The other day I found my mother's old guitar..
The daughter has started playing instruments, so the guitar had to move in from storage. It is a little worn and needs tuning, as well as changing some strings. But otherwise it works well!
What surprised me was that the price tag was still on it... SEK 615! It was purchased in 1977.
Curious as I am, I had to look up what a similar guitar costs today, and imagine my surprise that it costs SEK 595 today! How is that possible?
The other day we sat and watched an old episode of Svensson, Svensson where they sat and played Trivial Pursuit. Dad Allan says in the episode that they must think the game is fun because he has indeed bought it for SEK 595! The episode is from 1994 (you can find it >> HERE ) Today a Trivial Pursuit costs SEK 299... Half the price.
As you may know, I've written about leggings that cost half as much today as they did twenty years ago, etc... in previous articles.
What just happened? How could everything be so cheap??? And why has no one questioned this?
The average wages for a municipally employed woman these years ( according to Statistics Norway) were:
1977 - salary SEK 4,500
1994 - salary SEK 14,000
today - salary SEK 30,000
So the guitar cost 14% of the salary... if we compare it to today's salary, it would cost SEK 4,500... And yes, I remember it was expensive...
The game cost 4% of the salary in 1994 and if we compare it today it would cost SEK 1,200.
How could this happen? That everything (except food, housing and fuel) has become so cheap?..
Production is moved to low-wage countries where prices are depressed, which leads to the exploitation of people.
We owe a lot to our community in the EU for this when the import carousel started in 2004. Read more about it >> HERE .
Who has gained from the fact that everything has become cheap and that we exploit the low-wage countries so that we can consume more? I want to say that no one has won…
Because if you look at the profits of the stores and the suppliers, they have to sell so many more to make the same money as back then in 1977 or 1994...
Admittedly, we have become more human, but that does not defend the whole picture.
Would you have been more afraid of your guitar if you had paid SEK 4,500 than if you had paid SEK 599? It's almost cheaper to buy a new one than to change the strings on an old one - isn't that strange?
What happens now in 2020 after the storm has abated? What will we consume and what will our wages look like?
I think we will all come out of this storm with a different way of thinking sustainably, re-stringing our old guitars and being happy and grateful for what we have.
Take care and clean out the wardrobe if you have some time at home and let in new energies! You get my E-book for free >> HERE , about how to clean it optimally!
