LOL, yes, members of the middle and lower class have no options other than to buy a $75,000 luxury vehicle

My household income is in the <small single digit> percent, and my wife and I share one $5,000 used car.

Luxury goods be luxury goods, yo. https://twitter.com/braxton_mccoy/status/1317146003510763520
2/

It's hilarious that you accuse me of missing the point even as you confuse luxury goods with Veblen goods, and don't realize that one can get an F-350 without all the options for about half the price.

I didn't MISS the point; I CONTRADICTED it. https://twitter.com/CrewdsonStephen/status/1317196078102515712
3/

I'm confused - I had THOUGHT I had said that the vehicle in question - a F-350 with the Lariat upgrade package, at twice the base price of an F-350, was a luxury good, but APPARENTLY what I said was "all trucks are luxury goods"?!?!

Wacky. https://twitter.com/braxton_mccoy/status/1317194588222672898
4/

You're getting closer to correct.

But in your original tweet you said "luxury (Veblen) good". I get why you did it. It feels good to awe the normies with buzzwords, the way you did when you defined luxury...that is NOT a definition of luxury good https://twitter.com/CrewdsonStephen/status/1317196939205791753
5/

The definition of luxury good is a good that one purchases more of as income increases.

Veblen goods are a SUBTYPE of luxury good, or perhaps OVERLAP with luxury goods.
6/

Oh, I see. You read the TONE of my tweet, not the actual words, and that's what made you incorrectly define "luxury good"?

That's a good defense.

Stick with it. https://twitter.com/CrewdsonStephen/status/1317197773662543872
7/

"This might be hard to understand"

I love it when people mock my lack of intelligence or ability to follow an argument. https://twitter.com/braxton_mccoy/status/1317194588222672898
9/

The way I explain it is that your thesis is wrong.
10/

Inflation is a MEASURE of prices increasing, not a CAUSE of it.

Reported inflation AVERAGES price changes across multiple products.

Electronics have gotten a ton cheaper. Health care has gotten more expensive.

Vehicle prices up ...in nominal terms https://twitter.com/braxton_mccoy/status/1317202794953142272
11/

But vehicle prices are DOWN in absolute terms.

High school grad made $26,653 in 1990.

Made $40,000 in 2010.

Prob made $45,000 or so in 2020.

So it's EXACTLY as easy for a high school grad to buy a F-350 in 2020 as it was in 1990

except >>>
12/

The F-350 on the lot in 2020 is a much much better vehicle. It's got airbags, better mean time between failure, more fuel efficient, less susceptible to corrosion, MUCH better impact protection.

It's better to be a HS grad buying a 350 today than 30 years ago!
13/

gosh, if I could do it over again, I would have put URLs in tweet #8 in this thread so that people could have clicked and found out what data I was using.

Might even label the URLs with the word "cites".

Oh well, too late now. https://twitter.com/25th_Prestige/status/1317205054152077312
14/

Yes, F-350s are absolutely work trucks (or, at least, can be. Out here in farm country, though, I see about 10x as many of them being driven to the liquor store with nothing in the bed, as I see hauling cargo)

But the thread started with a claim > https://twitter.com/ndwpdx/status/1317206291333275648
15/

that:

* this affected the poor and middle class
* the price has gone up to unreasonable levels, bc inflation
* the price is now $75,000
* and [ implicitly ] this is the lowest tier that solves the problem, ignoring that this is the luxury tier with tons of doodads and bling
16/

sources, please? https://twitter.com/25th_Prestige/status/1317207346452385792
17/

No, this isn't a question of "it's not DIRECT cause".

What I'm saying is that inflation is not a cause of price change, in the same way that spedometers aren't a cause of speed change.

They are MEASUREMENT TOOLS. https://twitter.com/coinaday1/status/1317208104954695680
18/

No.

Unexepcted CHANGES in inflation have those effects. Steady inflation does not, because the inflation is already baked into the interest rates. https://twitter.com/B_Barbarian/status/1317208210583875584
19/

I've love to have a truck. Old one died; can't afford a new one now.

I mostly use my tractor to move stuff around - throw a trailer ball on the draw bar and use that to tow trailers around. Skid logs w the tractor too, etc. https://twitter.com/camp_zion/status/1317211475560308739
20/

The original claim: a good truck costs ~ $75k.

My rebuttal: no, you can get it for half of that.

OP refinement: not with a diesel engine

@cyr_actual tags in: yes, you can! https://twitter.com/cyr_actual/status/1317211714388111361
21/

Yes, exactly.

If we have 2% inflation, year after year after year, and it goes as high as 2.2% some years, and 1.8% other years, that 2% number is "baked in". Your mortgage is built around it, your investments track that, your raises, etc. https://twitter.com/Bobthewelding1/status/1317212813534912512
22/

Cites || GTFO https://twitter.com/trapc45/status/1317215078169673733
23/

Here are my cites

Ford F series 1992-1995: 51 reliability score

2015-2019: 89.3

http://dashboard-light.com/vehicles/Ford_F_Series.html
24/

Indeed. In the 19th century we had deflation more often than inflation....and that was worse than inflation.

Modest well managed inflation on fiat currency is MUCH better than deflation on a gold standard, fite me. https://twitter.com/trapc45/status/1317216423245156358
25/

This is the source I used.

https://www.infoplease.com/business/economy/median-annual-income-level-education-1990-2010

Note that I did not claim "entry level". I specified only by educational attainment.

If you want to use other data, specify it. With a link. https://twitter.com/trapc45/status/1317216141899669504
26/

No it doesn't.

One can compute one's own inflation numbers by looking at prices of things one knows / cares about.

It PERHAPS implies that I trust people who live and die by inflation rates to VERIFY government numbers.

>>> https://twitter.com/Bobthewelding1/status/1317225508841705477
27/

I see lots of arguments about "stealth inflation", and I'm entirely happy to entertain the idea.

So ... go ahead. Convince me. Pick a basket of goods X and price it at time Y and at time Z.
28/

I fully agree with the data in this tweet.

This is orthogonal to the discussion of whether the government inflation numbers are valid. https://twitter.com/Bobthewelding1/status/1317231388517715969
29/
Yes / yes / no

What do I get out of them?
🤔
...
...
...
I like fighting.
🇮🇪 https://twitter.com/jtcbrule/status/1317235507437457409?s=19
30/ https://twitter.com/AlanMCole/status/1317238603609743363?s=19
31/
But in this thread we've shown that the price of a 350 has remained the same in real terms, and the quality has gone up. Look at Bob's data in #28 - low and mid class wages are flat WHEN ADJUSTED FOR INFLATION, meaning that inflation hasn't hurt them https://twitter.com/braxton_mccoy/status/1317241908696018945?s=19
You can follow @MorlockP.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: