What is it that drives the prices in the economy? Cost of shipping and what drives the cost of shipping? Fuel. Who drove up the price of fuel? The current administration
Actually the price if fuel is set by the WALL ST futures market, not the government
And that is largely due to day traders buying up all of the spare capacity on the spot market plus the hedge funds buying up all of the uncontracted futures hoping the hysteria around the Russian-Ukrane war would cause a short supply situation ( which it did not by the way ) but just the same the price of oil skyrocketed due to the panic buying and what traders call Mass - volume effect
Fuel prices went up world wide including in Aust and we are not part of the Biden administration the last time I checked .
Fuel prices went up in the UK and they have a conservative government there .
Gas prices down here ( except in WA ) have tripled despite the cost of extraction remaining exactly the same but because of the shortage of Russian gas the local suppliers tripled the domestic price because they could with the knowledge that they could get even more for their gas if the local market cut back .
And they could do it because like in the USA CONSERVATIVE governments refused to mandate local supply volumes and maximum pricing because in the CONSERVATIVE mantra the "market" must always be free to set prices according to supply & demand unhindered by government interfearance .
And FWIW when I ran a delivery business fuel was only 20% of my costs
Insurance was 30%
The only 2 prices the government controls is tax & interest rates and even then the Reserve bank sets the interest rate
Si if taxes skyrocket then you can blame the government but if fuel prices skyrocket then look at the profits of the oil companies to see who is pushing them up .
Unfortuneatly the demented US election system manages to politize everything aspect of your life and the really stupid 2 party system ends up brainwashing the portion of the population that are too lazy to think for themselves that every thing the reds do is demonic if they vote blue and everything the blues do is wrong if they vote red where as both colours are 100% corrupt but like a good magican they keep misdirecting the gaze of their followers so they do not see how much they are being robbed by the party they voted for and that is regardless of the colour of their undies .
The last couple of weeks while I was on holidays I bumped into 5 Americans .
Four of them have fled in the last month to escape the political violence that was happening right now in their old towns, with 2 of them fearing a civil war if President Trump is either prosecuted or prevented from running in the next election .
And this is what you expect to see in third world countries with uneducated populations not a supposedly well educated politically stable country like the USA .
If you study modern history the parallels between pre WWII Germany & the USA are getting alarmingly close
What did you decide to buy? I went through the same thoughts that you did as I'm guessing most do when looking at this level of machines. I chose the Cheetah II with the 61-inch deck and Kawi EFI. Just picked it up yesterday. Had a few places with a Kohler Engines and a couple with the Briggs but only one had the Kawi which is what I wanted. To me I couldn't justify spending the extra few grand for the TT. I'm sure others that purchased the TT will tell you why they felt it was worth the extra money. I think with either machine you'll be happy. And congrats and best of luck with your business. Great hearing young people making something with their life.