Why are people still buying stuff?

[scorpio]

You are entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts. You only have hear-say. Someone told you, so you believe it.

I have the same situation were life insurance isn't paying because the cause of death was coded as Covid. It wasn't Covid. No hearsay or foundation objections here.

 

[Unkljohn]

Lumber prices are crazy high right now.

 

[luvflyin]

Early springtime there was a thread that asked "How far will plane prices drop in 2020 due to the pandemic?" Yet plane prices/sales seem to be more than holding there own. A friend is looking at trucks and says that there are no real deals to be found. That while there is the usual mark up to show a mark down, there doesn't seem to be any desperation to get people to buy. Full size trucks are starting at close to $40K. I am shopping for motorcycles and the same thing seems to apply. The salesman I spoke to said that if everyone qualified for financing, he would have no units on the floor. HD seems to be the only brand with sales problems. Older, used bikes do not seem to be moving but late models (less than 3 years old) go quick. Heck, I even heard that lumber is in short supply due to everyone doing home remodeling jobs.

How can this be? What about the record unemployment that I read about? I see no evidence of it where I live. My college age daughter had no trouble finding two well paying summer jobs.

Because we need Stuff

 

[MauleSkinner]

That's a good answer. I only wonder how much of that 10-11% unemployment is due to companies letting the government pay their employees. As others have noted, some people are getting more take-home pay from the combined unemployment, so they are getting a paid vacation without using their vacation time. Likewise, the companies reduce their payroll for a short time with no consequences.

I note that some resort hotels (post 58), are crowded, but business travel is down, and the airlines seem to be down, too, so not all of that 10-11% is from companies taking advantage of free money. It's complicated.

Very complicated...i wouldn’t consider the unemployment numbers to be any sort of indicator until the government isn’t making companies’ payroll. At that point, the unemployment numbers would be a direct indicator, but not now.

 

[NJP_MAN]

The next day $8000 was in her bank account ($600/wk going back to March or April)..

She has made more money than me then in 2020. I'm sitting firm around $6,000 in 2020. It could be more but I refuse to take unemployment insurance.

 

[Salty]

She has made more money than me then in 2020. I'm sitting firm around $6,000 in 2020. It could be more but I refuse to take unemployment insurance.

You pay into it, so why wouldn’t you take it?

 

[Juliet Hotel]

She has made more money than me then in 2020. I'm sitting firm around $6,000 in 2020. It could be more but I refuse to take unemployment insurance.

She didn't make the money, she received it. And its looking like her father is going to make her give it back.

 

[Piperonca]

Because we need Stuff

All time best George Carlin skit -- a classic!