Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/02/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Thib.....and others..... The M2/50 summicron retailed for $400, +/-, in l958.... My parent's house (brick, one car garage) cost $14,000....their car cost $1350 (cheap, plymouth two door) The same house now costs $100,000....the car, 14,000.... about the same "factor" as the Leica....the house and car today are 'cheapened' just like the Leica....to duplicate the same quality would cost a factor of 12 instead of just 8x.... Wages have only multiplied (here) by about 5x-6x.....making our population (the largest consumer group in the world) 20-30% "poorer" than in l958..... Leica's market would be even smaller (to their probable demise) if quality/price had kept up..... Yes, I know that we have near-nonexistant unemployment...but the 95% employment is in jobs that average 50-75% of the "buying" power of l958-60. And yes, we Americans consider ourselves more important as consumers than the rest of the world....funny thing, so do most manufacturers!!!---look at the numbers.... MOST of the world's population DON't consume technology....at all Of the remainder that do, we, and our dollars, are all-important to world-wide manufacturers.....I am fortunate in having (slightly) more expendible income than my ancestors....I'm simply poor rather than destitute, looking for food....most of my peers, however, are looking at a life with FAR fewer frills than their immediate ancestors enjoyed....part of the problem is that they're uneducated consumers, and once they obtain goods, they don't seem to take care of them...but they STILL have LESS buying power than we (average) enjoyed a generation ago, when the M2 was current. The top 5% earn many times what the "middle" class did in the 50s-60s, but the middle-class-descending-into-poverty takes a helluva 'bite' out of Leica's market...and cars, and home audio, etc...and many other fields that I'm unfamiliar with!!! Walt