A new monopoly?

Mk-211 said:

As long as they don't aquire Lee, Hornady, CH4D, Redding... we'll be alright.

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mdi said:

I agree with A.E. Newman; "What, me worry?"

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Varminterror said:

Everything costs more now

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jmorris said:

You know, I can still get a case of beer for under $20, despite everything it takes to make and ship it, does cost more....

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Varminterror said:

The childish response to that warning by American consumers was to SPEND MORE because they felt that loss of control, rather than CONTROL MORE of their own spending

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Soonerpesek said:

This is BRILLIANT……..!!
Let’s see what the economy does when American consumers spend less…….
So if baby formula cost (let’s say) $2 a can last year, and now it’s $4 a can, the baby now gets to only eat half as much…
Some genius “economists” out there…..

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Varminterror said:

Your post just described inflation...

Which was my point....

Everything costs more now - it's not just Hodgdon gouging out of greed. They pay more for their inputs, pay more for opex, pay more for capex, and pay more in labor than they used to pay... Their workers have higher cost of living, and they earn a higher wage than before. We pay more for gunpowder, gas, lodging, food, paperclips than before... That's inflation.

But American consumers have covered their eyes and shoved their fingers in their ears and keep on spending. Unsecured consumer debt continues to rise, despite inflation rates stomping on the brakes trying to slow it down. Inflation is an indicator of a hollow economy, spending without earning, meant to curb imbalances before it becomes too late. We've seen US Consumer debt more than double in the last decade - despite the warning of the housing market collapse in 2008. The childish response to that warning by American consumers was to SPEND MORE because they felt that loss of control, rather than CONTROL MORE of their own spending. Unfortunately, housing markets right now are not trending with inflation - the purpose of inflation is to slow down hollow spending, but we've accelerated... Generations raised by generations who adopted debt have now embraced it as table stakes, and we have folks living the "we'll just refinance later" lifestyle, which has also spilled out into their unsecured debt paradigm... The US remains the largest consumer market in the world, so international markets are happy to continue taking money from the US - our dollar is worth less and less, so instead of spending less and less, we buy more and more with unsecured debt. Sure, we're still grossly imbalanced and housing debt outweighs unsecured debts by double, but that gap is narrowing, and when that tips over and unsecured debts grow too large, the US will no longer be "too big to fail," but rather will be "too heavy to carry." That's not a Government failing, that's the consequence of unchecked national consumerism in a global economy.

So yeah, everything costs more. It's not just Hodgdon powders.

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CQB45ACP said:

Yes that's what I described--a slice of my personal inflation story. And that's all inflation is to most people, what they personally experience and how they behave as a result.

I don't disagree with your characterization of the slice of consumer behavior you mentioned but it's not a complete picture either and I know you didn't intend it to be.

Sociologists & economists of all stripes have been trying to capture our thinking and influence it forever without much luck. And boy do they write papers about it.

The brilliant Milton Friedman famously said people (generally) don't act against their own self interests. I've always scratched my head on that because my observation is that's exactly what consumers do and they do it often. Every time there's a hint of a reloading component shortage, toilet paper shortage, or spike in gas prices, we immediately do what exacerbates the problem.

I'm a consumer and I have a problem.

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