rant over "inflation is negligible, the economy is sound....yadda yadda....."

[Wallythacker]

This time last year I bought two new (refurbed) RCA tablet/laptops. Cost me $230 for both, one Android, one win10. For Canada those are great prices for warrantied gear.

This year I wanted a refurbed laptop. Last year the Thinkpad x240 I looked at was $249, NOW it's $419,
The quad core celerons were $229, NOW they don't exist but Chromebooks are going for $400+??? Are you kidding me?

I ended up buying the last x240 a dealer had, which could be as old as 7 years, for $370! I5, 8gb/240gb SSD, dual band wireless, dual battery. The price has been jacked up to $440 now!!! It's a well made tank far tougher and faster than any chromebook in that price range and better than a celeron but it is really old. Last year this same computer was $269 from a number of vendors

No inflation and a sound economy my arse. Thinks are a mess and only going to get far worse.

[Clessy]

I've known that Canadas economy has serious issues for years. I feel like its very close to a hyper inflation economy. You can get new chrome books in the states for $100. Don't worry though. Most Americans are becoming just as big of idiots and im sure the socialist will ruin us too.

[Fummins]

What economy? I smell future tax hikes and politics, Yippy!!!!!!

MEERY CHRISTMAS!

[MacClyver]

Supply of computer hardware like many things has been disrupted this year, then add in the simultaneous effect of people being stuck at home and wanting to upgrade their computers for a renewed interest in video gaming or needing to videochat/work from home and you get a perfect storm of spiking demand and falling supply.

Intel can't make enough 10nm CPUs, AMD Ryzen 5000 likewise is nearly unobtainable, likewise NVIDIA and AMD can't make enough RTX 3000 and Radeon 6000 GPUs respectively.

All supply and demand. I wouldn't worry about it one bit. Once this is over and the market stabilizes prices will return to normal. This is just a bad time to replace your tech, if it ain't broke keep it until the shortages are resolved.

[Fummins]

It's a bad time to replace you're Mirage too

[dspace9]

Take a look at what Best Buy is offering. I got a great deal on an Asus netbook a few weeks ago.

We don't have much inflation in Canada, I think our borrowing rates are what, 0.25% right now.

Hyper un-inflation. Cheap time to borrow. Venezuela has hyper inflation now, Zimbabwe uses US dollars now I believe. They just gave up on million-dollar loaves of bread

[Dirk Diggler]

Supply of computer hardware like many things has been disrupted this year, then add in the simultaneous effect of people being stuck at home and wanting to upgrade their computers for a renewed interest in video gaming or needing to videochat/work from home and you get a perfect storm of spiking demand and falling supply.

Intel can't make enough 10nm CPUs, AMD Ryzen 5000 likewise is nearly unobtainable, likewise NVIDIA and AMD can't make enough RTX 3000 and Radeon 6000 GPUs respectively.

All supply and demand. I wouldn't worry about it one bit. Once this is over and the market stabilizes prices will return to normal. This is just a bad time to replace your tech, if it ain't broke keep it until the shortages are resolved.

Thoughtful, informed answer well done. And here I thought it was Chairman Mao and a cabal of socialists ruining Murica's 51st state, Canada.

[Fummins]

Thoughtful, informed answer well done. And here I thought it was Chairman Mao and a cabal of socialists ruining Murica's 51st state, Canada.

I prefer being indirectly called an idiot and being blamed for inflation lol

[Dirk Diggler]

I prefer being indirectly called an idiot and being blamed for inflation lol

I hear ya brother.

[Mark]

I hear ya brother.

Although many school districts have had iPads and Chromebooks for quite some time now, I think many have updated this past year in response to students doing more via a device of some sort. Younger students also have devices now, too! Many homes have updated their devices in response to all this, too. Upgrading WiFi, printers, & everything else associated with all this has also been impacted. It's probably driven the price up for some things, too.

I just retired from teaching this past year, but I can honestly say that I saw 7th grade students who didn't know how to hold a pencil correctly when writing. Handwriting had gotten terrible in school. Not claiming mine is great. If you wanted to send a secret message in code, just write it cursively.

My worst grade in high school was typing my Sophomore year. I took a manual typewriter to college! I liked pounding the keys. I made to many mistakes with an electric one! My best teacher friend never took typing in school, because he didn't want it to lower his GPA. He's amazing with with two fingers! He adapted to texting & typing on cell phones quite easily!