[TowerTalk] US Tower price increase

[jimlux]

On 1/2/17 10:50 AM, john at kk9a.com wrote:
> Wow! I bought one of these new in the 80's for considerably less than last
> year's pricing from Texas Towers.  It would now be unaffordable.  Does
> anyone else sell US Towers besides HRO?  I guess used pricing will also go
> up considerably.
>

1985 to 2016 is 1:2.26 just from inflation.  I would suspect things made 
by mostly hand labor and steel would go up faster: it's not like a radio 
or computer, where you get economies of scale and lower cost from higher 
levels of integration. A $1000 radio today is MUCH more capable than a 
$1000 radio in 1985 over a broad spectrum of capabilities, and is less 
than half the price, in 1985 dollars.

However a tower is basically the same thing, but made by people whose 
wages have gone up, with raw materials the price which has risen, and 
trucked by companies where the vehicle, labor, and fuel costs have gone up.

Oil in 1985 $15/bbl, today $30/bbl (and it was pushing $100/bbl not too 
long ago), roughly tracks inflation

Manufacturing wages roughly doubled roughly tracking inflation- although 
that's tricky, because large unionized mfrs have a large effect on 
average wage calculations

Steel was $15/cwt in 1985, runs 45-50/cwt now.. the USGS analysis says 
that the various finanicial crises drove this increase (that is, mining 
iron didn't cost more.. making steel did, for various reasons) (cwt = 
100 lb)

Some manufactured goods have become more expensive because of debt 
service: the company took on debt to expand or stay in business, so now 
the end price includes interest, as well as the cost of raw materials 
and manufacturing cost.