Tuesday, July 15, 2014

a months wages

A MONTHS WAGES

I’ve never seen a straight up economics treatise detailing the subject, but what I’ve inferred from casual reading is that a months wages is pretty standard for a battle grade firearm, both historically ( since standardization production at least ) here and abroad, and currently in both advanced economies and in more primitive ones. I’d love to be proven wrong if anyone has better information, but for now let’s just go with it. A months wages is quite reasonable, yet almost as difficult as a car being worth a years wages for most folks or a half decades wages for most houses. Our economy almost seems to have been designed to entrap everyone in a car after World War Two ( Good Golly Molly, we can’t have the bankers not owning everyone, now can we? ) and then once a reasonable amount of used cars formed a large enough pool to endanger that serfdom we moved on to a lifetime’s worth of mortgage debt to replace autos as the preferred debt of choice. Of course, since the cars used up most of the oil, now the houses and getting to them are quite unaffordable. As is, comparatively speaking, owning a firearm. We had a good period there, during the draining of Alaska and the North Sea and then Russia, where oil was dirt cheap compared to any standard, where firearms went from the months wages down to more like a sixth of a months wages. Those were indeed the salad days.

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It is back up to about a months wages ( yes, on the lower end. But with higher taxes, to include the higher medical mandate priced in, plus cut hours, not all that much less than most of us make. I‘m basically calling it a months unskilled labor ). I’m not arguing that a quality firearm like an American made HK-91 clone isn’t worth that. It certainly is. What I’m saying is that most of us don’t have the means to dispose of that months wages. 10% savings is beyond most of us, and even if you could save that by the end of the year most likely that piece of crap car or worse piece of Shiite house would fall apart some how and require you to dig into that saving anyway. And once you’ve got that weapon, you could probably never increase that amount by at least 200% because it needs mags and lots of ammo ( being a survivalist rather than an optimist, we have different perceived minimal amounts of supplies ). Which is where, once again, the bolt action comes to its own. A bolt action or a single shot, PLUS a good quantity of ammo, can still be had at a half’s months wages. As compared to three months wages. I do implore you to act now, because the window for cheap two-bit imported ammunition can’t last too much longer. It might, but odds are good it won’t. 880 rounds of 7.62x39 or .223 can be had for in the neighborhood of $200 ( the 223 being a nickel or so more a round- not bad considering this is near what just a gunpowder alone reload cost is ). With a $300 rifle, you are looking at one half months wages for an Apocalypse arsenal. Granted, it IS stretching the definition of “battle firearm”, but in a die-off the one eyed man is king in his valley of the blind.

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8 comments:

  1. OK, I checked out your wish list, and I got a question. Why an abacus?

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    1. Why worry about a calculator when you can use an abacus, right? Even a solar calculator is subject to breakage. Once you learn it, it is lowest tech.

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  2. More questions.

    If you had your choice between Maxwell, Folgers or Master Chef what is your first pick?

    Medium ground, dark roast, classic roast or what?

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    1. I don't care for Kroger or Wally's generic, but about any thing else is good. I can't tell the differance between the name brands- to me Master Chef is just as good as Maxwell. But remember, I got no taste, eating nuke bread. Roasts aren't much of a consideration either.

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  3. Sometimes used guns can be purchased at a reasonable price, and depending on the state, from a private party without the paper trail (The absolute best way to purchase a firearm).

    Guns have gone up considerably James. Even the muzzleloaders, which at one time were quite affordable, have gone up a lot in price. My Black powder shotgun purchased from Cabela's has literally doubled in price!

    My 1895 sears, roebuck, and co catalog lists the Colt peacemaker at around $26.00. That's about what a months wages were for a common man at the time, so I think that your assessment is about right.

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    1. I think we just got spoiled on cheaper than historical average and it is now reverting to mean.

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  4. Got my bolt action and a hundred rounds for about 1/5 a months wages, AND the seller threw in a brief orientation and test firing for myself and spouse. I can already cycle through 4 rounds in about the same time I can fire 15 from my semi auto pistol - so not bad.

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    1. But you can't scare foes with Sound And Fury! :)

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