nlc wrote:. And then you have to follow the fashion, change your laptop every 6 months to have 1M pixel more on the CCD sensor or more color on the screen, you need a car that throws more than the neighbor, you need a flat screen (while the old TV worked very well ...), you need the latest IT level to run the latest windaube bista to fill 3 boxes in a spreadsheet and send a few emails, you have to buy products from maintains more expensive, as it no longer needs to scrub it's even more free time to spend, you have to buy salad in a bag as it doesn't need to clean it it's already done, it's still free time to spend, etc. ..etc ...
Until recently, I barely touched the minimum wage (we finally increased a little 5 years after setting up the box), yet I never had a problem with "purchasing power". Why ? Because I have my head on my shoulders, I am not walking in the consumer race like all those who complain .....
You are right nlc on unnecessary hyper consumption; but that people want free time, it's pretty good no, it allows to take care of children, to do sports activities or even ... to go skiing or at the end of the world for those who don't have no purchasing power problem yet
nlc wrote:Christophe wrote:a) the money does not disappear: a more expensive product = more margins distributed + or - fairly on the "chain of production and sale" ... therefore the fall in the purchasing power of some increases suddenly on that of others, it's mathematical.
So it depends on what we are talking about!
Frankly, which consumer products are increasing? Food and fuels. Maybe a few other odds and ends, but otherwise, overall, everything goes down, right? EVERYTHING REMAINS CONSTANTLY LOWER!
Today you have a DVD player for less than € 30, a 1GB USB key for € 4, plane tickets to go to the other end of the world at unbeatable prices, etc ...
Everything is down, and that's the problem! It pushes people to consumption and they always want more!
And there is nothing left for the food, whose increase in my opinion comes from another problem: there are far too many on earth. The more it goes, the more demand there is than supply. Prices go up, like on the stock market, except that behind it we talk about food, unfortunately .......
What Christophe says is obvious. And the prices drop on non-vital products, which we can do without, at least people like you ... and me, who are mostly made on the other side of the world.
When it comes to "food", poor countries have more to complain about than we do, since they even have trouble being able to afford the basic elements of their food; Whose fault is it ? There are too many of us on earth, yes perhaps, but I do not think that this is yet the trigger for such a rise in food raw materials. The reasons are the development of agrofuels (see palm oil in Indonesia, corn in the US) which push up the price of cereals and other affiliated agricultural products as well as the financial markets which are looking cheaply for a profitable alternative to the equity markets. falling.
Another example close to home: the rise in the price of milk and dairy products, which is due to an offer below demand yes but planned since the EU did not want to change the milk quotas; she decides to change them now but a little late. The liter of rapeseed oil has almost doubled in one year; the fault of higher production costs, higher transport costs, yes probably a little but this is not what makes the bulk of the increase.
And then I would bring a flat on a rise relating only to food and energy. Since the changeover to the €, there have already been increases on just about everything since, traders very quickly understood, a price in € always seems cheaper than a price in FF; when in 1999, you were asked 500FF for a service for example, in 2000 you were asked 100 €, because it is a round figure. I tinker a lot on my house and I call on artisans, I see what's going on; these work on a fixed price basis, when in the end the work is finished and you compare your bill with the number of hours they have worked, you arrive at an incredible hourly rate. Why ? because of the €, because the boss wants to buy the last 4x4, because the boss has divorced and he has to pay support every month, because quite simply he wants to make a max of money .
nlc wrote:Christophe wrote:b) The winner every time is the State with the VAT it collects because directly linked to the price of the product in question. He wants to increase purchasing power as he lowers VAT ...
A little easy as reasoning, and against the econological discourse of this site: if we give more purchasing power, we increase consumption, production, energy demand, pollution, and we decrease resources again and again of the planet.
The less there is purchasing power, the better the planet will be in my opinion. But the concern is that in fact there is no problem of purchasing power, we have never been able to buy as much and do as much stuff as today. ...
We speak above all of a drop in purchasing power linked to vital elements. Where you are right is that if the French can eat and heat cheaply, they will tend to consume superficial.
But there arises the problem of the evolution of our society because
lower purchasing power = lower income for the state = less aggression for the planet. The latter is moreover probably fully aware of this since he seeks to privatize at all costs.
So what to do? Decrease? I would not be the first to complain but ...
