These ships have been waiting on the water since last year when the genius Emperor suddenly banned coal import from Australia.
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“Mac Harman, CEO of Redwood City’s Balsam Hill, is paying 270% more to import artificial Christmas trees and decorations from overseas factories. “Ocean freight rates have gone up like crazy,” he said.”
Here in AZ I go online and pay the Forest Service $15 for a tag to go cut my own beautiful REAL tree - not a plastic one from China.
And of course all those labor shortages are created by governments - not the virus.
A plastic tree is a one time investment unlike your annual real trees. I bought my 7 foot tall lighted plastic Christmas tree (made in China) in 2004 for $60 or so, and have been using it every Holiday season since then. Cost is now amortized to less than $4 per year, and dropping…
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Do you spritz the house with fake pine scent to get that fresh tree vibe?
The two can’t be compared. Then there’s the whole ritual of going into the woods and finding that perfect tree.
A fake tree is like a widescreen in your fireplace playing a video loop of a fire. Hey, no wood to cut and no ashes to take out.
same! and no fire risk from a “real” tree drying out, which I would certainly forget to change/add water as needed.
Different style, different wants. Both have merits
A lighted up plastic tree with ornaments creates good enough Xmas vibe for me, don’t need the smell and no work in going to the woods, hauling the tree, disposing it afterwards etc
If this author got his way income redistribution would just inflate costs. Everyone would have more money except the 1% (taxed to 90% maybe). All chasing the same products and services. Everything would just cost more. Standards of living would not rise. Makers of luxury goods and highend homes would become bankrupt.
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The problem with the article like above is that they do not have any solution to offer that has not been tried and tested already, and not found to have failed. Even after a century or more of labor movement, the needle has not moved a bit. Labor and left need to come up with better answers, I guess.
Lumber prices are climbing fast again. Inflation is everywhere.
I recently shared the cost of replacing a small portion of fence with my neighbor.
To remove 36 ft of rotting fence and replace with 7 ft high fence (6+base) the total cost was 2160$.
That’s 60$ per ft. Seems outrageous.
Last year I paid 35$ per ft for similar work with another neighbor.
The labor costs are now 4 to 5x the materials.
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Rising prices beat shortages hands down.
The local Bashas was constantly running out of Boar’s Head deluxe roast beef. They just raised the price from $12 a pound to $16 a pound. Presto - they’re not running out anymore.
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Are tech stocks going to take more hit or the inflation is factored into the current prices?