Things that are just bafflingly expensive

entertainment weekly is a weekly and it's about 1/5 the cost

A new turbo for my bloody car! Cost = 1/5 of what I paid for the car (4 y.o)

$200 for a paisley dress shirt made in China? Fuck you Michael Kors.

Remember your option not to buy. (Or is the brand/print/cut that apppealing?)

entertainment weekly is a weekly and it's about 1/5 the cost

EW's like 20 bucks, SI 40 bucks, both at Amazon, what are you talking about?

Remember your option not to buy. (Or is the brand/print/cut that apppealing?)

oh I didn't buy it I'm not gonna contribute to that douchebag's 2000% profit margin

Norway

I think what's annoying me about this is not that I'm not consumer oriented but that I'm also producer oriented. Michael Kors' profit margin will or won't be sustained by the market. 2000% profit margin in a wildly speculative aesthetic market doesn't strike me as excessive - you don't need to buy (I assume this is for your wife, otherwise be prepared for extensive alteration) it and he could fail spectacularly (or even just fail point, tout court) at recouping his expenditures in a business plan that includes multifarious obligations world-wide. If you're buying Kors, it's because of the zeitgeist, the specific quality or design or tailoring. Nobody buys such temporally topical shit unless they really, really want to and the economics thereof are going to be different from, I dunno, say, Carhartt or whatever. Get over your sense of entitlement, we're lucky to be clothed, frankly. I can't weave or cut fabric or sew.

we're lucky to be clothed

uh what? we are? or do you mean "we are lucky enough to be able to afford clothes and houses, etc."

Well, yes.

as mentioned elsewhere i just wear voluminous black court robes everywhere

they arent the expensive i make them out of curtains

CANT BELIEVE THINGS COST MONEY

CLOTHES ARE JUST MADE OF THINGS

It's a very dashing look, Lamp, but you night weant to try some more henna in your hair for added flash.

GOING TO COLLEGE IS JUST TALKING TO AN OLD PERSON AND LIVING IN A PRISON CELL WHY DOES IT COST FORTY THOUSAND DOLLARS

prison costs way more than 40k!

uh, I don't know about your college years but mine were emphatically NOT a weird mashup of visiting yr grandparents at the home and doing time

Renting a car to drive from Portland to San Francisco. (One-way, alas.) $450 for two days!

eh, I was just doing some idle shopping for men's shirts at Nordstrom Rack (where, inexplicably, the women's clothes are quite significantly cheaper than the men's clothes). I was happy to buy the cheaper/more pedestrian Calvin Klein (or Carhartt or whatever), I don't think I would have even considered buying a Kors shirt at all except that I happen to have a soft spot for paisley.

But it's more the basic economics of the, as you put it, "wildly speculative aesthetic market" that I find inherently repulsive. Because they result in charging exorbitant prices for articles manufactured by a grossly exploited and under-compensated labor pool, all so a bunch of self-absorbed rich assholes can indulge their childish egos about how "stylish" or "pretty" they are. I mean how much do you think it really cost to make that shirt and get it into a US store... $5? $10?

(and fwiw I am more than happy to wear clothes made by actual people I know, my wife can sew, so can my mother-in-law, etc.)

oh many xposts oops

CLOTHES ARE JUST MADE OF THINGS

my clothes are made of ideas and mustard stains

you got hosed

^^my new response to everything on this thread

has anyone said "relationships" yet?

my clothes are made of ideas and mustard stains

Renting a car to drive from Portland to San Francisco. (One-way, alas.) $450 for two days!

u got hosed

uh, I don't know about your college years but mine were emphatically NOT a weird mashup of visiting yr grandparents at the home and doing time

hey $40k only goes so far...

u got hosed

i save money to buy things by refusing to tip waiters

u hose waiters

WHAT A DICK

shakey mo how much do u pay your wife & mother in law?

I don't think I would have even considered buying a Kors shirt at all except that I happen to have a soft spot for paisley.

I think I've identified where you went wrong.

(btw my condolences on MPLSound and Lotusflower, better luck next time?)

I don't think I would have even considered buying a Kors shirt at all except that I happen to have a soft spot for paisley.

As I recall.

I just mean, you like paisley, you see nice paisley, it costs WHAT?!!! Oh, Michael Kors... whatever. This explotiative line of argument is unfortunately a major factor in human nature. I'll buy union made, I'll buy fair-trade, I'll refrain from buying frippery but I may not not get what I want , eh?

Too lazy to google for picture of Ian Paisley's head...

shakey mo how much do u pay your wife & mother in law?

um I guess if you got into the crude economics of it I pay my wife around 1/2 my salary to take care of our kid and keep us all clothed and fed. my mother-in-law refuses to accept any money from us.

I think I've identified where you went wrong.

(btw my condolences on MPLSound and Lotusflower, better luck next time?)

paisley park is in your heart, Dan

how much do you think it really cost to make that shirt and get it into a US store... $5? $10?

i mean dude

But it's more the basic economics of the, as you put it, "wildly speculative aesthetic market" that I find inherently repulsive.

IT'S CRAZY TO PAY A MAN 10 MILLION TO PUT A BALL IN A HOOP

hey if you have a detailed breakdown of Kors' economics by all means lay it out there. but yeah mostly I assume anything that's made in China costs like fifty cents, since its basically slave labor.

IT'S CRAZY TO PAY A MAN 10 MILLION TO PUT A BALL IN A HOOP

imho yes it is! but I am that rare species of male who has absolutely zero interest in professional sports. and that's another thread altogether...

shakey mo knows how much things are worth

mo knows

everything made in china was made by slaves and costs fifty cents

no, you aren't paying for just the shirt, you are paying for it being a michael kors shirt.

the michael kors people had to shell out a shitload to make sure everyone on earth knows how special that is; that's the labor and expense you're paying for. no, you aren't paying the kid in indonesia, but you are paying don draper DO YOU SEE

yes I do see and frankly that's the part I have no interest in paying for

(lol the only reason I even know who Michael Kors is at all is because I have had to sit through a few too many episodes of Project Runway)

shakey i cant tell if youre operating on a sub econ-101 level here or are just ignoring the way pricing is determined?

hey if you have a detailed breakdown of Kors' economics by all means lay it out there. but yeah mostly I assume anything that's made in China costs like fifty cents, since its basically slave labor.

― Wet Hot American Oil Spill (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, March 11, 2010 4:23 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i mean there is more going into the kors shirt than chinese dudes and some paisley fabric

xxp exactly

"IT'S CRAZY TO PAY A MAN 10 MILLION TO PUT A BALL IN A HOOP

imho yes it is! but I am that rare species of male who has absolutely zero interest in professional sports."

I have no love for sports either, but Charles Barkley says such crazy stuff he's worth at least $1million for that. Would love to see Leno booted after 3 months and show given to Sir Charles.

Shakey, that line of inquiry baffles me. Why speculate? It costs what it costs. For every stuck-in-the-19th century pseudo-Marxist who has a slim grasp of his labor theory of value, there are stuck-in-the-18th-century Smithians who can faintly grasp only the importance of capital. C'mon, can we at least get within a couple of decades of modern economic theory?

(lol the only reason I even know who Michael Kors is at all is because I have had to sit through a few too many episodes of Project Runway)

Real slavery^^^

sorry to be al 'markets 101' 'marx was incorrect 101' but, there is no such thing as 'surplus value'. there is no inherent, and therefore no "just" cost for anything.

things are worth exactly what people are willing to pay for them, and that's that, there is no other way of assigning a figure. oppression goes into the price, no doubt, but it's not like fixing the cost of a paisley michael kors shirt at 19.99 makes that problem go away. perhaps you have heard of wal-mart.

funny it took this thread to out me as basically anti-revolutionary, but there u go.

lol xps

Why speculate? It costs what it costs.

because, frankly, if that very same shirt did not have Michael Kors' stupid name on it, I would have been able to afford it. So I guess I'm just annoyed that he got a product made that I would have otherwise purchased, had his ridiculous industry not necessitated it being so expensive.

xp

that very same shirt wouldn't have even existed if not for Michael Kors