The value of things: a great hi-fi vs. a $23,000 Yves Saint Laurent sweater

Perusing the August 26th Sunday New York Times Style Magazine, ogling the latest in women's fashion, my mind wanders. Apparently there's an insatiable market for luxury apparel; the 316 page issue is jam-packed with goodies like a $3,495 Chanel Jersey Handbag and a freaky looking $5,390 Louis Vuitton Feather Necklace. Then again, if you really want to make that special someone really happy, go for the $26,500 Hermes Sable-and-Crocodile Kelly Muff or perhaps something more practical like the $23,155 Yves Saint Laurent sweater embroidered by Lesage. I'm sure it's all splendid couture, but doesn't that strike you as a little extreme?

This all American beauty sounds amazing

(Credit: McIntosh Labs)

Thing is, the lucky Yves Saint Laurent sweater owner will probably wear the thing two or three times a year. The rest of the time it'll be safely hidden away in a drawer. By contrast, a high-end audio system can be enjoyed on a daily basis. So sure, a $6,500 McIntosh MA2275 stereo amplifier might at first blush seem exorbitantly pricey, but it probably has a much longer and useful life span than most of the goodies so lavishly displayed in the Style Magazine. Oh, and I loved the matter-of-fact style of the magazine's prose, never once was the price an issue. You see, outrageously expensive apparel is apparently the norm.

I'd like to point out that American made hi-fi, like that McIntosh amplifier, is made by Americans who like to earn a living wage and receive benefits, health insurance, etc. Mass market audio, $500 A/V receivers, MP3 players and their ilk are assembled in China by 15 year old girls working 16 hours a day, who are lucky to get 20 minute lunch breaks. That's one way to keep prices under control.

While it's true that even in the high-end some companies are moving production "off shore," most of the top tier brands still manufacture their products here or in Europe. The only really major American industries still manufacturing here are making cars and planes. Their factories employ hundreds of thousands of people--but their days are numbered--so those jobs will be gone in the next decade or two. And when that happens, who's gonna buy those sweaters?

Have a great Labor Day weekend!

[jimmyhoops]

Bang for the buck...

Although the McIntosh wouldn't be my first pick of audiophile level amplifiers, it
certainly would deliver more bang for the buck (in total hours of enjoyment)
over time then a sweater that is sure to be 'out' by the next season.

Guess this marks the difference how men and women may choose to spend
their monies. But to each thier own!

[epitone]

Well, let's think about it...

A $6,500 amplifier won't do much on its own. To make it realize its full potential you'd probably have to spend another $10,000 on speakers, $1,000 on a pre-amp, and $2,500 on a top-quality turntable or CD player.

Whereas that $23,000 sweater could probably be slapped on over $50 worth of plain clothing and still look awesome.

(And if you're keeping score, I wouldn't buy either one in a million skillion years.)

[WhyFi]

Re: Well, let's think about it...

That would be one crap sounding system for the money; your distribution of funds is all out of whack - less on the speakers, more on the source, a LOT more on the preamp... devoting only 5% of your budget to a pre is criminal.

Anywho, we're talking about value, so we have to consider what kind of benefit you get for your money. One on hand... you have a nice sweater. You get to, uh... wear a nice sweater, but only every once in a while... 'cause if you wear it too often, you'll become known as the skeevy guy that always wears the same clothes.

On the other hand, you can transport yourself to a different place every night - a jazz club in Harlem in the '65, a cathedral in Sweden in '76, a little Seattle grunge dive in the '92... and you can change your mood by pushing a button - elation, sorrow, at ease, love-sick and miserable, etc.

I think that I know which way I'd go...

[ndurantz]

What if you can't afford more than a $500 receiver

I know that wasn't really your point. I couldn't afford a $23,000 sweater, either. It's just now I feel bad about the new Onkyo receiver I bought, as if directly contributing to the oppression of Chinese workers. Guess I should apologize to those 15 year old girls, throw my Onkyo in the trash and wait until I can afford a $2000 American made receiver.

[eatapc--2008]

Not comparable

Would the hypothetical loss of jobs at McIntosh be categorized as a loss of
high tech or low-skill? I'd call it a "high nostalgia." Oh, how I miss my buggy
whip.

Seriously Steve, I disagree that the McIntosh amp has to compete against A/V
receivers and MP3 players assembled in China. Two different markets. Even if
the mass-market A/V receivers were 30% more expensive because they were
made by 20 year old people with health care rather than exploited teenagers,
the McIntosh market share wouldn't improve one iota. Likewise, if the Kia
Amanti plant was moved to the U.K. and the manufacturing cost went up by a
third, I wouldn't expect the folks building Rolls Royces to break out the Moet.
The only people hurt would be Kia employees and middle class consumers.

So who will buy the cheap receivers if America loses jobs at the McIntosh
factory? The same people whose lives have benefited for years from ever
lower-cost technology. You and me.

As economist Dan Drezner wrote in Foreign Affairs:

"Should Americans be concerned about the economic effects of outsourcing?
Not particularly. Most of the numbers thrown around are vague, overhyped
estimates... The creation of new jobs overseas will eventually lead to more
jobs and higher incomes in the United States. Because the economy -- and
especially job growth -- is sluggish at the moment, commentators are
attempting to draw a connection between offshore outsourcing and high
unemployment. But believing that offshore outsourcing causes
unemployment is the economic equivalent of believing that the sun revolves
around the earth: intuitively compelling but clearly wrong."

The one thing I agree with you on is health care. The fact that American
companies have to spend about $20k per employee on healthcare benefits --
while those employees have to further kick in a signficant amount on top of
that -- puts us at a serious competitive disadvantage. Time for us to join the
rest of the civilized world with a single-payer system. (I can dream, can't I?)

[kcar27]

Steve: please do your job

Steve, you spent more than half of this post grinding your teeth over high-priced clothes--apparently in an attempt to excuse the insane price on the McIntosh amplifier.

I really don't need a lesson on outsourcing and manufacturing. I very much doubt that the costs of American assembly-line work at McIntosh, and the benefits given to workers on the line, account for even half of this electronic toad's price.

Don't lecture us about buying American, esp. when the item in question is outrageously overpriced. Try sticking to discussion of the features, merits and flaws of the equipment. Your post told me NOTHING about the amplifier except its price.