Comments on: Model Ts and Immoral Debts

By: J. Money

J. Money — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 21:20:03 +0000

In reply to Steveark. Good point on today's "tech". I remember when the first digital cameras came out (1 pixel!) and they were going for $1,000 a pop, haha... now you get like 30x that IN YOUR PHONE! (and incidentally some phones now cost $1,000 a pop! ;))

By: J. Money

J. Money — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 21:18:22 +0000

In reply to FullTimeFinance. Would be cool to still test drive if he kept it around :)

By: J. Money

J. Money — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 21:15:51 +0000

In reply to Aaron. I visited an old Debtor's prison once - not pretty!!

By: J. Money

J. Money — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 21:15:05 +0000

In reply to Fred Leamnson. Glad you enjoyed it, Fred :)

By: J. Money

J. Money — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 21:14:17 +0000

In reply to Jon W.

I do!

In fact, I even have a (much neglected) blog on coin collecting –> http://cointhrill.com

And you’re right – the nice thing about coins is that they can usually double as investments at the same time :) I tend to go for more older 1700s-1800s silver coins, both US and foreign, but I know a lot of people who def. snatch up as much scrap silver and gold as they can to help hedge for sure… And you know that as soon as the market crashes all that bullion is going up!

By: J. Money

J. Money — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 21:11:45 +0000

In reply to DNN. That's pretty cool!

By: Steveark

Steveark — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 16:42:10 +0000

Cars were the high tech item of the day and then as now high tech almost always goes down in price for quite a few years before it starts increasing. Look at PC’s. My dad paid over $2,000 for his first PC from IBM. That is $ 5,600 in today’s money. Now you can get a vastly more powerful and portable laptop PC for $300 anywhere. Look at televisions, premium televisions cost $500 in 1970, that is $3,300 in today’s money. You can get a larger 4K television now for $300. Cars were at that developing stage back then and the prices reflected the rapid decreases in manufacturing cost along with response to the developing competitive pressure from other car companies. My friend has a model A that runs great, it doesn’t even have a steering wheel, it has a tiller!

By: FullTimeFinance

FullTimeFinance — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 14:48:27 +0000

About a decade ago, before he passed, my grandfather had a model A. Slightly later in the model years. The difference between these cars and today are night and day. Steering wheels, brakes etc are all different. Each model year though gets closer to today.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 14:16:30 +0000

Very cool. Commend Ford for doing this. Suppose it may have limited the car to the elite – but sounds like he kept trying to make it affordable (which would lead to higher volume sales). Don’t think debt was as in fashion as it is today, either. Debtor’s prison was eliminated in 1833 so I suppose the mindset was still frugality.

By: Fred Leamnson

Fred Leamnson — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 13:52:45 +0000

The good old days, indeed. Imagine if companies had this kind of mindset today. They’d still be made in America. Prices would come down. The entire economic system would be different. Now we focus on quarterly profits and stock prices.

Small businesses still fuel the economy. You just don’t hear enough about them. Doing good things isn’t newsworthy.

Ford’s antisemitic views are troubling. He employed a lot of people others wouldn’t and changed the auto industry forever.

Good stuff, J.