Being in the pole barn blog writing business, I hear from and get a lot of feedback from clients, and potential clients. I’d like to share this with my kind readers:
“Dear Sir; I do appreciate you’re candid effort to offer such a deal, but I am going to be gone starting Dec 27 and won’t be back until March 9. Believe me when I say I need a pole barn. But the cost of ALL the pole Barnes that I have checked on has scared the living hell out of me. All I wanted was a simple 36×40, one overhead and one entry door. But all of them wanted me to be part of the National Debt. I honestly don’t believe that they wanted to sell any pole Barnes. Not asking for a given, just asking for a honest LOW price. I have worked hard my whole life and don’t have a whole hell of much, but what I do have I want to try and protect it. I don’t need to hear I can do this or you need this and can do it at a affordable price. That affordable price turns out to be so outrages. It is downright pitiful that companies has to tell you all the good things and turns out to be all false. So I honestly ask YOU what kind of a low cost good Pole Barn can you offer a guy like Me. A Honest hard working man with needs like I have. Thank you for listening to me.”
I did encourage this writer to read an article I had written: https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/blog/2013/05/pole-barn-prices/
Now I work for a living and have for the past 40-plus years, the last 33 in the pole building industry. I remember offering a constructed 24’ x 24’ garage with a 16 foot wide insulated steel overhead door and an insulated steel entry door for $3995! Just 22 years ago.
However I also know my mother bought a brand new 2880 square foot house which we moved into at Christmas of 1973 for under $30,000. My brother just sold the house for over $160,000! Of course gasoline then was under 50 cents a gallon, not hovering between three and four dollars. I held down an entry level job for $2.50 an hour….am sure you are getting the drift.
What scares me is not current pole barn prices. I or one of my family members is a client pretty much yearly – so I also end up on the “other side of the fence”. Even though quality has increased, pole barn prices have not kept up with the rate of inflation.
What scares me – and what is going to continue to scare me – is our government printing billions (with a “B”) of dollars of funny money every month. The problem is not costs going up, it is the value of the dollar going down.
Recently I read an article saying to NOT put any money in savings account because you are actually losing money if you do. The rate of inflation is higher than most interest rates. Makes you stop and think, doesn’t it? If you need a pole building, and if you have the money for it (or can borrow at a reasonable interest rate) – buy it now. Your dollar is never going to go farther than it will right now.
First, I would like to say “thank you” for all the time and effort you have put into educating people with regards to post frame construction. Your practical experience and knowledge level have kept me interested for hours (days actually) reading all of your blog posts and Q&A topics.
That said, your comments regarding “funny money” and inflation made me chuckle. Your lack of understanding of monetary and fiscal policy, along with false beliefs related to sovereign fiat money systems, was a little deflating.
Somewhere along the line you acquired the (incorrect) belief that a U.S. dollar should purchase the same amount of goods and services today that it did 100 years ago. Monetary Systems 101 would tell you that a 2% annual inflation target is an essential, even critical, part of an economy based on fiat (non-commodity backed)currency.
I’m not going to go into a lot of detail here, but let me just say your successful enterprise(s) and relatively high standard of living are testament to the very good, (albeit not perfect) economic policies we have in the United States.
You should go to high quality, non-biased sources for your financial and economic information, just as I go to high quality sources (of which you are one!) for construction information.
Sincerely,
Randy