Cost goes down, prices go up?

[Gem99ultra]

Whoç—´ getting hood-winked in todayç—´ market? I read almost daily about how little workers earn in China, India, Mexico, you-name-it. Often only a few dollars per day, or less! But I sure don稚 see the prices for the things that theyæ±*e making drop here in the US.

If the US workers are making multiple times the wages of the foreign workers, wouldn稚 it make sense that the labor side of goods would be tremendously less? And in many cases, the materials for those goods are also made in foreign countries.

Why then would the prices of things like automobiles go down not up? Well I知 thinking that there is somebody in the food chain that痴 making a killing. Is it the wholesaler? Or the retailer?

Perhaps somebody can explain to me why when cost goes down, prices don稚.

 

[HillStreet]

I often wonder the same. Pretty much, my earning years are over because my wife and I are retired but we have it pretty good overall, and we do watch what we spend.

A lot of people complain about Wal-Mart but we do shop there quite a bit. I can buy shirts or jeans there for $14 to $20 and they serve my purpose just fine. Once in a while if we're in a mall (not very often) we'll walk through a high end store just for giggles. I recently noticed a pullover shirt with an embroidered emblem on it, made in a Latin country--- for $89. Now that is outrageous.

What bugs me the most is equipment that is built with cheaper and lighter materials, and they barely last the warranty period. (My recent experience with buying a lawn tractor, lawn sweeper, and lawn spreader shows me the quality just ain't there anymore).

The MBAs have it figured out to set a "price point" on products to make the sale, then it's your problem after a short warranty period.

 

[jimpen]

Well if the fed finally stops quantitative easing that will stabilize the value of the dollar. At one point the fed was printing $88 billion per month.