Dogzilla,
From memory, many things seemed more expensive when I went through school in the mid'80's. Gas was as much as 1.43 a gallon (though it was only 79.9 at one point), most food was more expensive then, except for bread and butter, but I make my own bread now and it's only 25 cents a pound loaf. Laundry soap was outrageous compared to now. Breakfast cereals too--you never would have seen Grapenuts or Post Raisin Bran, the larger boxes, sold 2 for $4 at Pamida or IGA, but this is frequent now. Of course, school itself was much cheaper.
A local airport was hiring for United Express. The benefits were good, but the pay was only $6.10 starting. Figure that one out Morgy. The papers are screaming with these type of high pressure/low pay jobs. My sister is an accountant and time and time again she will tell stories of how good workers in management will be demoted during some management shuffle or robbed of vacation time because certain help quit at the wrong time. Once she asked a boss why they held back a certain benefit for an employee and the response was something like are you crazy--that would cost me more. Yet the employee quit and was replaced with another who also quit causing a good deal of hassle. I've seen it time and time again where employers insult their good employees over what is really a minor sum of money and the worker leaves.
As for your bubble question, bubbles need economic growth to continue and economic growth demands metals. I think metals are fairly safe at these depressed levels. --Alan |
