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- Jan 3, 2020
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Sorry but I have to ask, how recently are you talking here? Dual income households were about equal to single (traditional) earner households as a percentage as far back as the late 1960's (45% to 45%). The US had some surplus and some deficit trade imbalances in the 1960s and 1970s, then deficits since the late 1970's. "'Cause the good old days weren't always good..." William Martin JoelBUT, how do you suppose all americans bought american products until only recently? And that was with typically only one working person in the household.
There's this false economy (I think) that relies on cheap overseas products. We think we get a deal with cheap overseas products. But I wonder.
I'll try to keep it related to trade here in addressing the second part of your post and say it's more of a wage imbalance between countries resulting from the US dollar being the preferred currency of the world. The lowest paid workers in countries we import from are not paid the same amount as the US' lowest paid workers. It's a lot less and it's reflected in the cost we pay in the US and other wealthy nations. We simply can't produce some of those goods here in the US profitably.
I have had few issues buying things. I bought an RO system and that was shipped in reasonable dispatch. Brewing consumables are always hit or miss, this and that can be out of stock, not uncommon really. I needed a couple of washing machine parts that are on their way but a few weeks ago the part did not come on time but that's happened before. They overpromise shipping time in the appliance parts world, they don't always have the part on hand. I'm rarely at a grocery store, online ordering is better than sliced bread! I usually have 2-3 substitutions and 0-2 did not haves per order. I think part of that is just floor stocking and ordering time. It's not often specific to an item and sometimes I think they throttle the pick orders to allow inventory to stay in the store, in store only one order, curbside the next.
*Forgot one order, a Euro-style wall panel radiator. It's made in Europe. The two I ordered a couple years ago took 2-3 weeks maybe but I got a quote for 4-6 weeks but from a different cheaper supplier who I don't think actually has stock on hand, so 4-6 weeks and I am hoping that was already an adjusted shipping time.
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