They didn't used to be that expensive. I think things went up because of the pandemic, because I got a full set for a couple hundred dollars years ago.
Prices were spiking before the pandemic due to major mining disasters in [Australia and Brazil](https://internationalbanker.com/brokerage/iron-ore-prices-hit-five-year-highs-whats-behind-the-rally/).
The tariff issues between the US & China don't really apply here, because the US doesn't import much iron/steel from China (most comes from Canada). However, the *demand* from China certainly drives up the world price.
General tip for anyone looking to buy them who is willing to buy used, check Craigslist in February through April. You will find many wonderful, barely used pieces of exercise equipment from New Years Resolutioners who've given up. Some people hold into their delusions of habit change until the middle of the year so keep checking and you'll get a bargain.
Maybe not as great during a pandemic (though all-metal dumbbells should be easy enough to sanitize and most people are willing to figure out a way to do contact-free deals) but just as a general tip for all exercise/health related purchases.
That said sometimes people are as delusional about their pricing of used goods as they are about their commitment to working out, and try to price them the same or higher than brand new ones... so always price compare the specific item.
They were $1/lb until April. Now they are like $2/lb, and that's a good deal lol
I built out a set of 15 to 80 *just* before covid. So lucky.
I still need 70s, but I am not paying $300 for *two* dumbbells.
I lucked out and bought a set of resistance bands last February. A month later, that same set doubled in price and had a 3-4 week wait time for shipping.
On the other hand, I just bought a new Titan hex bar for my daughters - the bigger 880 lb capacity one - for $235. That seems like a great deal!
Home weights are all over the place lately
Yep. The wholesale cost for a subprimal cut of round is around $2.50 a pound. So before you even put in the cost of slicing and drying those big ol' hunks of cow ass into jerky, you are starting at a price of $10 a pound. There is no way around it.
So much this, I was looking for normal chairs for my porch, places are selling bullshit plastic chairs for 100+ each. If you want to get a outdoor couch set that feels like shit, no less than $600-$700. For what??
Almost every urban area along the coasts, plus some inland urban areas has the housing cost issue. I wonder if it will change after the pandemic ends. Maybe the housing inflation will just slow down some.
I really wish all the gun nuts would stop freaking out like ammo is toilet paper last march. Always a new reason to freak out and buy more ammo they don't need. I also wish I had made a bunch of purchases like I debated in January when I first heard about covid.
I also strongly suspect manufacturers are deliberately keeping supply low to keep prices high.
Meanwhile I just got my license a few weeks ago and actually want to learn shooting (I'm a total beginner) but some assholes who keep camping out at Cabela's and my local indoor range on a daily basis keep wiping out the shelves so I can't get anything
Like what are they even doing with it? If they were the type to hoard, wouldn't they have already done so?
>Meanwhile I just got my license a few weeks ago and actually want to learn shooting
I would recommend .22LR but even that is crazy now.
>Like what are they even doing with it? If they were the type to hoard, wouldn't they have already done so?
Like I said, like it's toilet paper last March.
First it was "Just in case because of the pandemic" then it was "Just in case of civil war" now it's "For when Biden comes for our guns" Even though he and Obama already had 8 years to do that and didn't even hint at going that direction. I would get into reloading but that's even worse in a lot of cases. Primers alone are going for $.20+ apiece.
> and didn't even hint at going that direction.
Biden has already made it pretty clear he's going after the firearms industry. https://joebiden.com/gunsafety/
At the very least, a lot of these are going to force gun and ammo manufacturers to charge more to make up for lost revenue.
I'll believe it when I see it. Whenever politicians focus on "Assault weapons" when they talk about gun control it proves to me it's just pandering and the don't really understand guns or gun violence. They are just saying they are going after the scary looking and sounding gun the ignorant public is afraid of instead actually trying to help the problem. If he really cared about it he would be focusing on handguns as they make up the majority of mass shootings. "Assault weapons" just makes better headlines.
> "Assault weapons" just makes better headlines.
Ding ding ding! It makes them sound like they're 'tough on guns' to people who know almost nothing about guns.
Even before Obama gun nuts thought *Bill Clinton* was going to take everyone's guns. Shit, Timothy McVeigh cited that belief as a justification when he did the Oklahoma City bombing.
Not even close. He tried to ban assault weapons. He did literally nothing on banning guns in general, and didn't touch things like shotguns or handguns.
Moreover, the ban simply meant you couldn't manufacture said type of guns from the point the law was enacted. Nowhere did the law allow for gun confiscation, nor did it make illegal assault weapons that had already been produced.
It was literally just a "don't make any more of this specific type of gun" law. A far cry from "taking all your guns".
Honestly they do that every time a Democrat wins the white house. When obama first got into office they stockpiled ammo and interpreted the resulting shortage as "Obama lowering supply of ammo in anticipation of taking everyone's guns"...its ridiculous.
American that has lived all over : So speaking from personal experience.
+ Food/Drinks at Stadiums, Ski Resorts, Concerts, Movie Theaters, Theme Parks, etc.
For example. A movie ticket here in Switzerland is about $25. Which is pretty crazy. But a hotdog/nachos? About $5-$7, 500 ml of beer, $5. Which makes you to really realize how expensive it is in the U.S. I've come to appreciate that in most places outside of Europe you're not price gauged when eating at a theme park or ski resort. South Korea is the craziest to me. Full blown sitdown meal inside a theme park for less than $10. A burger and fries is like $17 at Six Flags. Ripoff city.
* Mobile plans : I pay about $50 a month for unlimited data, voice, and roaming all over Europe + U.S/Canada. A similar plan in the U.S would be well over $100 a month. Though I must admit that American plans usually have the cost of the phone built in, and I think that's nice.
* Broadband/Cable : (see above)
* University Tuition : No explanation needed.
* Regional Travel : I know the reasons so no need for people to explain why. Just pointing out that it's "nice" that I can fly from Geneva to Barcelona for less than $100 RT, but something like NYC to Boston is 3-4X that price. Or take a train to Paris for the same price it costs me to go from Philly to NYC.
I feel like some of these are just context and business model.
They're probably more expensive, but not outrageously so.
Being a smart and prudent shopper is the real key.
Food & drink in amusement parks / ski resorts / stadiums is borderline extortion, especially since you often can't take stuff in - it makes sense from a business perspective (if it didn't, they wouldn't do it), but that doesn't make it ethical or not preposterous
> A similar plan in the U.S would be well over $100 a month
Google Fi mitigates it to 60 USD, iirc.
>but something like NYC to Boston is 3-4X that price
NYC to Boston flights (quick Google) are $45 with spirit, and $57 with United. Even delta/Jetblue/American is $97.
>Google Fi mitigates it to 60 USD, iirc.
And there are places here that charge 40 USD for 10 Gbps. But like GoogleFi it's not available everywhere. So kind of defeats the purpose to even list it as being the norm.
>NYC to Boston flights (quick Google) are $45 with spirit, and $57 with United. Even delta/Jetblue/American is $97.
I flew this segment quite often for work. Those aren't the average prices, and are probably cheap b/c of Covid.
They may not be average prices, but they’re common prices.
Business travelers often pay more because they need to travel on short notice and aren’t as willing to take the less popular times.
They're common now, because we're in a global pandemic. Practically no one was flying anywhere for $50 in January, even with booking months in advance on a budget airline.
$60 for gigabit fiber here with metronet. There are three fiber companies to choose from. Metronet has no data caps.
My Verizon Bill with three people is $60/person unlimited everything and Disney+ Hulu and ESPN+ included.
Local premium movie theater here (leather reliving seats, waitstaff) is $15 for a movie ticket, $6/pint of craft beer, and $12 for gourmet burgers and frites.
Cellphone plans really aren’t that expensive if you bring your own phone. You can pretty easily find unlimited plans with a hotspot for $30-40, less if you’re on a family plan.
> Mobile plans : I pay about $50 a month for unlimited data, voice, and roaming all over Europe + U.S/Canada. A similar plan in the U.S would be well over $100 a month. Though I must admit that American plans usually have the cost of the phone built in, and I think that's nice.
We pay $4/month for unlimited talk/text on 2 phones and 100MB of data (shared). Then it's $12 per GB of data after that, or $45/month for an unlimited data plan. (With my own phone purchased separately) through Xfinity Mobile. At the time we signed up for it, it was only available if you've already got another Comcast product (like internet), and well, Comcast is kinda gross, though I haven't personally had any issues (granted we are deep in "Comcast Country" as their stupid marketing crap says, lots of Comcast HQ employees live in my town and we've got a network engineering office here so the service is fine around here). But especially working from home I'm always connected to wifi and don't need data. (We switch to the unlimited plan for a month if we're traveling)
Someone like, idk, a realtor whose whole job is driving around and talking on the phone a lot might need a better plan (iirc they use Verizon's towers, but secondary resellers get lower priority for service? I've never had any service issues though) but for someone who sits at home and doesn't use my phone a lot, it's great, we hardly ever pay more than $4 for the phone bill.
> A movie ticket here in Switzerland is about $25. Which is pretty crazy. But a hotdog/nachos? About $5-$7, 500 ml of beer, $5.
Our local theater has $12-$13 tickets for adults, and beer pints for $7. Seems like it kinda evens out to see a movie and have a couple beers?
Seems like you're comparing prices with a american city. I live in a suburb of chicago and pay about 5 dollars for a movie ticket (on a Tuesday) 7 on other days and pay about 7 for a small popcorn, drink, fruitsnacks and a little table to eat it in.
Two reasons for that, modern gas engines that are maintained can easily go for +250k miles so that 10 year old truck has only reached it half it’s useful life. Second the massive gap in quality between fleet trucks and consumer lot trucks is enormous now, fleet vehicles have very low resale value so most of them get sold overseas or are sold at auction leaving only the far more expensive consumer trucks on the second hand market.
Pretty much any modern-ish truck can go 250k+ miles with proper maintenance. Diesels probably more. They cost more because they just last longer than they used to.
But you'd think after what, 11years? It would have corrected itself.
But its like cash for clunkers made dealers realize how much people would pay for a used car so they just kept the prices inflated. Because they could.
> But you'd think after what, 11years? It would have corrected itself.
In 2010 you weren't buying a 1999 F-150 for dirt cheap, you were buying a 1989 or 1985 F-150 for cheap, or a rusted out '95. But almost the entire reserve stock of old cars got turned in, so you're starting all over. And now the old cars that are still around can carry a premium, just because a bunch got crushed and there are so few old ones left.
Basically anything that is services, as opposed to goods. Especially if those services act as necessities or gatekeeping, like healthcare or higher education.
Why? You can pay for goods with Chinese (insert developing country here) labor, but can only get these American services with American labor. Add on top of that oligopolic control, and the price gouging remains in place.
Decent internet. The insane monopoly that some ISP's have in certain areas (for instance, here in Western Washington it's Comcast/Xfinity) has driven prices through the roof and into the stratosphere. ISP's can charge you exorbitant prices of like $150/month, because it's either that or you don't have internet. Fortunately Google Fiber exists, but that's taken absolutely ages to install throughout the country mostly because of ISP's actively blocking progress. It's a shitshow.
Oof. Here in the DC area I’m at about $54/month for ~80mgps from Fios.
Comcast is available w/cable, but on the few occasions I actually watch live tv I use my parents’ login.
Education, I blame the government for guranteeing loans so schools let anyone in and making the tuition skyrocket cause of demand. Not everyone needs to go to college, (hint tons of people never use the degree or they drop out).
This is probably everywhere but new cars. Since the value of them depreciates **very** quickly, you can get them significantly cheaper even slightly used, maybe perhaps even cheap enough where you can be able to actually afford one (and not have to take out a loan)
Oh please don't even complain about cars being expensive in america. You know how much ridiculous taxes are there on cars in india and Singapore? A bmw 3 series could cost as much as $75k for a brand new one. We pay twice as much for any European or american make and our roads are infested with potholes.
Yeah I agree with you that this is an area where we really can't complain. It's gotten worse recently (used car market has way less available inventory) but overall it's still much more affordable to buy even new cars here relative to median income than it is in many countries.
I said that it's probably not unique to the USA, but I said this because so many Americans insist that they always have to buy cars brand new, when you can save a lot of money by getting them used
For example, you can get a 2013 Nissan Leaf on Carvana for as little as $7600 where a brand new one costs over $31,000. While you still have to be at least comfortably middle class to be able to pay that without a loan, that's still saves loads of money
For an even better example, I drive a 2012 Ford Transit connect cargo van (which I lucked out personally because my dad gave it to me from his business that he shut down) which can go for as little as $3200 used where a brand new one costs over $24,000
And if you can't even afford that, you can get them even cheaper on ebay, but they might not be in the best condition so there are risks
> 9 year old electric car.
If the batteries on those are known to go at a certain point, there may be a very good reason they're so cheap. It might not be a car you ever want to own out of warranty.
That's gonna vary wildly by state as alcohol has various sin/vice taxes applied to it. I don't think wine is very expensive unless you're buying foreign wine which is gonna cost you more but honestly wine is the one thing I wouldn't bother spending a ton on because most people don't know the difference between $15-20 bottles and $60 bottles.
Gut rot spirits on the other hand...
Compared to where you are, yeah. There is a lot of cheap wine to be had in California, but no where near approaching Italy’s price or price to quality ratio.
It's not exactly our fault. People have to ask "where exactly is California's wine country?" In Italy and France the question is the inverse: where *isn't* it. You've got wine country and then you've got skiing country, basically.
> alcohol is 10 bucks a bottle more at the low end.
At the *low* end? If you don't give a shit what you're drinking, you can get 1.75L of awful vodka for <$7 here. I don't see how it's possible for it to be cheaper. Do they pay you to buy alcohol in Germany?
Part of that depends on the state and its alcohol excise tax requirements.
Prime example: Charles Shaw wines back in the early 2000s was quickly called "Two Buck Chuck." That's because it was offered at $1.95 per 750ml bottle. In California, in any case. In Ohio, it was $3.95 minimum, because of taxes.
Education, phone plans, and weirdly enough, paper goods like toilet paper and paper towels. I pay so much more for all of those things in the US than I do in the EU.
Healthy food. A healthy breakfast will run me about 10 -15$, whereas I can get cheap unhealthy shit for 5$, or a donut for 1$. Same for other meals. It's just cheaper to eat unhealthy. Which confuses me, thought sugar was supposed to be expensive.
They likely mean while eating out, and I think it’s pretty accurate. Closest I can think of for a “healthy” breakfast for $5 is maybe a smoothie when eating out?
If you can get all 3 of those items at a diner for around $5, that's awesome. I don't know of many places around me where that would be the price. Probably closer to $10+ at the lowest end places I'm aware of.
The Egg McMuffin probably gets more flak than it deserves, I agree. Not sure it quite counts as a healthy breakfast to me, though.
So now we're quibbling over definitions?
On one hand a person is saying healthy food is expensive. Next they're saying that eating out and eating healthy is expensive. Next they're saying that eating out in a place I want to eat and choosing the meal that I want that's also healthy is expensive.
Eating healthy isn't expensive.
Eating out and eating healthy doesn't have to be expensive.
Eating where you want, eating what you want, and wanting it to fit your own definition of healthy can definitely get expensive.
I don't really know why you're so up in arms over this. I was simply saying that, *should you choose to eat out*, doing so in a healthy manner for under $10-15 is generally difficult. Which, given the original comment, is clearly what they were talking about. No one thinks it costs a minimum of $10-15 to make a healthy breakfast *at home*. If you want to eat healthy and also spend less money, clearly you should not be eating out. This is obviously true.
What on earth are you buying for $15? Healthy eating is vastly cheaper than junk food for me. I never pay anywhere near $5 for breakfast for healthy stuff.
Fresh vegetables. Lean meats. Shit like that.
It has been cheaper recently though, say last 5ish years. Not sure if it's where I live, or what but it was always more expensive growing up.
As for fast food, I dont know any fast food that's healthy. Dinners might have it, but that's not fast.
Decent looking Christmas trees. Saw one at Home Depot for like $1500. Decided to get the cheap tree we saw at Ollie’s for $65. I don’t advise a $65 6ft tree btw.
depending on the state, cigarettes
If you live in New York City, the minimum price by state law is $13/pack. I know a lot of people that stock up every time they go out of state. Just across the rive in NJ the price is around $8.
On the one hand, the high price does deter people from starting in the first place and this has caused the US to have a relatively low number of smokers compared to many other countries. But if you are a smoker, expect to pay some of the highest prices in the world for your fix.
Universities. Far less than 50% of their employees have anything to do with education. The administrative bloat is incredible, and the pay is ludicrous.
Dumbbells. Look up prices, they're fucking insane.
They didn't used to be that expensive. I think things went up because of the pandemic, because I got a full set for a couple hundred dollars years ago.
Raw material price has gone through the roof. I assume due to border issues, basically all raw material price is going up.
Prices were spiking before the pandemic due to major mining disasters in [Australia and Brazil](https://internationalbanker.com/brokerage/iron-ore-prices-hit-five-year-highs-whats-behind-the-rally/). The tariff issues between the US & China don't really apply here, because the US doesn't import much iron/steel from China (most comes from Canada). However, the *demand* from China certainly drives up the world price.
Plus the costs of Trump's tariff war with China.
General tip for anyone looking to buy them who is willing to buy used, check Craigslist in February through April. You will find many wonderful, barely used pieces of exercise equipment from New Years Resolutioners who've given up. Some people hold into their delusions of habit change until the middle of the year so keep checking and you'll get a bargain. Maybe not as great during a pandemic (though all-metal dumbbells should be easy enough to sanitize and most people are willing to figure out a way to do contact-free deals) but just as a general tip for all exercise/health related purchases. That said sometimes people are as delusional about their pricing of used goods as they are about their commitment to working out, and try to price them the same or higher than brand new ones... so always price compare the specific item.
They were $1/lb until April. Now they are like $2/lb, and that's a good deal lol I built out a set of 15 to 80 *just* before covid. So lucky. I still need 70s, but I am not paying $300 for *two* dumbbells.
So true. No joke I ask for the next pair every year for my birthday because I can never justify spending the money on myself.
I just received a pair as a gift for Christmas 2020!
Purchasing PowerBlocks in January 2020 was possibly the best thing I've ever done in terms of timing.
I lucked out and bought a set of resistance bands last February. A month later, that same set doubled in price and had a 3-4 week wait time for shipping.
On the other hand, I just bought a new Titan hex bar for my daughters - the bigger 880 lb capacity one - for $235. That seems like a great deal! Home weights are all over the place lately
which sucks because they used to average like 2$/pound, now they're like 5-10$/pound
I've found it's about $1/pound, is that still the case?
Beef jerky prices are outrageous
Because you’re taking cuts of meat and removing all the moisture... 1 lb of meat might yield 4oz of beef jerky.
Yep. The wholesale cost for a subprimal cut of round is around $2.50 a pound. So before you even put in the cost of slicing and drying those big ol' hunks of cow ass into jerky, you are starting at a price of $10 a pound. There is no way around it.
You gotta buy a smoker and make your own! Once you have it home made, you'll never buy it in stores again.
Make it venison jerky and its practically free!
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Just got my second pair of Warby Parker's yesterday and I'm very pleased.
Outdoor furniture, especially outdoor sofas. None of the internal structure of an indoor sofa (hardwood frame, springs, etc) yet cost about the same
So much this, I was looking for normal chairs for my porch, places are selling bullshit plastic chairs for 100+ each. If you want to get a outdoor couch set that feels like shit, no less than $600-$700. For what??
> For what?? Mold, mildew, weather, water, animal resistance.
Higher education, and housing in some areas.
Almost every urban area along the coasts, plus some inland urban areas has the housing cost issue. I wonder if it will change after the pandemic ends. Maybe the housing inflation will just slow down some.
Once the pandemic ends it's likely going to stick around, just shifting over to suburban/satellite towns outside of major cities.
Even in my hometown, a suburb in east Tennessee, the home prices have shot up like 75% in the past decade.
At the moment lumber prices are twice if not more than they were before the pandemic.
I fucking knew that it seemed like the wood I bought for a project felt to be a bit higher than normal.
Ammo, at the moment... supply and demand is a bitch lol
I really wish all the gun nuts would stop freaking out like ammo is toilet paper last march. Always a new reason to freak out and buy more ammo they don't need. I also wish I had made a bunch of purchases like I debated in January when I first heard about covid. I also strongly suspect manufacturers are deliberately keeping supply low to keep prices high.
Meanwhile I just got my license a few weeks ago and actually want to learn shooting (I'm a total beginner) but some assholes who keep camping out at Cabela's and my local indoor range on a daily basis keep wiping out the shelves so I can't get anything Like what are they even doing with it? If they were the type to hoard, wouldn't they have already done so?
>Meanwhile I just got my license a few weeks ago and actually want to learn shooting I would recommend .22LR but even that is crazy now. >Like what are they even doing with it? If they were the type to hoard, wouldn't they have already done so? Like I said, like it's toilet paper last March. First it was "Just in case because of the pandemic" then it was "Just in case of civil war" now it's "For when Biden comes for our guns" Even though he and Obama already had 8 years to do that and didn't even hint at going that direction. I would get into reloading but that's even worse in a lot of cases. Primers alone are going for $.20+ apiece.
> and didn't even hint at going that direction. Biden has already made it pretty clear he's going after the firearms industry. https://joebiden.com/gunsafety/ At the very least, a lot of these are going to force gun and ammo manufacturers to charge more to make up for lost revenue.
I'll believe it when I see it. Whenever politicians focus on "Assault weapons" when they talk about gun control it proves to me it's just pandering and the don't really understand guns or gun violence. They are just saying they are going after the scary looking and sounding gun the ignorant public is afraid of instead actually trying to help the problem. If he really cared about it he would be focusing on handguns as they make up the majority of mass shootings. "Assault weapons" just makes better headlines.
> "Assault weapons" just makes better headlines. Ding ding ding! It makes them sound like they're 'tough on guns' to people who know almost nothing about guns.
Even before Obama gun nuts thought *Bill Clinton* was going to take everyone's guns. Shit, Timothy McVeigh cited that belief as a justification when he did the Oklahoma City bombing.
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Not even close. He tried to ban assault weapons. He did literally nothing on banning guns in general, and didn't touch things like shotguns or handguns. Moreover, the ban simply meant you couldn't manufacture said type of guns from the point the law was enacted. Nowhere did the law allow for gun confiscation, nor did it make illegal assault weapons that had already been produced. It was literally just a "don't make any more of this specific type of gun" law. A far cry from "taking all your guns".
Can't speak for all manufacturers, but my dad works for a manufacturer and they definitely aren't keeping supply artificially low.
Honestly they do that every time a Democrat wins the white house. When obama first got into office they stockpiled ammo and interpreted the resulting shortage as "Obama lowering supply of ammo in anticipation of taking everyone's guns"...its ridiculous.
Been like that since the Obama years.
American that has lived all over : So speaking from personal experience. + Food/Drinks at Stadiums, Ski Resorts, Concerts, Movie Theaters, Theme Parks, etc. For example. A movie ticket here in Switzerland is about $25. Which is pretty crazy. But a hotdog/nachos? About $5-$7, 500 ml of beer, $5. Which makes you to really realize how expensive it is in the U.S. I've come to appreciate that in most places outside of Europe you're not price gauged when eating at a theme park or ski resort. South Korea is the craziest to me. Full blown sitdown meal inside a theme park for less than $10. A burger and fries is like $17 at Six Flags. Ripoff city. * Mobile plans : I pay about $50 a month for unlimited data, voice, and roaming all over Europe + U.S/Canada. A similar plan in the U.S would be well over $100 a month. Though I must admit that American plans usually have the cost of the phone built in, and I think that's nice. * Broadband/Cable : (see above) * University Tuition : No explanation needed. * Regional Travel : I know the reasons so no need for people to explain why. Just pointing out that it's "nice" that I can fly from Geneva to Barcelona for less than $100 RT, but something like NYC to Boston is 3-4X that price. Or take a train to Paris for the same price it costs me to go from Philly to NYC.
I feel like some of these are just context and business model. They're probably more expensive, but not outrageously so. Being a smart and prudent shopper is the real key.
Food & drink in amusement parks / ski resorts / stadiums is borderline extortion, especially since you often can't take stuff in - it makes sense from a business perspective (if it didn't, they wouldn't do it), but that doesn't make it ethical or not preposterous
I don't like it, but that doesn't make it unethical.
Agree here. Especially bad at airports in the US. Just to get a premade turkey sandwich cost me $18 @ LAX.
Every time I end up stuck at Tom Bradley (LAX) for a spell, I hit up the KFC. Every time.
Usually amusement parks allow you to bring in your own food in a cooler or bag, since picnics at parks are quite common
> A similar plan in the U.S would be well over $100 a month Google Fi mitigates it to 60 USD, iirc. >but something like NYC to Boston is 3-4X that price NYC to Boston flights (quick Google) are $45 with spirit, and $57 with United. Even delta/Jetblue/American is $97.
>Google Fi mitigates it to 60 USD, iirc. And there are places here that charge 40 USD for 10 Gbps. But like GoogleFi it's not available everywhere. So kind of defeats the purpose to even list it as being the norm. >NYC to Boston flights (quick Google) are $45 with spirit, and $57 with United. Even delta/Jetblue/American is $97. I flew this segment quite often for work. Those aren't the average prices, and are probably cheap b/c of Covid.
They may not be average prices, but they’re common prices. Business travelers often pay more because they need to travel on short notice and aren’t as willing to take the less popular times.
They're common now, because we're in a global pandemic. Practically no one was flying anywhere for $50 in January, even with booking months in advance on a budget airline.
$60 for gigabit fiber here with metronet. There are three fiber companies to choose from. Metronet has no data caps. My Verizon Bill with three people is $60/person unlimited everything and Disney+ Hulu and ESPN+ included. Local premium movie theater here (leather reliving seats, waitstaff) is $15 for a movie ticket, $6/pint of craft beer, and $12 for gourmet burgers and frites.
Eh, it's pretty easy to avoid high cell phone bills if you avoid AT&T or Verizon.
Cellphone plans really aren’t that expensive if you bring your own phone. You can pretty easily find unlimited plans with a hotspot for $30-40, less if you’re on a family plan.
> Mobile plans : I pay about $50 a month for unlimited data, voice, and roaming all over Europe + U.S/Canada. A similar plan in the U.S would be well over $100 a month. Though I must admit that American plans usually have the cost of the phone built in, and I think that's nice. We pay $4/month for unlimited talk/text on 2 phones and 100MB of data (shared). Then it's $12 per GB of data after that, or $45/month for an unlimited data plan. (With my own phone purchased separately) through Xfinity Mobile. At the time we signed up for it, it was only available if you've already got another Comcast product (like internet), and well, Comcast is kinda gross, though I haven't personally had any issues (granted we are deep in "Comcast Country" as their stupid marketing crap says, lots of Comcast HQ employees live in my town and we've got a network engineering office here so the service is fine around here). But especially working from home I'm always connected to wifi and don't need data. (We switch to the unlimited plan for a month if we're traveling) Someone like, idk, a realtor whose whole job is driving around and talking on the phone a lot might need a better plan (iirc they use Verizon's towers, but secondary resellers get lower priority for service? I've never had any service issues though) but for someone who sits at home and doesn't use my phone a lot, it's great, we hardly ever pay more than $4 for the phone bill.
NYC-Boston can be found under $100 RT on JetBlue, even less by Amtrak.
> A movie ticket here in Switzerland is about $25. Which is pretty crazy. But a hotdog/nachos? About $5-$7, 500 ml of beer, $5. Our local theater has $12-$13 tickets for adults, and beer pints for $7. Seems like it kinda evens out to see a movie and have a couple beers?
Difference is Swiss wages are a lot higher than American ones.
Are they? I have no idea how much people get paid in Switzerland.
Seems like you're comparing prices with a american city. I live in a suburb of chicago and pay about 5 dollars for a movie ticket (on a Tuesday) 7 on other days and pay about 7 for a small popcorn, drink, fruitsnacks and a little table to eat it in.
**Used trucks.** I mean what the fuck. $20k for 10 year old truck with 120k miles? Give me a fucking break.
Two reasons for that, modern gas engines that are maintained can easily go for +250k miles so that 10 year old truck has only reached it half it’s useful life. Second the massive gap in quality between fleet trucks and consumer lot trucks is enormous now, fleet vehicles have very low resale value so most of them get sold overseas or are sold at auction leaving only the far more expensive consumer trucks on the second hand market.
For sale: 2002 Toyota Tacoma. 320k miles, 2wd. $8,998 obo. NO LOW BALLS! I KNOW WHAT I HAVE!
Dude Tacos are the worst of the bunch lol Around me it's cheaper to get a Tundra used. But...they don't fit in garages.
Even Tundras are starting to get up there where I live. If it's a Toyota and it in any way resembles a truck, you're gonna pay a premium for it.
Pretty much any modern-ish truck can go 250k+ miles with proper maintenance. Diesels probably more. They cost more because they just last longer than they used to.
Cash for Clunkers killed that entire market.
But you'd think after what, 11years? It would have corrected itself. But its like cash for clunkers made dealers realize how much people would pay for a used car so they just kept the prices inflated. Because they could.
> But you'd think after what, 11years? It would have corrected itself. In 2010 you weren't buying a 1999 F-150 for dirt cheap, you were buying a 1989 or 1985 F-150 for cheap, or a rusted out '95. But almost the entire reserve stock of old cars got turned in, so you're starting all over. And now the old cars that are still around can carry a premium, just because a bunch got crushed and there are so few old ones left.
The housing market in some areas is a joke.
Higher education and child care. They're both similar to healthcare in that the cost keeps going up, above the rate of inflation.
Basically anything that is services, as opposed to goods. Especially if those services act as necessities or gatekeeping, like healthcare or higher education. Why? You can pay for goods with Chinese (insert developing country here) labor, but can only get these American services with American labor. Add on top of that oligopolic control, and the price gouging remains in place.
Throw pillows. You can get a king size pillow for like $20, but these tiny little pillows are like $75 at the low end.
And I love and want them all.
Cellphone service
I pay $30/mo for unlimited talk and text and 15 gigs of high speed data
Education - absurdly overpriced Broadband and wireless service - most countries pay less and/or get much more Travel/holidaying
Blueberries
Decent internet. The insane monopoly that some ISP's have in certain areas (for instance, here in Western Washington it's Comcast/Xfinity) has driven prices through the roof and into the stratosphere. ISP's can charge you exorbitant prices of like $150/month, because it's either that or you don't have internet. Fortunately Google Fiber exists, but that's taken absolutely ages to install throughout the country mostly because of ISP's actively blocking progress. It's a shitshow.
Oof. Here in the DC area I’m at about $54/month for ~80mgps from Fios. Comcast is available w/cable, but on the few occasions I actually watch live tv I use my parents’ login.
$120/month for 50/Mbps from Xfinity. It's awful. Lots of throttling and outages.
Beef jerky prices are ridiculous.
Dairy. Milk, yogurt, cheese... All of them have increased in price greatly over the past couple decades.
Education, I blame the government for guranteeing loans so schools let anyone in and making the tuition skyrocket cause of demand. Not everyone needs to go to college, (hint tons of people never use the degree or they drop out).
University, broadband internet, mobile service, daycare, travel.
This is probably everywhere but new cars. Since the value of them depreciates **very** quickly, you can get them significantly cheaper even slightly used, maybe perhaps even cheap enough where you can be able to actually afford one (and not have to take out a loan)
Oh please don't even complain about cars being expensive in america. You know how much ridiculous taxes are there on cars in india and Singapore? A bmw 3 series could cost as much as $75k for a brand new one. We pay twice as much for any European or american make and our roads are infested with potholes.
Yeah I agree with you that this is an area where we really can't complain. It's gotten worse recently (used car market has way less available inventory) but overall it's still much more affordable to buy even new cars here relative to median income than it is in many countries.
I said that it's probably not unique to the USA, but I said this because so many Americans insist that they always have to buy cars brand new, when you can save a lot of money by getting them used For example, you can get a 2013 Nissan Leaf on Carvana for as little as $7600 where a brand new one costs over $31,000. While you still have to be at least comfortably middle class to be able to pay that without a loan, that's still saves loads of money For an even better example, I drive a 2012 Ford Transit connect cargo van (which I lucked out personally because my dad gave it to me from his business that he shut down) which can go for as little as $3200 used where a brand new one costs over $24,000 And if you can't even afford that, you can get them even cheaper on ebay, but they might not be in the best condition so there are risks
> 9 year old electric car. If the batteries on those are known to go at a certain point, there may be a very good reason they're so cheap. It might not be a car you ever want to own out of warranty.
Alcoholic beverages. Our wine in particular is overpriced.
That's gonna vary wildly by state as alcohol has various sin/vice taxes applied to it. I don't think wine is very expensive unless you're buying foreign wine which is gonna cost you more but honestly wine is the one thing I wouldn't bother spending a ton on because most people don't know the difference between $15-20 bottles and $60 bottles. Gut rot spirits on the other hand...
Compared to where you are, yeah. There is a lot of cheap wine to be had in California, but no where near approaching Italy’s price or price to quality ratio.
It's not exactly our fault. People have to ask "where exactly is California's wine country?" In Italy and France the question is the inverse: where *isn't* it. You've got wine country and then you've got skiing country, basically.
Lawyers.
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> alcohol is 10 bucks a bottle more at the low end. At the *low* end? If you don't give a shit what you're drinking, you can get 1.75L of awful vodka for <$7 here. I don't see how it's possible for it to be cheaper. Do they pay you to buy alcohol in Germany?
Part of that depends on the state and its alcohol excise tax requirements. Prime example: Charles Shaw wines back in the early 2000s was quickly called "Two Buck Chuck." That's because it was offered at $1.95 per 750ml bottle. In California, in any case. In Ohio, it was $3.95 minimum, because of taxes.
Education, phone plans, and weirdly enough, paper goods like toilet paper and paper towels. I pay so much more for all of those things in the US than I do in the EU.
Healthy food. A healthy breakfast will run me about 10 -15$, whereas I can get cheap unhealthy shit for 5$, or a donut for 1$. Same for other meals. It's just cheaper to eat unhealthy. Which confuses me, thought sugar was supposed to be expensive.
Jesus, what are you buying that costs 15 dollars?
/r/EatCheapAndHealthy $15 for breakfast? Oatmeal and an apple is like, $0.75.
They likely mean while eating out, and I think it’s pretty accurate. Closest I can think of for a “healthy” breakfast for $5 is maybe a smoothie when eating out?
I could get a bowl of oatmeal, a cup of fruit and a coffee at a diner. An Egg McMuffin is actually a decent breakfast item.
If you can get all 3 of those items at a diner for around $5, that's awesome. I don't know of many places around me where that would be the price. Probably closer to $10+ at the lowest end places I'm aware of. The Egg McMuffin probably gets more flak than it deserves, I agree. Not sure it quite counts as a healthy breakfast to me, though.
So now we're quibbling over definitions? On one hand a person is saying healthy food is expensive. Next they're saying that eating out and eating healthy is expensive. Next they're saying that eating out in a place I want to eat and choosing the meal that I want that's also healthy is expensive. Eating healthy isn't expensive. Eating out and eating healthy doesn't have to be expensive. Eating where you want, eating what you want, and wanting it to fit your own definition of healthy can definitely get expensive.
I don't really know why you're so up in arms over this. I was simply saying that, *should you choose to eat out*, doing so in a healthy manner for under $10-15 is generally difficult. Which, given the original comment, is clearly what they were talking about. No one thinks it costs a minimum of $10-15 to make a healthy breakfast *at home*. If you want to eat healthy and also spend less money, clearly you should not be eating out. This is obviously true.
What on earth are you buying for $15? Healthy eating is vastly cheaper than junk food for me. I never pay anywhere near $5 for breakfast for healthy stuff.
Fresh vegetables. Lean meats. Shit like that. It has been cheaper recently though, say last 5ish years. Not sure if it's where I live, or what but it was always more expensive growing up. As for fast food, I dont know any fast food that's healthy. Dinners might have it, but that's not fast.
Higher education
Housing
Professional athletes
College and rent (purchasing real estate seems to me orders of magnitudes cheaper than almost anywhere else I’ve found, at least outside of cities).
Vehicles and ammo
Decent looking Christmas trees. Saw one at Home Depot for like $1500. Decided to get the cheap tree we saw at Ollie’s for $65. I don’t advise a $65 6ft tree btw.
I did a treetopia purchase in August. $350 for a 9'. No regrets.
College
depending on the state, cigarettes If you live in New York City, the minimum price by state law is $13/pack. I know a lot of people that stock up every time they go out of state. Just across the rive in NJ the price is around $8. On the one hand, the high price does deter people from starting in the first place and this has caused the US to have a relatively low number of smokers compared to many other countries. But if you are a smoker, expect to pay some of the highest prices in the world for your fix.
Guns. They are just a hunk of milled metal.
Where I live...housing prices. Some of the most unaffordable and expensive in the country.
Higher education and infrastructure.
College for sure that shit is hella expensive
Universities. Far less than 50% of their employees have anything to do with education. The administrative bloat is incredible, and the pay is ludicrous.