this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2025
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Lots of regional variation. Lots of prices are sticky (once a grocery store can clear it's shelves at $X*2 they aren't going to lower the prices). Lots of the comments are straight up rumor, impression, word of mouth, or deliberate propaganda.
The supply chain shake up continues to rattle the automotive industry. Chip shortages plague electronics stores and make newer phones, computers, and consoles either unaffordable or unavailable. Trump tariffs on imports like pasta and coffee are showing up on store shelves over time - you can get cheaper domestic products, but if you're buying Brand X, you won't miss the price spike.
Meanwhile, rent is still extravogant. College debt is still an albatross. Health care isn't getting any cheaper. And wages are still skating in the danger zone for cost of living.
I wouldn't call anything "cheap" right now, either. Especially not if you're financing a bunch of credit card debt.
True. It's also relative to your consumption patterns. If you are buying bottom self products and they go up from $2 to $3 that is a 50% increase. not so much if you are buying a $20 product that went up to 22. Also with gas... big difference if you drive a gas guzzler vs a hybrid. I barely notice gas prices changes because I fill up once a month or less and my car has a 10G tank, so a $1 price increase in gas is an extra $10 a month for me. I'm not buying 100 gallons of gas per month like some folks.
Personally... I paid off all my debts aggressively and I don't overspend. After college I paid down my $35K in debt aggressively. and it was gone by the time I was 26. I don't really empathize with people who load up on debt and then complain about it. i have no empathy for some low wage worker who decided to load up a credit card with $7000 to go traveling and then is struggling to make the payments... life isn't so hard if you don't overspend and budget. A lot of the people I've met recently... who are 'struggling' are spending 50% of their paycheck at bars/restaurants who absolutely refuse to be more responsible with their money. I also haven't purchased a new computer or a phone in like 5 years, because there is zero need for me to do so. I keep my stuff until it breaks. From my POV where I live.... most people are simple massively overspending. I know couples who have two cars they barely use and spend like 800/mo for them, but they INSIST they 'need' them and complain about how expensive they are... not to mention they are buying new iphones every other year... etc.
Auto prices are also declining this year. I'm going to buy a new car because they are going below MSRP again and the borrow rates are dropping. True that a year or two ago they were still going for above MSRP. My car is 10 years old and at this point I'd rather get a new one than start spending $1000s on repairs. But I'm also going to keep my payment to $300 or less and buy a basic small sedan in the 30K range and likely I can get a 35K car for 32K or less out the door. Not going to buy a 60K+ truck with 900 dollar payment that needs to be filled up every week for $100 and has 300/mo insurance payments on top of all that. No idea why people buy vehicles like that for commuting to an office, but a lot of people do.
If the people you interact with on a daily basis are people with 2 cars and an 800 dollar monthly payment on them, then that may explain why you think that. Hang out with people who work menial jobs. People who work in the back of kitchens, people who work a terrible retail job, people who actually are struggling. Then tell me that everyone is just overspending.
most people who work menial jobs in my city aren't living off that money. they are living off their parents while pursuing arts careers and they are doing menial jobs for spending money. for them being poor is a temporary lifestyle thing and a lot of them around 30 just go back to school and go enter the corporate workforce when it stops being 'cool' to be a tattooed barista making 10/hr. their struggle is entirely aesthetic. i know several people with computer science degrees who are also doing this... because they dont' want to work for 'the man'. like if you are 30 and you chose to be an artist and you are struggling because you refuse to work a full time job for the past decade.. that's not really legit struggle.
i live in the most expensive city in the country my many metrics. even menial jobs here pay quite well. janitorial work will easily get you 50K a year which may not be luxurious but will easily cover the basics.
as for the immigrants... they are living subsidized housing multiple people to a room. they make it work. They aren't eating out, they aren't traveling, they aren't buying expensive cars and whining about it. I actually regularly make donations to immigrants to supply them with computer equipment that my company has decomissioned.
I respect them, because that's how I grew up myself and it's why I live so well today. I don't respect people in their 30s who whine about how hard life is because they made self-indulgence choices. Teachers are underpaid for sure, but if you are only making 60K a year and you're spending 10K traveling ever summer and paying it back over the next year and never building savings... your 'poverty' is entirely your own choice.
Look. I don't know you as a person, but from what I see you really love to conflate your anecdotal experiences with facts. I hope one day you'll truly understand compassion. I don't think you're a bad person, but you seem misguided.
You don't have to empathize, even if that $7k is as often on medical bills or car repairs or business debts as vacations.
The point is that economic predators exist and plenty of people feel the crushing grip whether or not they're prudent with their meager savings. They notice that 50% jump in bottom rung prices and complain accordingly.
EVs have a baked in $7500 price hike. And - at least according to Edmunds in 2024 - the spread between new and used cars has never been larger, with used cars falling (pressed by high interest rates) while new cars continue to climb. At to the problem that we effectively don't have domestically produced compact cars anymore, and even the periodic modest decline in model price is eclipsed by the lack of economy type cars to purchase.
It's crazy that $32k is the low end of the market for a new car in this country. Overseas, you can find cars in the $10k range, with the ultra-compact and alternative vehicle markets gets as low as $2k.
In the US, it's hard to find a fucking bicycle for less than $2k anymore