Shopsmith Forums

Anyone notice the message at the bottom of the last Shopsmith e-mail



Important !

Price Increases Are Coming April 30th For Many Items

Order Now and Save!

cincinnati wrote:Anyone notice the message at the bottom of the last Shopsmith e-mail



Important !

Price Increases Are Coming April 30th For Many Items

Order Now and Save!

I believe they do this every year and I suspect that you knee jerk reaction is at least part of the reason.

"An order on the books is worth two on my want list":rolleyes::)

It is inevitable. The price of gasoline is climbing fast, and that affects every other product in the world because transportation costs rise.
The government won't admit it, but inflation is climbing fast. The main culprit is ethanol. It has driven the cost of corn too high, and that corn that is being wasted in gas tanks is missing from the feed lots to make meat and other animal products affordable. The worst part is that ethanol also drives up the cost of auto fuel because it costs more to make than gasoline.
Shopsmith isn't immune from this any more than the rest of the world is.
Be prepared for things to get worse before they get better because we aren't getting any improvement in Washington yet. Until we see change there, nothing gets better.

I saw the message yesterday while checking out their latest e-mail deal. Yes it is inevitable that costs will go up. Here in Maryland they are climbing leaps and bounds.

Oooo. And, another fact about ethanol, it is a less efficient source of energy than regular gas. Therefore, you get less miles per gallon. Sort of a double whammy as you will.

I have always been wary of the producing of fuel with food and using farm lands to produce the fuel via the corn or whatever ...
It is at best moving one problem and creating another one ... cereals are very expansive and they are used in many products ...
If we were talking of other plants that are not food to us or to animals and doing the cultivating on land that could not be used for food cultivating and this without the subsidies that so an so, got elected promising to its constituents; making the production falsely cheaper and falsely "environmentally" greener than it would be a plus ... but it is not the case. And we would not like the price of the ethanol in question if there were no subsidies.
Shopsmith has also to live with the price of metal that went up dramatically with the price of fuel as it takes fuel to produce aluminum and other metals that are necessary for the parts needed to make Mark V or 7.
And the plastics, which are from fuel also are more expansive ...
Instability around the world make the prices go up, down and up again, the offer and demand are not the main factor anymore.
This is food for thought ... and we have to find new ways, there is no simple solutions to our habits we have been living with in the last while or so as consumers more than producers now.

Be sure you look at the whole picture (on all sorts of things).
I have noticed for some time that ethanol detractors (not that I am a big supporter) always seem to be a little uninformed as to the process. They use (mostly) corn to distill it. That processed corn is NOT thrown in a land-fill. It is used as cattle feed... Off-fall of many other bio-fuel inputs also can be blended into cattle feed.
It is not robbing unbelievably huge amounts of corn from the cattle feed market.
Actually shoving corn into cattle is one of the most inefficient uses of resources around. We as a society have gotten on this steak mentality and it borders on silly. There are all sorts of more efficient ways to produce meat as well as other foods.
We are NOT about to starve due to farm land being tied up. If you will look around as you drive down the road (honestly look) There are millions and millions of unused acres even in the most densely farmed parts of the country. Most of us have them. Places like huge yards that we spend a fortune mowing (gobbling up fuel). Also empty pasture lots that are no longer used since we have allowed the big guys to take over ag production that are not only unused but usually mowed several times a year and not even mowed for hay. There is also usually almost a quarter acre of un-planted land in the 4 corners of many fields because much of the big huge equipment will not fit there.
Like I said, take an "honest" look as you drive. Say to yourself "there is an acre (43,560 sq.ft.), there is 5 acres, there is 20 acres". Add them up then consider that about a thousand square feet of well managed intensive garden will grow more vegetables than the average family's yearly needs. A few hundred sq. ft. more and they can raise more meat than they need...
Many cities are now setting up intensive gardening programs on roof tops.
We just have to outgrow the "let George do it" mind set.
If people start starving it will be because something went wrong with the system and only a handful of people have any idea of how to feed themselves and few want to learn.

Breaking up soap box now and chucking it in the furnace... I don't want to get started.


.

Another unnoticed fact about ethanol is that if every kernel of US corn was used to make ethanol, it would still be a small portion of the fuel needed in the US.

Actually, overall, grain costs in food are small. It used to take only pennies worth of wheat to make a loaf of bread. I think the wrapping cost close to the same. Prices have gone up and I have been out of the grain business for a few years, but I bet it is still less than 20¢ worth of wheat in a loaf of bread.

Bill

Although ethenol is hard on your engine. It will eat up the seals and rubber parts in a small engine in a year or two and make it run like crap.

A co-worker of mine has a side business working on 4-wheelers. The #1 thing that brings them work is people installing big lift kits and then breaking axles. The #2 thing that brings them work is damage to the engine due to ethanol.

I agree with you Francis, but it still brings up the price of cereals and food at large.