Shocking price rises!!??

[Louis D]

2 hours ago, billhinge said:

I  blame TV or lack of now.

My grown kids don't watch TV except to stream Netflix and such.  They don't watch the news because it makes them upset.  Better to be uninformed and happy than informed and unhappy is their mantra I guess.

[Louis D]

I forgot to add this thought of mine on uniformed individuals like my kids:  It should scare us informed voters that many, if not most, voters are completely uninformed or worse, misinformed, on most topics, and yet they choose our representatives via their votes.

[John]

8 minutes ago, Louis D said:

I forgot to add this thought of mine on uniformed individuals like my kids:  It should scare us informed voters that many, if not most, voters are completely uninformed or worse, misinformed, on most topics, and yet they choose our representatives via their votes.

Good point. Must find a way to stop the uninformed having a vote

 

 

 

[lenscap]

11 minutes ago, Louis D said:

It should scare us informed voters that many, if not most, voters are completely uninformed or worse, misinformed, on most topics, and yet they choose our representatives via their votes.

To paraphrase Churchill  " . . . democracy, the worst form of government, apart from all the alternatives . . ."

[Louis D]

58 minutes ago, lenscap said:

To paraphrase Churchill  " . . . democracy, the worst form of government, apart from all the alternatives . . ."

After seeing local voters approve a $7 billion bond package to build a light rail system after most business owners and property owners vehemently opposed it, I realized it was all the college students registered to vote in town along with all of the renters who thought having new trains to ride sounded great, especially because they don't directly pay property taxes.  At first, I thought the original US Constitution allowing only land owners to vote sounded pretty elitist, but as a property tax paying individual now, I get it.  Since it was amended to allow all citizens to vote, this is what we get.  Voting for expenses we may never be on the hook to pay for, even indirectly.

[JeremyS]

1 hour ago, Louis D said:

After seeing local voters approve a $7 billion bond package to build a light rail system after most business owners and property owners vehemently opposed it, I realized it was all the college students registered to vote in town along with all of the renters who thought having new trains to ride sounded great, especially because they don't directly pay property taxes.  At first, I thought the original US Constitution allowing only land owners to vote sounded pretty elitist, but as a property tax paying individual now, I get it.  Since it was amended to allow all citizens to vote, this is what we get.  Voting for expenses we may never be on the hook to pay for, even indirectly.

Public transport in Texas? One person one vote? Where will all this end? 🤣

[Louis D]

29 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Public transport in Texas? One person one vote? Where will all this end? 🤣

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage." - Debatable attribution

[Stu]

Whilst all this is very interesting, may I just gently draw this back to the title of the thread which was ‘Shocking price rises!!?’, and also give an equally gentle reminder of the no politics rule in the CoC.

Thank you all 😀👍

[Andy ES]

Hi Back on track 😄 a bit of a price rise in 3 months.

prices at 9/1/21 and today, actually I paid £2659 at FLO now  £2899

£240 price rise over 3 months

( not complaining)

Edited March 26, 2021 by Andy ES

[osbourne one-nil]

Well I don't know about any of you but I certainly try and charge as much as I can for my services!

[F15Rules]

4 hours ago, John said:

Good point. Must find a way to stop the uninformed having a vote

 

 

 

Hmmm..well, if the uninformed are indeed er, uninformed, then they won't know when the election is, (as they haven't been informed of it, and are therefore uninformed). So, if by not informing them that there is an election, they remain uninformed, they won't vote anyway - because they haven't been informed of it... I think...??

Dave

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

15 hours ago, billhinge said:

I  blame TV or lack of now. Back  in the 70's they did good  educational tv, one of  the  unsung goodies was Weekend World on Sunday 12.00 lunchtime with Peter Jay and Brian Walden

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weekend_World

Even as kid I  was interested in  velocity of money, M0 to M4 money supply, Keynesian economics models vs gold standard, and rising costs of materials at the factory gates, domino theory etc 🙂 

guess   it influenced me to expect price rises - never  let a good crisis go  to  waste (they even put prices up when they changed from  old money to decimal ;-( 

I knew there was something else I should have been doing besides playing football, riding a bike, building dens, fighting with the kids from the next block and tormenting girls... 

 

[Highburymark]

Latest price rise to catch my eye is the Lunt 2” wedge which used to be far cheaper than the Baader Coolwedge (and rightly so - the Lunt doesn’t come with a continuum filter), yet it is now almost at parity (though the old price is still available if you shop around). They are fast turning white light wedges into expensive items 

[Shimrod]

21 hours ago, Andy ES said:

Hi Back on track 😄 a bit of a price rise in 3 months.

prices at 9/1/21 and today, actually I paid £2659 at FLO now  £2899

£240 price rise over 3 months

( not complaining)

 

 

I suspect the price rise as over 1 day rather than three months - but checking past prices on Amazon, the average price of the CPC 925  all the way back to 2017 was only £2649, so that is between 3 and 4 years with no price increases. There may well just be no more margin available to absorb cost increases.

[Deadlake]

On 26/03/2021 at 20:09, Stu said:

Whilst all this is very interesting, may I just gently draw this back to the title of the thread which was ‘Shocking price rises!!?’, and also give an equally gentle reminder of the no politics rule in the CoC.

Thank you all 😀👍

One question Stu, if this thread is around prices rises and a lot of the dealers I talk to (delays and cost increases) say corvid is not the only factor in prices rises but due to changes in trading arrangements shall we say how can you keep policitics out of it?

[Louis D]

1 hour ago, Deadlake said:

One question Stu, if this thread is around prices rises and a lot of the dealers I talk to (delays and cost increases) say corvid is not the only factor in prices rises but due to changes in trading arrangements shall we say how can you keep policitics out of it?

He's not saying that.  He's saying that even if politics were a part of it, it would not be an allowable subject to discuss on here.  You could probably say that new tariffs (Trump's 25% China trade war) or Brexit added X amount to the cost, but you couldn't discuss the merits or underlying reasons for either.

[CraigT82]

10 hours ago, Deadlake said:

One question Stu, if this thread is around prices rises and a lot of the dealers I talk to (delays and cost increases) say corvid is not the only factor in prices rises but due to changes in trading arrangements shall we say how can you keep policitics out of it?

Don't think crows have anything to do with it despite what your dealers are saying!

(Sorry couldn't resist 🙃)

[Stu1smartcookie]

Topics getting too heavy ! To summarise .. prices have gone up .. some have gone up too much in a short space of time ( no astronomy pun intended) . We all have a choice . Pay the money or not . There are deals out there , if you shop around and now is probably the best time to ONLY buy what you need rather than all you think want . ( I am guilty of buying , quite frankly stuff I don’t use ) . Also a very good time to look at your intended “path “ in the hobby . I think higher costs , whilst unsavoury for everyone can have a positive effect in valuing the equipment we already have and certainly making us think more carefully about future purchases . Not easy for new enthusiasts to get into an already expensive hobby ( yes it is !!!! Just because some people can afford top of the range equipment , there are most that  enter the hobby with a predetermined budget ) , but , although I doubt prices will drop much ( why would they ? Companies are in it to make money , after all ) .. there will ALWAYS be a healthy second hand market .. maybe even more so as a lot of people entered into astronomy during the pandemic but have decided that they do not wish to  pursue it anymore . 
Phew , that was my summary .. no politics , just a bit of a reality check ! 
By the way , I used to be able to buy a bag of chips for about 10p ! There , that’s inflation for you .. £2.50 now !!!

[MikeP]

Quote

By the way , I used to be able to buy a bag of chips for about 10p ! There , that’s inflation for you .. £2.50 now !!!

I must be older - 4d and 6d were the prices for normal and large bags when I was a lad.

Mike

[Stu1smartcookie]

7 minutes ago, MikeP said:

I must be older - 4d and 6d were the prices for normal and large bags when I was a lad.

Mike

Lol I have to admit , I used the 10p price because I couldn’t  really remember the exact price .. as someone that grew up in the pre decimal age ie I was 9 when decimalisation came in I’m sure I   had chips in that price bracket too  😂😂😂

[Mr Spock]

I remember when... 😜

2d bus journey to town for the 6d Saturday morning matinee followed by the afternoon in the swimming pool, also 6d. Those were the days... 

The rest of my 2/- pocket money went on sweets.

[Stu1smartcookie]

16 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

I remember when... 😜

2d bus journey to town for the 6d Saturday morning matinee followed by the afternoon in the swimming pool, also 6d. Those were the days... 

The rest of my 2/- pocket money went on sweets.

Happy days 

[Deadlake]

1 hour ago, CraigT82 said:

Don't think crows have anything to do with it despite what your dealers are saying!

(Sorry couldn't resist 🙃)

 Crows???

I think a drop of 60% in trade by value with the EU would effect prices, so a little lost in thinking dealers are making things up?

[Stu]

3 minutes ago, Deadlake said:

 Crows???

I think a drop of 60% in trade by value with the EU would effect prices, so a little lost in thinking dealers are making things up?

You talked about corvid being a reason for the price rises, rather than covid. Just a little tease 😉

12 hours ago, Deadlake said:

One question Stu, if this thread is around prices rises and a lot of the dealers I talk to (delays and cost increases) say corvid is not the only factor in prices rises but due to changes in trading arrangements shall we say how can you keep policitics out of it?

Political discussions always get out of hand on forums eventually due to the wide range of opinions and the polarised nature of thoughts around contentious issues. That’s why we have a no politics rule on the forum; we are first and foremost and astronomy forum, that’s what conversation should focus on.

There is no harm in saying, for example, ‘price rises are happening due to Brexit, Covid, trade wars etc’, but please do not discuss the merits of political decisions and how we got here. We should just discuss the impact it is having on us, not whether it was a good idea or say ‘xxxxxx politician is a numpty because ........’!

Plenty of other places to discuss politics, just not here please. Hope that’s clear.

[Ian McCallum]

Corvid vs Covid...