:





On Jun 7, 7:18*am, "Stormin Mormon"

wrote:
I saw a post, or two about shrinking food packages. The pound of spaghetti
is now 13 ounces, the 44 cookie Oreos are now 39.

With shrinking packs and price hikes, it's going to get a lot harder to do
much of anything. Like feed the family after home repairs. Anyone but me
feeling the squeeze?

What's next? A 100 ounce gallon of paint?

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
*www.lds.org
.

Probably what you’re really noticing is that your earnings aren’t
keeping-up with inflation like it used to or else you wouldn’t even
care and the reason for that is because you’re competing against
Chinese, Indian and South American workers. That’s what you get when
politicians give big corporate CEOs free trade policy and let them run
amok.

Of course you're ignoring the other side, which
is the positive effect. *Which is
today you can buy many products for a lot less than you could if
they were made here. *That translates into people having to work
less to earn the money to buy those products. *I've yet to see
a case where protectionism produced a better result than free
markets. *In fact, if you look back at a similar time, the 1930's,
economists generally agree that the protectionist trade measures
that were adopted made the depression worse.

When people pay me hundreds of dollars to go around replacing their
Chinese made light bulbs on their property every month it’s a positive
effect for me.
When people pay me to replace their leaking Chinese made flexible
water heater supply connectors it’s a positive effect for me.
When people pay me to replace their defective or overheating appliance
circuit boards that look like the guy soldered his p…. hair on to it
and solenoids because its made of shorter copper wire it’s a positive
effect for me.
When my spouses laptop keeps burning-out hard drives every six months
and I have a three year extended warranty which is costing Vaio and
BestBuy six times their profit on their laptop and very little expense
to me it’s a positive effect for me.
When people pay me because their a garage door opener malfunctions
because an engineer (probably in India) didn’t design a washer to
protect the tuggnut retaining clip from the screw of the screw drive,
it’s a positive effect for me.
When I call customer service for a client and get someone practicing
their English in India and I have to tell my client that I need to
replace the whole thing, that’s a positive effect for me.
When I go to give an estimate and find that some farmer from some
Latin country South of the border installed a door that was two inches
narrower because he couldn’t figure-out how to install one of the
right width, it’s a positive effect for me.
When I have to tell the home owner I have to break their concrete
walkway and pour new concrete because it’s sinking and causing a trip
hazard where they can be sued because their menso landscaper tunneled
(no not pressure hosed but actually tunneled) under it, it’s a
positive effect for me.
Now that I thought about it trader4, you’re absolutely right. Who
cares if my clients have to work more to pay me. It’s all good; for me
that is.

On 6/7/2012 8:07 PM, zzzzzzzzzz wrote:
On Thu, 07 Jun 2012 19:08:31 -0400, Frank
wrote:

On 6/7/2012 10:18 AM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
I saw a post, or two about shrinking food packages. The pound of spaghetti
is now 13 ounces, the 44 cookie Oreos are now 39.

With shrinking packs and price hikes, it's going to get a lot harder to do
much of anything. Like feed the family after home repairs. Anyone but me
feeling the squeeze?

What's next? A 100 ounce gallon of paint?

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
.



I just had to roll over an IRA - 0.25% for 14 months.
Could have gotten 0.4% for much longer time. Might as well spend the
money now or put it under my mattress.

Or put it somewhere other than a bank.


It's a relatively small IRA and I have reached the age where I take
minimum distributions. While I have plenty of stocks, I don't want more
or anything risky at my age. If I needed to repair something, I'd spend
the money now.

The problem is over regulation, not freedom. Freedom results in economic
boom, like the Reagan years.

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

"Molly Brown" wrote in message
news:4d382d63-84cd-4024-a90b-

Probably what you’re really noticing is that your earnings aren’t
keeping-up with inflation like it used to or else you wouldn’t even
care and the reason for that is because you’re competing against
Chinese, Indian and South American workers. That’s what you get when
politicians give big corporate CEOs free trade policy and let them run
amok.

Over regulation from Washington, and excess union scale wages.

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

wrote in message news:d636a2ac-c80d-4875-ae8e-

If you believe that there is really
a market for those products, then ask yourself why no company
is building them here.

Happening, in the US, also. Our US gallon shrunk again, only 3.785 liters,
if memory serves.

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

"EXT" wrote in message
news.com...


What's next? A 100 ounce gallon of paint?

Actually, that has happened in Canada. I still have a couple of cans with
one gallon of paint, this was a Canadian gallon which was made up of four 40
ounce quarts or 160 ounces, as opposed to a US gallon made up of four 32
ounce quarts or 128 ounces. When Canada went metric, the paint companies all
reduced the size to 4 liters, now they have "standardized" on a US gallon
which is smaller again at 3.95 liters. It won't be long before they find a
smaller size to use.

By the way, the price never went down with the contents instead it went up.

On Jun 7, 6:33*pm, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:
The problem is over regulation, not freedom. *Freedom results in economic
boom, like the Reagan years.

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
*www.lds.org
.

"Molly Brown" wrote in message

news:4d382d63-84cd-4024-a90b-

Probably what you’re really noticing is that your earnings aren’t
keeping-up with inflation like it used to or else you wouldn’t even
care and the reason for that is because you’re competing against
Chinese, Indian and South American workers. That’s what you get when
politicians give big corporate CEOs free trade policy and let them run
amok.

It was Reagan who implemented mandatory price controls; talk about
“over regulation”. Myopia anyone?

On Thu, 07 Jun 2012 20:17:53 -0400, Frank
wrote:

On 6/7/2012 8:07 PM, zzzzzzzzzz wrote:
On Thu, 07 Jun 2012 19:08:31 -0400, Frank
wrote:

On 6/7/2012 10:18 AM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
I saw a post, or two about shrinking food packages. The pound of spaghetti
is now 13 ounces, the 44 cookie Oreos are now 39.

With shrinking packs and price hikes, it's going to get a lot harder to do
much of anything. Like feed the family after home repairs. Anyone but me
feeling the squeeze?

What's next? A 100 ounce gallon of paint?

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
.



I just had to roll over an IRA - 0.25% for 14 months.
Could have gotten 0.4% for much longer time. Might as well spend the
money now or put it under my mattress.

Or put it somewhere other than a bank.


It's a relatively small IRA and I have reached the age where I take
minimum distributions. While I have plenty of stocks, I don't want more
or anything risky at my age. If I needed to repair something, I'd spend
the money now.

I was going to say that I didn't have any stocks, either, but my wife does
have a few in her IRA. There are other places to put money, other than a bank
or stocks.

On Thu, 7 Jun 2012 18:56:40 -0700 (PDT), Molly Brown
wrote:

On Jun 7, 6:33*pm, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:
The problem is over regulation, not freedom. *Freedom results in economic
boom, like the Reagan years.

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
*www.lds.org
.

"Molly Brown" wrote in message

news:4d382d63-84cd-4024-a90b-

Probably what you’re really noticing is that your earnings aren’t
keeping-up with inflation like it used to or else you wouldn’t even
care and the reason for that is because you’re competing against
Chinese, Indian and South American workers. That’s what you get when
politicians give big corporate CEOs free trade policy and let them run
amok.

It was Reagan who implemented mandatory price controls; talk about
“over regulation”.

Certainly not!

Myopia anyone?

Education, anyone?

On Jun 7, 7:25*pm, "
wrote:
On Thu, 7 Jun 2012 18:56:40 -0700 (PDT), Molly Brown
wrote:





On Jun 7, 6:33 pm, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:
The problem is over regulation, not freedom. Freedom results in economic
boom, like the Reagan years.

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
.

"Molly Brown" wrote in message

news:4d382d63-84cd-4024-a90b-

Probably what you re really noticing is that your earnings aren t
keeping-up with inflation like it used to or else you wouldn t even
care and the reason for that is because you re competing against
Chinese, Indian and South American workers. That s what you get when
politicians give big corporate CEOs free trade policy and let them run
amok.

It was Reagan who implemented mandatory price controls; talk about
over regulation .

Certainly not!

Myopia anyone?

Education, anyone?

Sorry, you're right, I got Nixon and Reagan mixed-up.

zzzzzzzzzz wrote:
On Thu, 07 Jun 2012 20:17:53 -0400,
wrote:

On 6/7/2012 8:07 PM, zzzzzzzzzz wrote:
On Thu, 07 Jun 2012 19:08:31 -0400,
wrote:

On 6/7/2012 10:18 AM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
I saw a post, or two about shrinking food packages. The pound of spaghetti
is now 13 ounces, the 44 cookie Oreos are now 39.

With shrinking packs and price hikes, it's going to get a lot harder to do
much of anything. Like feed the family after home repairs. Anyone but me
feeling the squeeze?

What's next? A 100 ounce gallon of paint?

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
.



I just had to roll over an IRA - 0.25% for 14 months.
Could have gotten 0.4% for much longer time. Might as well spend the
money now or put it under my mattress.

Or put it somewhere other than a bank.


It's a relatively small IRA and I have reached the age where I take
minimum distributions. While I have plenty of stocks, I don't want more
or anything risky at my age. If I needed to repair something, I'd spend
the money now.

I was going to say that I didn't have any stocks, either, but my wife does
have a few in her IRA. There are other places to put money, other than a bank
or stocks.


Corporate bonds come to mind. What did you have in mind?

On Fri, 08 Jun 2012 02:03:40 -0400, Bill wrote:

wrote:
On Thu, 07 Jun 2012 20:17:53 -0400,
wrote:

On 6/7/2012 8:07 PM, zzzzzzzzzz wrote:
On Thu, 07 Jun 2012 19:08:31 -0400,
wrote:

On 6/7/2012 10:18 AM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
I saw a post, or two about shrinking food packages. The pound of spaghetti
is now 13 ounces, the 44 cookie Oreos are now 39.

With shrinking packs and price hikes, it's going to get a lot harder to do
much of anything. Like feed the family after home repairs. Anyone but me
feeling the squeeze?

What's next? A 100 ounce gallon of paint?

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
.



I just had to roll over an IRA - 0.25% for 14 months.
Could have gotten 0.4% for much longer time. Might as well spend the
money now or put it under my mattress.

Or put it somewhere other than a bank.


It's a relatively small IRA and I have reached the age where I take
minimum distributions. While I have plenty of stocks, I don't want more
or anything risky at my age. If I needed to repair something, I'd spend
the money now.

I was going to say that I didn't have any stocks, either, but my wife does
have a few in her IRA. There are other places to put money, other than a bank
or stocks.


Corporate bonds come to mind. What did you have in mind?

Corporate bond fund. ;-)

On Jun 7, 8:17*pm, Molly Brown wrote:
On Jun 7, 8:43*am, "
wrote:





On Jun 7, 11:16*am, Molly Brown wrote:

On Jun 7, 7:18*am, "Stormin Mormon"

wrote:
I saw a post, or two about shrinking food packages. The pound of spaghetti
is now 13 ounces, the 44 cookie Oreos are now 39.

With shrinking packs and price hikes, it's going to get a lot harder to do
much of anything. Like feed the family after home repairs. Anyone but me
feeling the squeeze?

What's next? A 100 ounce gallon of paint?

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
*www.lds.org
.

Probably what you’re really noticing is that your earnings aren’t
keeping-up with inflation like it used to or else you wouldn’t even
care and the reason for that is because you’re competing against
Chinese, Indian and South American workers. That’s what you get when
politicians give big corporate CEOs free trade policy and let them run
amok.

Of course you're ignoring the other side, which
is the positive effect. *Which is
today you can buy many products for a lot less than you could if
they were made here. *That translates into people having to work
less to earn the money to buy those products. *I've yet to see
a case where protectionism produced a better result than free
markets. *In fact, if you look back at a similar time, the 1930's,
economists generally agree that the protectionist trade measures
that were adopted made the depression worse.

When people pay me hundreds of dollars to go around replacing their
Chinese made light bulbs on their property every month it’s a positive
effect for me.
When people pay me to replace their leaking Chinese made flexible
water heater supply connectors it’s a positive effect for me.
When people pay me to replace their defective or overheating appliance
circuit boards that look like the guy soldered his p…. *hair on to it
and solenoids because its made of shorter copper wire it’s a positive
effect for me.
When my spouses laptop keeps burning-out hard drives every six months
and I have a three year extended warranty which is costing Vaio and
BestBuy six times their profit on their laptop and very little expense
to me it’s a positive effect for me.
When people pay me because their a garage door opener malfunctions
because an engineer (probably in India) didn’t design a washer to
protect the tuggnut retaining clip from the screw of the screw drive,
it’s a positive effect for me.
When I call customer service for a client and get someone practicing
their English in India and I have to tell my client that I need to
replace the whole thing, that’s a positive effect for me.
When I go to give an estimate and find that some farmer from some
Latin country South of the border installed a door that was two inches
narrower because he couldn’t figure-out how to install one of the
right width, it’s a positive effect for me.
When I have to tell the home owner I have to break their concrete
walkway and pour new concrete because it’s sinking and causing a trip
hazard where they can be sued because *their menso landscaper tunneled
(no not pressure hosed but actually tunneled) under it, it’s a
positive effect for me.
Now that I thought about it trader4, you’re absolutely right. Who
cares if my clients have to work more to pay me. It’s all good; for me
that is.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I don't disagree that a lot of what you say above is
happening. But I disagree that it's all because of free
trade and that govt has let corporations run amock.
In some cases, it's govt that has forced companies
to look overseas. Look for example at what the
current administration is doing to Boeing with it's
plant in SC. Boeing is trying to build in America and
the Labor Dept is suing them, telling them they can't
open the plant that will employ 2,000 because it's
retaliation for a strike years ago in WA. And in this
case it's not just a plant that the govt is screwing
with. That plant makes parts for the 787 which
involves jobs all across the USA and world. But
even in a poor economy, the administration would
rather defend an extremely poor to non-existent
claim by the union. That's a classic example of
where govt regulation gets you. Here you have a
great American company, one of our largest
exporters and the govt is screwing around with
them.

For the most part, those US companies
are doing what any business does. They are
responding to market demand. Put a pack of
fittings on the shelf that are higher quality and
they don't sell as well as the cheap ones. The
builder is too cheap to pay for them, many of
the plumbers will use the cheapest components,
as will homeowners. Companies focus where
they can make the most money, just like you.
The net result is that many products are now
made based more on price than performance.
The problem begins with us. And I don't see
how any more govt regulation is going to fix it.

I've got a surprise secret for you. Inflation affects
everyone, wealthy or not.

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

"bob haller" wrote in message
news:26fd3bef-e13a-4671-a685-

yeah life sucks right now for everyone but he super wealthy......
everything has shrinking package sizing, just look at ice cream.......

On Jun 8, 8:59*am, "
wrote:
On Fri, 08 Jun 2012 02:03:40 -0400, Bill wrote:
wrote:
On Thu, 07 Jun 2012 20:17:53 -0400,
wrote:

On 6/7/2012 8:07 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 07 Jun 2012 19:08:31 -0400,
wrote:

On 6/7/2012 10:18 AM, Stormin Mormon wrote:
I saw a post, or two about shrinking food packages. The pound of spaghetti
is now 13 ounces, the 44 cookie Oreos are now 39.

With shrinking packs and price hikes, it's going to get a lot harder to do
much of anything. Like feed the family after home repairs. Anyone but me
feeling the squeeze?

What's next? A 100 ounce gallon of paint?

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
* * *www.lds.org
.

I just had to roll over an IRA - 0.25% for 14 months.
Could have gotten 0.4% for much longer time. *Might as well spend the
money now or put it under my mattress.

Or put it somewhere other than a bank.

It's a relatively small IRA and I have reached the age where I take
minimum distributions. *While I have plenty of stocks, I don't want more
or anything risky at my age. *If I needed to repair something, I'd spend
the money now.

I was going to say that I didn't have any stocks, either, but my wife does
have a few in her IRA. *There are other places to put money, other than a bank
or stocks.

Corporate bonds come to mind. *What did you have in mind?

Corporate bond fund. *;-)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

What do you think is going to happen to that bond
fund when US interest rates rise even modestly?
Rates are at near zero with nowhere to go but up.

On 6/8/2012 8:35 AM, wrote:
....

What do you think is going to happen to that bond
fund when US interest rates rise even modestly?
Rates are at near zero with nowhere to go but up.

Like any other investment vehicle, pay attention to what's going on and
when it's time to move, move...

--

wrote:

Of course you're ignoring the other side, which
is the positive effect. Which is
today you can buy many products for a lot less than you could if
they were made here. That translates into people having to work
less to earn the money to buy those products. I've yet to see
a case where protectionism produced a better result than free
markets. In fact, if you look back at a similar time, the 1930's,
economists generally agree that the protectionist trade measures
that were adopted made the depression worse.

Yep. There is a conceptual "thing" out there called the "general
marketplace." The general marketplace is the instantaneous sum total of all
exchanges of goods and services.

Since time immemorial, governments have tried to control, or at least
interfere, with the general marketplace. They do this through embargoes,
taxes, tariffs, prohibitions, and other, more clever, ideas. Virtually all
these methods are detrimental to the public at large.

The good news is, however, that the general marketplace always wins. When
governments erect a barrier, the general marketplace finds a way to flow
around it.

Consider Prohibition; the circumventions were smuggling and bootlegging.

In sum, virtually any restriction on trade has a short-term effect of
hurting consumers and a longer-term effect of hurting those it was designed
to help.

Here's the classic example from Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations." France
made excellent wine and mediocre cheese. Italy, conversely, made superb
cheese by indifferent wines. To protect the few hundred people in making
French cheese, the French government put an impossible tariff on the
importation of Italian cheese. Likewise, to protect the few hundred people
involved in producing wine, the Italian government imposed a similar
outlandish tax on French wines.

The result: Millions in France were destined to eat crappy cheese and
millions in Italy were doomed to consume crummy wine.

But a few French, those who made wine, and a few Italians, those who made
cheese, made out like bandits.

As of today, the U.S. government is considering a significant tariff on
Chinese solar panels. Oh, such a tariff will help the few hundred or
thousand Americans employed in the solar panel industry, but thousands
(millions?) of American consumers will pay more.

Bottom line: In spite of over 200 years of examples to the contrary since
Adam Smith first observed the deleterious effects of protectionism,
governments are STILL employing the technique.

And we know why, don't we?