I’ve pondered the thought many times of what it takes to produce a certain item, the cost of the raw goods to make the item, the costs and time in the production line and the costs to get it to us, the end user.

Take anything, say chicken thighs…. think of the costs, man hours and time to produce the chicken and get that pack of thighs to us, I know it’s produced on a massive scale which drives costs down but for .99 a pound on sale I really don’t see how they can get it to us for that and that goes for almost any kind of goods I can think of. Even a simple 2x4 starts life a tree in Oregon and once the tree is cut down how many man hours, hours of production and miles traveled to get to my Home Depot so they can stock it on the shelf and check me out for $3, it’s kinda mind boggling

seems to me that if everything were factored in goods would be much higher, factor in the security guard that watches a lumber yard or the janitor that cleans the chicken farm

Ummmmm.....no.

Everything is already LITERALLY factored in. That's how businessmen make a profit.

 

I totally agree. I'm just boggled at how low prices are for some things. Say, a can of peas for $.55 at Aldi. That $.55 includes farm land, seeds, fertilizer, planting labor, pest control inputs and labor, harvesting labor, packking, transportation to the factory, factory land, energy inputs and preservatives for canning, mining metal (labor and land), transportation to the can factory, all of the energy and miscellaneous other inputs there, transportation from the can factory to the pea factory, transportation from the pea factory to the grocery store, more labor inputs stocking shelves and running registers, etc.

I know the real answer is that all of those parts of the system make their money on volume (half a penny a billion times is still a lot of money), but lots of things still feel impossibly cheap to me.

I didn't even mention maintenance costs on machines and trucks and loss rates on thr crops. It's just wild how cheap some things are.

 

I totally agree. I'm just boggled at how low prices are for some things. Say, a can of peas for $.55 at Aldi. That $.55 includes farm land, seeds, fertilizer, planting labor, pest control inputs and labor, harvesting labor, packking, transportation to the factory, factory land, energy inputs and preservatives for canning, mining metal (labor and land), transportation to the can factory, all of the energy and miscellaneous other inputs there, transportation from the can factory to the pea factory, transportation from the pea factory to the grocery store, more labor inputs stocking shelves and running registers, etc.

I know the real answer is that all of those parts of the system make their money on volume (half a penny a billion times is still a lot of money), but lots of things still feel impossibly cheap to me.

I didn't even mention maintenance costs on machines and trucks and loss rates on thr crops. It's just wild how cheap some things are.

Don't worry. If the left has their way, supplies will dwindle and prices will go up....oh wait.....that's already happening, isn't it.

 

Many, many many cans of peas are swooshed up every time a 20' combine head makes one revolution......
Quanity makes that profit for everyone involved in the pea chain.

 

Right, like, I know intellectually that making a penny a billion times is a lot of money, it's still just crazy to think of all of the things that $.55 pays for. I've paid $.50 for random odds and ends on Amazon where they bring it right to my house. It seems like they MUST be losing money on those deals, but they're still selling them, so...idk.

 

Just think how much better it will when 10% for the big guy is in the can.

 

The other thing that's " cheap" is our take home pay....

 

Yup, that’s why now is the time to fill your storage spaces with food and other useful goods.

Think about Ammo……. Those who reload are still using premade cases, powders, primers etc….. The fact that I just bought a few 222 count boxes of .22 lr for 20 bucks each is a very good example of how good we still have it.

Most of the energy our ancestors expended was to acquire and store food. Most of us nowadays don’t even spend 5% of our energy acquiring food.

 

First world p̶r̶o̶b̶l̶e̶m̶s̶ benefits.

 

How many OTHER products from the same company are highly priced? Popularity of a particular product? Availability?

 

Bought 3 turkeys today for 99 cents a pd at costco. 67 lbs worth. Figured good way to try freeze drying.

 

Eggs are not "still cheap" they were not "so bad" here but things have changed; she spent> $18.00 for 3 dozen eggs for the holidays...

 

Size of the market matters. Which is why other countries clamored to become a top 10 trading partner of the U.S.

 

Raisin my own egg producers this year. I have done chickens in the past but had to start from scratch this year. I don't even want to figure up what the cost per egg is but I sure enjoy the fresh free range eggs available out the back door.