One needs to remember that the surge in American prosprity, post WW2, was
largly because with the possible exception of Argentina, the US had the only
sizable industrial/manufacturing infratstructure left in the world. Bombs took
care of the rest.Peron took care of Argentina.
So for 25 years the only place one could turn for halfway decent to good
consumder goods was the US; and for another 15 years, the only place to go for
decent capital goods was the US.
Under that system wages and benefits grew considerably as there was little
(price) elasticity of demand for US made products, as substitutes were largely
unavailable.
This is no longer the case and said change, coupled with comparative advantages
in labor and tax rates (and in many countries regulatory costs), makes the US
goods relatively mroe expensive worldwide, even without an artificially
devalued yuan. Of course productivity benefits used to offset the wage
differential, but that gap is closing too.
I think we need to recall the state of the world's industrial base post WW2 to
understand the arc that we are on.
Art, KØRO
PS: I'd happily own an Orion II and maybe an Eagle (let's hope it does not turn
out to be a screaming chicken). There aren't many rigs for which I'd give up my
Omni VI.
PPS: Good thing this is not another reflector concerned more with vertically
oriented implements of steel and aluminium; we'd have been warned to find a
more suitable venue by now!
--- On Mon, 9/27/10, Kris Merschrod <Kris@merschrod.net> wrote:
From: Kris Merschrod <Kris@merschrod.net>
Subject: Re: [TenTec] The Eagle inflation costs, etc.
To: "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment" <tentec@contesting.com>
Date: Monday, September 27, 2010, 12:48 PM
I, too have been drawn into the QSO here. If you use the US currancy
inflater at :
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
Then at $700 in 1978 the Titon would be $2,343 today. So T-T is running at
the inflation rate. Unfortunately, the competition started off way below
our wage rates and is still way below - hence the low cost of imported
radios.
Our blind faith in free-market ideology has kept us from looking around to
see what is happening (or what was happening to other countries when we had
the comparative advantage). Balanced trade would have been a better
strategy, but, heck, when you are sitting at the card table and the chips
are flowing your way, who would want to change the game?
I wonder why the house keeps giving us more chips to play with when it is
obvious that our luck has run out? Actually, the answer to that question is
in a great book called "1421" It is about the Chinese navagation advances,
but also about their trading policies way back then.
We are playing checkers and they are playing Go.
Moral of the story? Buy Tentec!
Kris KM2KM
Merschrod
123 Warren Road
Ithaca, NY 14850
www.merschrod.net
----- Original Message -----
From: "Pumbaa" <pinkertontommrs@bellsouth.net>
To: "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment" <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, September 27, 2010 12:47 PM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] The Eagle
>A lot of people did not have their income increase some 285% from 1978 to
> today. That is the problem as companies can't sell as many ham radio sets
> as they do large LCD TV sets. HTs now seem very cheap especially a certain
> brand made in China. If your income has equaled the inflation rate then
> today's radios are probably cheaper than those of 1978,
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "mike bryce" <prosolar@sssnet.com>
> To: "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment" <tentec@contesting.com>
> Sent: Monday, September 27, 2010 10:52 AM
> Subject: Re: [TenTec] The Eagle
>
>
> This has been an interesting thread. It got me out of the shadows.
>
> I haven't looked it up but in 1978 the triton was someplace around $700
> stripped with no noise blanker or cw filters, analog version.
>
> today that's about over two grand.
> <Clip>
>
> Mike, WB8VGE
> SunLight Energy Systems
> The Heathkit Shop
> http://www.theheathkitshop.com/
> J e e p
> o|||||||o
> Note: No trees were killed in the sending of this message, but a large
> number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> TenTec mailing list
> TenTec@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
>
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