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RE: I looked at inflation rates vs price hikes

Sorry Abe, but the inflation index is based on things like energy prices and food prices. Both are kept artificially low due to government subsidies and the like.

In the meantime the actual cost of building audio electronics has skyrocketed. The most expensive things are transformers and chassis. Since then the price of steel and aluminum has doubled, the price of copper has tripled. Even raw PCB material has quadrupled, partly due to the copper and partly due to the fact that it must now meet the RoHS high-temperature lead-free solder mandated by the EU.

When you compare the various companies, the US one are hit the hardest as the cost of living is greater here. In Canada one can hire factory workers for $10 per hour - Canadian, which is about $8 per hour US. They can afford to live on that because they have free health care and the cost of housing is about half that of the US.

Then we you go to the Far East, all bets are off. People there work for $3 per day. There is no EPA and no OSHA, so all the toxic waste is dumped in the gutters and the workers die off from exposure to toxic processes. You get to vote with your dollars for what is important to you. Do you want to save 25% on your stereo equipment, knowing that it is literally killing people on the other side of the world?

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