So Expensive Series 2 Marathon | So Expensive.

in this video we'll look at why 14 things including supreme products apple products escobar's prison caviar yeezys parmesan cheese and so much more are so expensive you can click on the timestamps on the description area for easy navigation through the video subscribe hit that notification bell and let's get cracking fact this supreme spalding basketball will set you back a whopping 25 000 well this supreme fender stratocaster will cost you 9500 assuming that you're even able to get your hands on them so why is supreme so expensive big demand limited supply the first reason why supreme is so expensive is that the supply is very limited supreme focuses on the crafting of limited edition clothing and accessories and makes these available in a limited number of physical stores 12 worldwide and at quantities that are simply never enough to satisfy demand the official reason given by its creator james jebia is that they don't want to get stuck with stuff nobody wants i mean take an example of these supreme louis vuitton skates only 10 were made and sold for an eye watering 88 200 one site is currently selling them for over 220 thousand dollars the exclusivity of the brand is enabled by the fact that one cannot simply show up at a supreme outlet to buy an outfit there's only a dozen or so outlets in the world and to buy anything from them you have to first complete and submit an online form if your application is successful you'll then be given a code that entitles you to wait in line for an item to become available wait times can reach a couple days and it's not unusual to see fans of the brand flying in from all over the country or outside sleeping in line all to get a hold of their favorite supreme item for fear of missing out savvy branding the second reason why supreme is so expensive has to do with savvy branding this includes the supreme logo and color scheme this has enabled it to cultivate a cult following that would make a politician envious given the unflagging loyalty of the fans of the supreme brand it's not all that unusual that it can sell any item it wants for almost any price take a standard t-shirt for example if you're in the mood to buy it you can expect to pay from 5 to 25 however the same t-shirt with the supreme logo stamped on it will sell for around 100 upwards with folks of all ages lining up to get their hands on it excellent resale value the third reason why supreme is so expensive is that their products have excellent resale value do remember that supreme deliberately avoids manufacturing enough items to satisfy demand this always creates a rush for their products not everyone is keen to wait in line to buy supreme items and this creates a demand that resellers rush to fill let's say you want a supreme t-shirt well not on average like we said 70 to 100 bucks however due to intense demand and low production volumes the chances if you were getting your hands on these when they came out are on the very low side so you turn to resellers who might have sweated in line for hours at a physical store to get the item that you want these resellers need to make a profit and to do that they advertise what they have not for double what they bought it for but at least 10 times thus that t-shirt we were talking about that the reseller bought for 100 bucks at most that's gonna set you back a thousand bucks what this means is that prices for supreme items are not usually expensive on retail but they sure do cost a pretty penny when bought from resellers who are making enough to comfortably retire on it's hip to the hop the next reason why supreme is so expensive is that it's hip hey do people still say hip anymore supreme has the endorsement of famous hip-hop artists and has used their influence and reach to give itself all the authenticity and street cred that it needs to flourish worth noting is that supreme did not kick things off as an urban brand it came into being as a fashion label that was focused on producing stuff for the skateboarding community with its first stores being designed so that skateboarders need not dismount when rolling in to buy this and that along the line it evolved into what it is now at present supreme has always understood what potent hip-hop can be for the overall scheme of things and sought to tap into this as far back as 2005. this had accomplished courtesy of t-shirts that featured the image of raequan following this with shirts that had dip sets mug in the front supreme has come a long way since then and its street cred is such that artists like asap rocky 2 chainz and travis scott occasionally wear supreme items while others dress up in it for music video shoots and celebrity get-togethers got a supreme item in your wardrobe do let us know what it is and how much it cost you in the comments section below quality creations the fifth reason why supreme can be so expensive is that the items are all actually quality creations that means that they're made from the best quality components and the best industry practices so the next time you complain about supreme producing expensive clothing do remember that this clothing is made to be as comfortable and long-lasting as possible and that all designs are mostly unique and certainly trendy just another reason why someone would lovingly fork out 125 grand for this supreme louis vuitton mal courier 90 trunk fact the new mac pro will set you back between 5 999 and a gargantuan 52 grand well the new apple pro display xdr will set you back four thousand nine hundred ninety nine dollars with its apple pro stand alone costing a rather shocking thousand dollars so why are apple products so expensive their stores are jaw dropping the first reason why apple is so expensive is due to their stunningly designed stores i mean look at apple dubai mall or apple schnindergrass cologne or apple marina bay sands singapore apple's in love with their stores to say the least they don't fail to mention them in their conference calls keynote events or even their sec filings their stores are uniquely designed and impeccably finished and furnished and they reportedly cost about 10 million dollars a store top grade components plus high grade finishing the second reason why apple is so expensive is that all its products use only the best quality components apple never compromises on quality and its components are made from extremely reliable materials this in turn has earned apple legions of devoted followers who eagerly queue up for hours to purchase the newest apple devices i've heard from the sole use of quality components apple also invests in quality finishes that's why nearly all of its products look like works of art which in a way they are immense brand value the third reason why apple's so expensive is due to their brand value which is sky high the power of the apple brand is so high that they can easily charge more than other tech firms for the products and services that are similar apple's done very well for itself by building an enviable brand value and establishing itself as a lifestyle brand without peer with its products being highly visible and highly coveted by almost everyone its customers feel that it represents top value reliability usability and enjoyment and are always willing to pay those high prices to acquire the apple products costs of research and development the fourth reason by apple's so expensive is they spend a lot of money on research and development for example in 2020 apple spent a total of 18.75 billion on research and development yes billions with a capital b and then what's more what apple spends on r d keeps increasing year on year with 16.22 billion being spent in 2019. so what exactly does apple do with its immense r d budget well it keeps developing newer and better versions of its mobile and computing devices and improving its operating systems it also seeks better ways to manufacture its products and it can keep churning out stuff that stuns its customers and critics alike they're meant for premium users the next reason why apple is so expensive is that they're meant to be expensive it successfully cast itself as a luxury brand to the point where in most parts of the world having an apple product means that you have more money than the majority of the population yeah apple advertises itself as a premium brand that offers an unlimited range of premium experiences and if you need some of that you're gonna have to pay good money for it even the cheapest phones it makes are out of the reach of most people and you need to fork over at least a thousand smackers before you can even get your hand on the newest iphone a thousand bucks is not something easily gotten but then having a device with the apple logo on it means that you just might have made it in life apparently are you an apple fan well then feel free to comment below and tell us what you think is the best iphone model ever made the software the sixth reason why apple is so expensive is that they make use of proprietary software the ios apple has total command and control of this software which gives it the freedom to tweak it as it sees fit that's not an easy or a cheap process compare this with android android is both open source and free phone manufacturers can get this os from google and customize it to their devices and requirements as they wish apple on the other hand doesn't license its software to companies and both develops and maintains the mac os and ios plus services like imessage and icloud the apple ecosystem is locked with apple alone determining what goes where and in which direction the company moves with apple being in charge of the whole thing it can customize and tweak its os to get the best performance out of varied apple devices in ways that are still impossible for android to emulate moreover it can better secure its system from malware hacking and the like and that makes apple devices all the more desirable to the security conscious want the best mobile and security protection out there well then you might have to go the apple route and then you'll dig deeper into your pocket for the privilege the seventh reason why apple's so expensive is that it uses a cleverly intermeshed ecosystem that makes it possible for users to get a lot done in the most convenient and slick fashion possible the apple ecosystem is quite large and interconnected to an oft under appreciated fashion really for example say you're reading an article on the iphone well that same article will pop up if you were to switch to your tablet and its browser furthermore with your apple watch hooked up to whatever iphone models in your possession all notifications and calls that you get in your iphone will show up on your watch essentially everything that apple makes from iphones to ipads to macs to the apple watch they all enjoy seamless connectivity and data share to great effect this could be why apple is one of the number one choices for professionals firms and high productivity individuals who are looking to achieve the best fact parmesan cheese can cost a shocking thousand dollars per pound if not more so why is parmesan cheese so expensive the locale the first reason why parmesan cheese is so expensive has to do with the place where it's made promotional reggiano is the officially protected name for real parmesan which is a hard sharp tasting and unami filled cheese that has a texture best described as granular it can only be made in specific locales in northern italy known as emilia romagna which boasts cities like reggio amalia modena bologna mantua and parma this locale is on the very small side which in turn restricts the number of dairy farms to be found there and how much parmesan cheese they can make now the only place in the world where real parmesan can be gotten from is emilia romagna this is due to a process of a specific bacteria found nowhere else and which has proven nearly impossible to replicate in other parts of the world though this could be cracked once science has sufficiently advanced emilia romagna has only 325 dairy farms that can make parmesan cheese from unpasteurized cow's milk and this means that what's produced can never be enough to meet global demand with this of course driving up costs the production process the second reason why parmesan cheese is so expensive is the production process involved is much the same as was used during the middle ages which means it's very labor time and resource intensive around 131 gallons of milk from cows fed on the freshest and sweetest of grasses and hay are used to produce just a single wheel of this special cheese with other ingredients taking the form of salt and reddit there are regulations out in force as to what type of grass or hay these cows can eat before their milk can be used to make parmesan cheese and making this possible is not as easy as it seems all ingredients used for production are carefully mixed by hand and in controlled conditions the lot of it is then cooked to get rid of bad bacteria and water and is all made into a cheese wheel by a team of workers who are at present mostly of the sikh faith the back-breaking work involved in the process of parmesan cheese making doesn't come cheap and then there's the fact that the entire cheese making process must be finished in one day with this calling for the involvement of a significant number of trained people who do have to be paid for that time in labor rules and regulations the next reason why parmesan cheese is so expensive is that there are a lot of rules and regulations in place as to how they can be made these rules and regulations enforced by the cons or zizo parmigiano-reggiano add complexity to the cheese-making process and cost a lot in both time and resources but they're obviously very necessary since parmesan cheese is apparently one of the most if not the most counterfeited italian cheese anywhere on the planet yeah counterfeit cheese these rules and regulations deal with all aspects of the production process and assure the best quality for cheese lovers everywhere they help ensure that buyers of this cheese get to experience the unique taste and rumored medicinal properties of the product that said parmigiano-reggiano does vary in taste and quality and some farms are recognized in being better able than others at making this king of cheeses but all adhere to the same standards of quality ever eaten parmesan and we meet real parmesan what was your experience let us know in the comment section below it is aged the fourth reason why parmesan cheese is so expensive is that it has to be aged for an astoundingly long time before being considered good enough for the human pilot see once workers are done with making a parmesan cheese wheel they use a plastic stencil to stamp it with this resulting in the famous parmigiano-reggiano ride the wheel is then immersed in brine for about 19 days before being resurrected from its salty bath it aged the typical parmesan cheese is aged for a period of two to three years during this time it's left alone on wooden shelves however there are some parmesan cheeses that are aged for 10 or more years and these has to be expected have a taste that could make kings weep with joy these are also more expensive according to law the minimum time parmesan cheese is supposed to be aged is 12 months the cost of parmesan cheese is normally determined by its age and this gives folks an incentive to hold on to it for much longer while being aged parmesan cheese will be carefully kept clean turned at intervals and looked after once each wheel of cheese has received a stipulated minimum of 12 months then they're put to a test the cons or zizo del fromagio parmigiano reggiano parmigiano reggiano cheese consortium which regulates the parmesan industry and ensures that not too much parmesan is produced sends over someone a master grater actually to look over the cheese to make sure the cheese meets all the standards this will involve scrupulously checking for imperfections if not are found and the cheese looks to be as perfect as it can be then it's given a stamp of approval the logo of the conservato itself and it can be sold as real parmesan if the cheese wheel fails to meet expectations well then the stamp of approval is denied and it can only be sold at a lower price or under another name for being a substandard quality fact this is the rolex gmt master ii ice and it'll set you back a gargantuan 485 350 well this is the submariner automatic chronometer diamond silver dial men's watch and that'll require about 230 grand so why are rolex's so expensive design costs are substantial the first reason why rolex watches are so expensive is their substantial design costs it costs a lot to design and assemble the internal components for rolexes with materials being of the highest possible quality rolex has multiple research and development centers at its geneva headquarters which are all exceedingly equipped and professionally staffed facilities that focus on developing better technologies for crafting the current crop of watches and new technologies and processes that will go into the succeeding crop of watches these centers help rolex keep its edge and continue turning out innovative products that amaze and excite rolex is currently one of the most if not the most recognized luxury watchmaker firm in the world and part of what rocketed to the top of everyone's wishlist is it uses the latest technologies and processes to make the best watches possible both during and after the design process these include gas spectrometers and electron microscopes which are very sensitive equipment that enables the storied watchmaking firm to find out if its artful creations can endure the crudest abuse or not few other luxury watchmakers go to this kind of length and part of the appeal of paying the high price that rolex has for its timepieces is basically the utmost quality assurance that goes with these sublime designs the nature of watches the second reason why rolex watches are so expensive has to do with the nature of the watches themselves yeah okay they're mechanical watches which means that they use no batteries and are instead powered by the internal movements of the tiny bits of machinery mechanical watches are incredibly hard to build and fail a lot while being assembled or manufactured mainly due to the tiny size of the internal components and the stresses that they can be subjected to the internal components used by rolex are hand polished and hand finished in switzerland this beautiful country has some of the highest labor costs in the world and considering that assembling a mechanical watch with its hundreds of parts takes a skilled human many hours one can easily understand why rolex watches are so expensive it must also be noted that rolex both develops their movements in-house and manufactures the same to the highest possible tolerances as well so this adds to that overall expense they represent luxury the next reason why rolex are so expensive is that they're luxury items luxury products focus on exclusivity and quality rolex has decided to lean towards making the most perfect durable and flawless watches cost me damned thus their creations can easily last for a hundred years and serve multiple generations that's why some people see them as a sort of investment though they are first and foremost luxury items that are made to very fine tolerances rolex makes watches that last the fourth reason why rolex watchers are so expensive is that they're made to last they could almost certainly survive a plane crash followed shortly afterwards by an avalanche a hurricane and maybe even the zombie apocalypse what we're trying to say is that rolex goes above and beyond the call of duty to design watches that can survive almost anything and outlast the owner they utilize 904l steel rather than the more commonplace 316l steel with the forward beam miles ahead of the laddering durability the use of 904l steel also known as oyster steel results in watches that are shinier and easier to polish more resistant damage and the ravages of time and also more expensive 904l steel is not easy to work with and rolex's had to put together a new production facility because of this rolex watches are astoundingly durable with drastic changes in movements altitude temperature and humidity that would have wrecked other luxury watches not affecting them at all due to this such timepieces can usually be found on the wrists of explorers and adventurers famous and infamous take edmond hillary who was the first human to stand on the summit of the gigantic mount everest well he did that with a rolexed oyster perpetual flashing off of his wrist most rolex watches are also water resistant to an admirable extent the majority can be submerged to a maximum of 300 meters have you ever owned a rolex how much did it cost let us know in the comment section below the use of rare and precious metals the fifth reason why rolex is so expensive is that it makes extensive use of rare and precious metals rolex itself manufactures the steel platinum and gold it uses in its watches they usually take raw 24 karat gold plates and change them to 18 karat white rose and yellow gold used on their watches to make them stand out rolex is also the only watchmaker that goes so far as to produce its own gold moreover rolex even has what's called a gemological department staffed with an army of highly trained workers the task of this department is to purchase test cut and then precisely put precious stones diamonds and the like on its watches every stone used for this purpose is carefully chosen before being placed into its assigned location on the timepiece with the entire careful and painstaking process being the same as that used by the most well-regarded jewelry brands on the planet outstanding attention to detail the sixth reason why rolex watches are so expensive is that they all display outstanding attention to detail even the screws holding each watch together being works of art it can take up to a year to make a single rolex watch and despite that rolex makes and sells about a million watches yearly every rolex is hand assembled from the finest and most rigorously tested components available their watches make exclusive use of 18-karat gold and use 950 platinum only their 18-karat gold is known as everose and is a proprietary alloy their ceramic is called cerachrom and it's a proprietary and very hard material that can't be scratched and will not change color no matter how much uv exposure it's subjected to whenever rolex needs materials for its watches that can't be found anywhere but which will give it a leg over the competition quality and design wise it goes out and invents it for itself and that costs money time and resources this is la catedral or hotel escobar if you may the self-designed luxurious prison of the notorious pablo escobar not many criminals can say they designed their own prison one more luxurious than most mansions so why was it so expensive it was escobar's design and build the first reason why pablo escobar's prison was so expensive well it was pablo escobar he was by far the wealthiest and most notorious criminal in his time in fact he even made it to the forbes list of richest people in the 1980s the subject of multiple movies tv shows and pop culture references he's the most infamous drug lord of all time a murderous drug lord keen football player and on the list of forbes richest people in the world one hell of a resume actually just to give you an idea of how rich he was he once set two million dollars worth of bills on fire because his daughter was cold now and he spent about two thousand five hundred dollars on rubber bands per month to hold all of the banknotes for the money that he was earning in the mid 1980s it was estimated he was earning 420 million dollars per week that was a mind-blowing 22 billion per year so it's safe to say that if he was going to spend time locked up he wasn't going to skimp on anything but how did he get so rich in the first place well to understand this you need to look back at the rise and fall of escobar's drug empire escobar had pretty humble beginnings in the city of medellin in colombia where he grew up he was born to a family of seven children he did however start his criminal career pretty early committing petty thefts like stealing and reselling gravestones stealing cars and even lottery tickets he continued smuggling contraband with the help of local gangs even resorting to kidnapping and ransom in 1975 he moved into smuggling coke to the u.s initially this substance was not a popular narcotic in the u.s it was mainly used by those in the poor working class as a way of dealing with stress from heavy workloads it wasn't until the 1960s and 70s that it gained cultural significance among the wealthier folks such as those on wall street and just like that escobar saw an opportunity he stepped up the smuggling operations around this time he got caught once in 1976 by colombian authorities the case quickly fell apart when he ordered a hit on the arresting officers in the 1980s thanks to escobar the u.s saw a boom in the usage of his substance by this time escobar was a billionaire with many powerful friends and enemies in colombian politics in fact he was behind the assassination of a colombian presidential candidate that wanted to sign an extradition treaty with the u.s so that pablo would be prosecuted in the u.s this was when the colombian state realized that he had too much power and negotiated with escobar to be jailed but escobar only agreed under one condition that he designed and built the prison himself well now why would the wealthiest drug lord give himself up voluntarily without some conditions of course escobar had something to benefit from it by this time he had made far too many enemies and he needed a secure place to hide so what better place to hide than a prison that you designed by yourself inaccessible location the second reason why escobar's self-designed prison was so expensive was its bizarre location escobar wanted the prison built on a mountaintop with an excellent view of the city of madeleine below this was a brilliant location for a man with so many enemies it's almost impossible to reach and the high vantage point lets him spot any approaching intruders the mornings were also filled with thick fog making it possible for airstrikes from above but of course building a luxurious prison palace on such an inaccessible mountainous location wasn't going to be cheap the security the third reason why escobar's prison was so expensive was because of the sheer amount of security needed being the world's most wanted criminal doesn't come cheap either as a part of his deal with the colombian authorities escobar was allowed to choose his security arrangements his prison palace was heavily guarded with dozens of guards that were loyal to him his prison palace nicknamed the kind of draw like ironically had a separate room filled with tons of military-grade weapons in case of an impending attack the prison palace was also surrounded by huge towering walls with barbed wire making the building impossible to break into in fact even the colombian national police were not permitted within a 12-mile radius of the palace as part of escobar's list of demands suffice to say that teams of burly security guards that are fully loyal to you military-grade weapons and a rock-solid fortress also don't come cheap the amenities the fourth reason why escobar's prison was so expensive was because of all the impressive amenities it was such a cushy and luxurious place that you would mistake it for a posh country club or resort in the middle of a forest before you ever thought it was a prison the prison palace boasted of a library a cafeteria guest houses and even a place of worship yeah it's said that the most dangerous drug lord in recent history one who sent people to the pearly gates in his own house slept with a statue of the virgin mary carrying baby jesus by his bedside like many colombians he was a huge fan of football too so naturally he also included a football pitch built under prison grounds because what better way to wind down a hectic schedule of drug smuggling and plotting assassinations than a good game of football the palace also boasts in a state-of-the-art kitchen super comfy beds water beds and even jacuzzis being this bad kingpin didn't stop him from being a doting father either he built a separate dollhouse for his little daughter where she could stay when she came to visit the prison palace also had a separate disco where he would party away with his friends and influential people he also had game rooms equipped with the latest televisions too the prison bedrooms were a far cry from the stone cold walls metal basins and sleeping on the floor witnessed in regular prisons they were some of the finest bedrooms exquisitely refurbished and wouldn't look at a place in a five-star hotel the prison was even named hotel escobar at one point lavish parties the fifth reason why escobar's prison was so expensive was because it had to be fit for all the lavish parties and get-togethers of the wealthiest drug lord in the world you can't be the most notorious criminal in the world and not party like one escomar's parties were great but his birthday parties were epic on his 43rd birthday escobar invited the colombian national football team to his prison palace for a friendly game on his own football pitch and of course when an influential drug kingpin like escobar invites you to his birthday you don't really turn that down so all 22 members of the colombian football team attended there they had a lavish lunch along with a friendly game of football with escobar he spared no expense obviously he brought in some of the most talented chefs in meddling city to cook the food the menu included exquisite dishes like smoked salmon turkey smoked trout and caviar and he even made his personal prison guards serve the drinks at the park fact in the u.s a ride in an ambulance will set you back a shocking 1 000 at the very least though your healthcare insurance provider might opt to pay for much of this so why is healthcare in america so expensive a wasteful complex system the first reason why healthcare is so expensive is that the healthcare system that's currently in place is incredibly complex and wasteful because of this there are different rules enrollment dates funding and out-of-pocket costs for private insurance and employer-based insurance in place healthcare consumers are expected to make their pick up for multiple tiers of coverage fee for service systems high deductible plans and managed care plans these plans can as well have or not have pharmaceutical drug insurance with this also having varied covered tiers co-pays and coinsurances as well as deductibles as a result of this complexity healthcare providers must heed a bewildering array of regulations related to coding billing and usage doing this costs money with the administrative and other costs ultimately borne by the consumer the consumer too often don't understand how the whole thing works and can't explain it to you if they try rising drug costs the second reason why health care is so expensive in the u.s has to do with soaring drug prices studies have shown that americans pay around four times more than what europeans pay for their drugs it's not much of a surprise because drug prices in europe are under strict governmental regulation which is not the case in the u.s and that's of course a tragedy apart from a lack of regulation as regards drug prices the american government prefers not regulate prices that the majority of companies in the health care sector demand for their services and this could be drugs care or insurance this creates incentives for these firms to keep prices as high as they think the market can bear well-paid doctors and nurses the third reason why health care is so expensive can be explained by the high salaries paid to doctors and nurses in the country on average a family doctor in the us makes around 218 000 a year with specialists getting about 316. this is more than what's paid to doctors in europe and elsewhere nurses on average earn around seventy four thousand two hundred and fifty dollars in america this compares to the sixty thousand and fifty eight thousand annual salary paid to nurses in the netherlands and switzerland by example high salaries paid to healthcare workers in the us have to come from somewhere and that's somewhere healthcare consumers profits over everything else the next reason why healthcare is so expensive is that a for-profit model is utilized to create relish and america is one of the few industrialized countries in the world to use such a model the vast majority of european countries understand that healthcare should be a right not a privilege and act accordingly but in the us private companies provide the bulk of health insurance and individuals need to cover some of the costs of this even if the person or firm they work for subsidizes a portion with a focus on money making it's no wonder that insurance companies spend a lot of the time and money performing what they call a utilization review this review refers to a convoluted process whereby these companies in their own wisdom decide whether they cover this or they cover that medical service sadly the ultimate goal of such reviews is to find a way to not pay folks for the medical care that they were ostensibly insured for lack of universal health care is also to blame for high health care costs such a system would have made it possible for all to have guaranteed access to health care without going into debt for it what's the most you've paid for a health care procedure and did your healthcare insurance provider help you in settling the bill let us know in the comments section below a lot of defensive medicine the fifth reason why healthcare in america is so expensive is because of the widespread practice of defensive medicine hospitals and doctors in the us will go over backwards to do nothing that might invent the slightest whiff of a lawsuit by an aggrieved patient or is next to kid as a result doctors will order all the tests that they can even when these are clearly not necessary and yes these tests are not cheap by any measure in canada for example you can get a ct scan for around 97 while the same will set you back 500 in australia however if such a scan is ordered in the u.s the average cost will be about 896 also 450 is enough to pay for an mri in britain but the same scan in america will cost you about 1400. with physicians ordering as many of these tests to rule out as many sicknesses as they can and prevent them from being sued for something that they might have missed it's no wonder that healthcare in the us is so expensive the rad cost of technology the sixth reason why healthcare is so expensive is that part of the expense has to do with the cost of constant medical advancements this takes place daily weekly and monthly and never really stops guess who's paying for that it's certainly not lord voldemort now some healthcare economists think that from 40 to 50 percent of this increase in annual healthcare costs can be attributed to either the introduction of new medical technologies or enhanced use of the old ones america is a leading country when it comes to medical and other technology with americans generally desiring the usage of the newest technology to more quickly cure their varied ailments unfortunately developing new medical technology takes an often unimaginable amount of time money and resources and the cost of this will be ultimately borne by the consumer again americans love hospitals the seventh reason why health care in the u.s is so expensive is that americans go to the hospital more than people in most other countries there are around 330 million people in the u.s which means that on any given day there will be a frightful number of folks clamoring to see their doctor for this or that in the u.s doctors are more at ease with recommending invasive surgical procedures for their patients thus while a european might go to his doctor for a heart ailment and get a cocktail of drugs to treat the condition his counterpart in the u.s will speedily pencil down for open-heart surgery and such surgeries don't come cheap fact should you book a trip from new york to abu dhabi aboard the etihad airways residence you'll need a cough of a very startling 64 grand so why is flying so expensive the crew the first reason why flying is so expensive is simple enough the crew see modern jumbo jets are incredibly sophisticated machines that can take off on their own fly from one continent to the other and land without any form of human interaction however current regulations mandate crews on all aircraft and while these crew might not get to do much in the cockpit during long-haul flights they do need to be paid every month and their salaries can be rather high the cost of these salaries makes its way to the tickets you buy and results in flying being a not so cheap endeavor and to be clear by crew we're referring to both airplane pilots and co-pilots plus flight attendants and the latter are very seldom in the mood to work for free perhaps we can look forward to a future when meals and drinks get served to airplane passengers by some great looking robot while sentient ai are given the job of flying passenger aircraft but until that happens flight attendants and pilots aren't going anywhere less competition more consolidation the next reason that explains why flying is so expensive is there really isn't much competition in the industry this is the result of massive mergers bankruptcies and acquisitions over the last few decades which have resulted in the creation of bigger but fewer airlines thus the us now only has a relatively small number of major airlines while canadians have to make do with three westjet air transat and air canada and in europe air france has long since swallowed up klm and seems fully satisfied with its meal with airlines consolidating all over the place there's less incentive for them to fight over customers by reducing fares and that's partly why it costs so much to fly these days jumbo jets cost jumbo amounts the third reason why flying is so expensive has to do with the cost of the planes as you might know these planes are usually huge affairs that seem bigger than a city block and taller than over ambitious redwood depending on how big they are and the features that they're loaded with commercial passenger aircraft can cost from 100 million dollars to nearly 500 million dollars not too many people have 500 million dollars lying around in their closet and that means buying these planes can be a very expensive proposition once airlines have shelled out big money on an airliner they need to make it back and one way to do that is through your ticket airports don't come cheap the fourth reason why flying is so expensive is that airlines have a lot of expenses that they need to pay at the airport itself take landing fees for example these fees are paid when an aircraft touches down at any airport the money paid via the landing fee essentially compensates airports for the use of their gates maintenance personnel and services porters and the like some airports also use what's paid via this fee to expand their operations and services think landing fees is all that aircrafts in the sky have to pay well no apart from forking over a pretty penny via the landing fee that jumbo jet carrying you to your dream vacation in cancun will also have to pay for the privilege of parking at the airport that's right they have to pay for parking too and even more money changes hands if they need to refuel worth knowing is that landing fees vary greatly from airport to airport the most popular airports and the most popular destinations usually charge more in landing fees than airports and out of the way places essentially the more busy and airport is the greater the chances that it is charging higher landing fees and we don't need to tell you that part of what you've been forking over for your flight ticket when to pay that fee or dewey what's the most expensive plane ticket you ever bought let us know about the comment section below the tax man is not smiling the fifth reason that helps explain why flying costs so much can be summed up in one word taxes very taxes are charged on each ticket and each have a bearing on the overall cost obviously the taxes charged will however vary from country to country and destination to destination with less tax being charged for domestic flights while the government and its agencies don't charge taxes on flight tickets because they get off on it instead the money collected from such taxes is used to make flying and transportation safer in varied ways high maintenance costs the sixth reason why flying is so expensive is that airliners regularly need a lot of maintenance and by highly qualified experienced and professional personnel known us so that's not cheap an airline is not like a car whose warning lights you can blightly ignore and occasionally skip maintenance because you get a court date and the like maintenance scheduled for aircraft are specified by the manufacturer and must be followed to the letter to drive fines down and save lives the cost of aircraft maintenance as to be expected can make itself known in the form of higher prices for tickets fact caviar can cost up to a rather outrageous 35 thousand dollars for a single kilogram so why is caviar so expensive the fish determines the price the first reason why caviar so expensive has to do with the fish it comes from caviar is of course unfertilized fish eggs and the only true caviar is that which is scooped up from fishes of the sturgeon family the problem is that these types of fish have been hunted nearly to extinction this wasn't always the case though see back in the day and we're talking the 19th century here not many placed much stock in caviar it was so cheap and commonplace that you'd get offered free plates of it in american saloons and in europe of the same period some farmers were feeding caviar to the pigs george simply letting it go to waste since it was seen as nothing much to get excited about russian fishermen on the other hand were adding it to their boiled potatoes and wolfing down this combo like nobody's business drastic change happened during the latter part of the 19th century when the elites of the world discovered caviar found it to be perfectly in keeping with their tastes and status in life and started paying big money for it caviar rapidly went from a no account item to something of great value with wild sturgeons paying in great numbers with their lives for the newfound popularity of the eggs the vast new profits to be made from caviar so motivated fishermen that they harvested as much of the wild sturgeon population as they could this has to be expected led to fewer sturgeons in the wild triggering increases in caviar prices and more determined sturgeon harvesting currently of the 27 known varieties of sturgeon 18 are on the critically endangered list making sturgeons the most endangered species on the planet apart from being overly fished and critically endangered wild sturgeon population also have to contend with pollution and the damming of their spawning grounds whether wild sturgeon populations will recover remains to be seen but these days almost no caviar is made from wild sturgeon these fish are instead farmed for their eggs and fish farms and these farms tend to be colossal operations with colossal overhead costs so no wonder it costs so much caviar harvesting is pretty expensive the second reason why caviar is so expensive is that harvesting the eggs of these fish is a rather costly and time-consuming process do remember that these big fishes once sexually mature need to be killed the eggs harvested washed cured inspected and aged all of which cost money and takes time but rogue cotton from such modern processes is invariably inferior quality to that harvested using traditional methods that involve killing the sturgeon for their eggs perhaps the lifeblood of the fish make the road taste better or something but we're not standing by that statement at all anyway regardless of if the sturgeon is killed or not during row harvesting getting a hold of the row is a complicated process almost everything is done by hand here making caviar takes time the third reason why caviar is so expensive is that it takes time to develop inside the fish see real caviar can only be gotten from sturgeon fishes and these take time to mature and start producing the eggs depending on the specific species it could be eight to twenty years before sturgeon is sexually mature enough to be able to produce the eggs thus if you're a sturgeon farmer you have to wait up to two decades before you can harvest caviar and get a return on your investment as if that's not enough the caviar from your sturgeon must be harvested at the right time otherwise it'll be of lower quality and then sell for less demand is insane the fourth reason why caviar is so expensive is due to its insane demand the rich and those richer than them have also grown to see caviar devouring as something of a fundamental human right they've made it a status symbol and they're willing to pay any price to eat the best these well-heeled fellas drive prices up and up and love to boast about how much they paid for a tin or two of the best caviar unfortunately for caviar lovers all over the world supply does not appear to be in a hurry to catch up with the demand even with intense caviar farming at locations all over the globe what's produced is simply not enough and possibly may never be the result is incredibly high prices for caviar grades at work the fifth reason why caviar is so expensive is that it depends on the grade of the caviar row quality can vary widely even if it was gotten from a specific species of sturgeon caught or harvested on the same day within a specific area that's why grades are used to assign quality to row and the higher the quality the more the consumer can fork over things graders look for include the size of the eggs their color fragrance maturity separation firmness flavor uniformity and lucidity the best caviar has low salt content big firm grains of fine taste color and smell plus a delicate texture fact in the year 2012 someone forked over a gob smacking 93 000 for a pair of nightgear yeezy2 on ebay so why are yeezys so expensive comes in limited quantities the first reason why yeezys are so expensive is that they're made in limited quantities although the demand for these sneakers is sky high on the regular only a limited quantity is released and this leads to a struggle to obtain what's on offer should you struggle and fail to get these shoes from official retail outlets you can either sit down and cry a river or dig deep into your savings and buy it from resellers at you know several times the original price apart from yeezys having a limited production run their distribution is often limited as well in that they're not available in as many shops as most other shoes this makes it hard for regular folk to get their hands on these sneakers and the harder they are to get the more resellers can charge when they expertly snap them up to put what we're saying into perspective there are reports that limited edition which is among the few official yeezy retailers in the city state of singapore it's only allowed 30 pairs of sneakers during each yeezy's launch event just how far do you think those 30 pairs will reach with low production numbers yeezys cannot help be anything other than expensive and hard to get awesome branding the next reason why yeezys are so expensive is because of the brand name they carry branded sneakers are about as cheap as water in the desert and yeezys are no exception to spread the word about his creation well it's an adidas and stir up publicity kanye turned into a veritable father christmas only instead of giving away silver dollars and homemade gobble pie footage of him giving his shoes to some of the world's most famous and celebrated individuals on the planet kept showing up and going viral he gave them shoes to folks like dj khaled with obama even receiving a pair kanye even sometimes took shoes right off his feet and gave them out to the people he considered deserving of his generosity and his foot fungus of course kanye did not suddenly get a divine call to give shoes to the rich and famous what he was doing was creating visibility for his brand fostering demand and associating his creations with the super rich and successful you could say it works because yeezys are currently very much in demand everywhere flashy status symbol the third reason why yeezys are so expensive is that for most youths they present a flashy status symbol that they can use to impress other people with back in the day you needed a rolex and a handmade italian leather shoes to look hip now you can do that in ripped jeans plus a rather expensive pair of yeezys for gen z branded sneakers are the ultimate fashion accessory and because of that they're willing to pay thousands or tens of thousands for the most exclusive and rarest yeezy sneakers and will wear this with all possible pride demand for yeezys due to their perception as a status symbol coupled with limited availability and a set of fellas who will pay almost any price for them means there's a very brisk trade in reselling yeezys for as many times as the msrp as you can so if you like the yeezy boost 350 v2 and you want these caressing your feet the next time you're out with your homies at the swanky joint down south you could cough up like 2 grand to make them yours never mind that their msrp was set at 349 bucks got it easy well how much did you shell out for them beauties let us know in the comments section below retail versus resale the fourth reason why yeezys are so expensive has to do with the fact that they're actually only expensive on resale retail yeezy prices are standard for what passes in the industry and range from 200 to 600 sure that's a lot of money but not a lot the very expensive prices you see for yeezys happen when they're resold often by professional resellers there's a serious demand for these sneakers to the point where thousands all over the world are more than happy to queue up for hours just to buy a pair or two and then resell them off minutes later at a higher price limited production numbers mean that there will never be enough of these sneakers to reach all who queue for them and online stocks are usually sold out within seconds of their being put on sale what this means is if you really want yeezys your best bet would be to just buy them from someone who bought them at the msrp and wants to resell them for a tiny profit unfortunately that tidy profit can be from two to ten times or even more collectible and of excellent resale value the fifth reason why yeezys are so expensive is that folks have long since discovered that these sneakers make incredible collectibles and work like stock only increasing in value as days pass by there's no doubt they look good that means you can buy them for display or to give to your future grandkids or something like that yes they are collectible and if you do build up a nice collection you could be certain of getting an eye-watering sum for them in the future get this a single academic year at columbia university for the 2019-2020 session costs a very shocking 61 thousand dollars at the very least so why is going to college in america so incredibly expensive expansive marketing the first reason why college is so expensive is that university spent a lot of money marketing themselves to potential students just like your favorite soda company hiring the most popular celebrities in the world to advertise their goods with consumers like you eventually paying the cost for americans college is the real deal just about every american wishes to attend college what this means is that year after year a record number americans apply to colleges and by 2015 there were over 20.5 million of them enrolled in colleges and universities with increasing hunger for college education came the rise in for-profit universities and these went all out to good students reportedly spending around 20 of their revenue on ads aimed at attracting students ads are not cheap and with for-profit universities spending so much of their revenue to market themselves as the next best things in sliced bread other universities were forced to follow suit leading to escalating student fees as for now american universities collectively spend around 10 billion a year on ads aimed at recruiting new students and staff there are reports that this sooner or later could increase tenfold to 100 billion for sure american universities don't spend so much on ads because they love to they do so because if they don't they were falling behind in the race to get as many students as possible and these will of course be heavily built for the privilege of setting their feet on campus some universities also intentionally set a high college tuition fee specifically to market themselves to students from rich family the best college experiences are not cheap the second reason why college is so expensive is that colleges in america are under tremendous pressure to stand out and deliver the best possible experience this can take the form of cafeterias that look impeccable sports teams with the best coaches and equipment and dormitories that resemble high-end hotels the trouble is that while this kind of stuff does indeed persuade students to attend this or that college all in the expectation that they have a ton of fun they don't improve academic performance nor do they lead to enhanced professional opportunities and such showstoppers can get terribly expensive in 2011 for example colleges and universities in america forked over 11 billion dollars with this paying for shiny new facilities the situation is not better at universities that focus on athletics and athletic facilities in a bid to draw new students and retain existing ones unfortunately it appears that spending lots of money on spanking new sporting facilities and coaches also doesn't improve student graduation rates in fact most of the students and universities fail to graduate on time with nearly 60 percent of all students spending an extra two years just to meet the requirements for four-year degrees essentially universities in america are obliged to provide a range of spanking new facilities in tech that the students can go gaga over their failure to do this will result in falling student enrollment since they're seen as less desirable than other universities with such facilities and this stands true even though all those shiny things that universities spend money on have no actual bearing on overall student performance bloated administrative staff the third reason why college is so expensive can be attributed to the increase in administrative staff a study has it that from 93 to 2009 administrative staff positions in colleges and universities grew by 60 which happens to be 10 times the growth rate for faculty positions with tenure these administrative staff need to be paid and taken care of and that costs money obviously we're talking about 23 000 per student per year here which sure is a lot of money and double what's spent in countries like germany sweden and finland all places with a better performing educational sector than america take the california state university system for example reports have it that from 1975 to 2008 its faculty increased from 11 614 to 12 0019. well that's not too bad right well in the same time frame the number of administrative staff increased from 3 800 to 12 183 now in case you were bad at math that makes for a 221 percent boost in administrative staff the increase in staff spending does not however translate to better salaries for american university professors on the contrary their salaries haven't moved much since the 70s a report by the new york times states that around 45 years ago 78 of universities and college professors had full-time tenure these days roughly half of post-secondary faculty members consist of part-time workers who are paid a lower wage in simple english this means that the median salaries of the people who teach in american colleges and universities are less than what it was during the 1970s the big salaries of college executives the next reason why college in america can be so expensive has to do with the increase in salaries of college execs college executives are making a killing at present with most earning huge salaries in perks take american public universities from 2012 to 2013 the average salary paid to college presidents went up five percent to stand at four hundred seventy eight thousand eight hundred ninety six dollars that wasn't all because in 2013 the number of college presidents who were taking home over a million dollars monthly doubled want to take a look at what some of these guys earned well as of 2015 renew cattle or who presides over the university of houston earned the most out of any university executive making a total of 1.3 million dollars yearly then there's ronald k matchley the former president of bryant university who got paid a total of 6.2 million dollars in 2017. enhanced public demand the fifth reason why college is so expensive is that the demand for higher education continues to rise while the overall price of growth might show some decline from year to year it still maintains an upward trajectory and there's no word on when this will flatten according to the us department of education for 2017 american colleges welcomed around 20.4 million students which is around 5.1 million more than they did in the year 2000. those i know are in agreement that college degrees no longer offer most of the advantages that they used to this leads to lesser overall return on the resources invested in college and this is worsened by the fact that a disturbingly large proportion of students graduate years later rather than when they should while the overall return on investment is leaner than what it was there's still a lot of reasons for folks to sign up for college this includes studies like the one from georgetown that forecasts around 65 percent of all available jobs in the year 2020 will require a college degree at least studies like these persuade americans that college is indeed worth it cost be damned and this in turn leads to increased competition among potential undergraduates and colleges while the former striving to get into the schools of their choice and the latter doing their best to snag as many students as their facilities could support then like we said before one way that colleges try to stag students is by offering them irresistible perks and facilities with lots of folks willing to pay any price to get into college this has led to for-profit universities that operate exactly like money-making ventures these tend to offer expensive degrees of little actual worth to the bear and their existence drives up the median cost of college tuition do you have a college degree is it paid for or are you still owing money on it let us know in the comment section below less public funding the fifth and final reason why college is so expensive is due to reducing funding from state and federal governments as governments are less inclined to fund education universities have had to increase the cost of tuition to get the money that they need to run their campuses governmental reluctance to fund higher education peaked during and after the great recession of 2009. from that period states were strapped for cash and chose to spend what funds they had on health care and social security rather than funding higher education when states cut the financial aid they normally gave students universities in college chose to make up for this by hiking their tuition costs even now what states spend on their higher education is less than what they did before the great recession and in those states that are spending an increased amount universities have proven death to calls to lower their tuition fee fact in late 2017 someone shelled out 85 000 for less than two pounds of white alba truffles with four thousand dollars a pound being the usual price for high quality travels so why are truffles so expensive it's not all that black and white the first reason why truffles are so expensive is that they're not all born equal there are about 40 to 100 species of troubles in existence and the majority of these are not edible with the best edible truffles coming from europe and california now truffles usually flourish deep underground adjacent to the roots of trees like oak hazel poplar and beech and they thrive by tapping into the water and nutrients such trees are utilizing they're coveted for their earthy flavor and aroma and instead of being dunked in soup and eaten whole are usually lightly shaved over foods and soups truffles can be divided into four main types with the prices of each differing depending on how rare it is and how favorable or unfavorable the growing season was thus you could expect to pay about 250 dollars a pound for summer black truffles 350 a pound for burgundy truffles whose growing period stretches from september to february 800 a pound for winter black truffles and from 2 000 to 4 000 per pound for alba white truffles the latter can be had from october to december and cost the most and mainly because they're a lot more fragile than other types of truffles and easily affected by the less than perfect weather conditions yeah truffles can be very expensive but white truffles are the most expensive of them all cultivation is a mission impossible scenario the next reason why troubles are so expensive is that they're almost impossible to successfully cultivate if truffle cultivation was so easy farmers all over the world would have long flooded the market with them crashing prices to the point where these things can be bought for pennies a pound that hasn't happened because it costs a lot of money and it takes a lot of time before the optimum growing conditions are necessary for successful truffle cultivation to be replicated and even with optimum growth conditions harvest on truffle farms tend to be on the small side which means that it might be a very long time before any truffle farm can harvest enough and earn enough to make a profit successful truffle cultivation requires planting the right sort of trees in the right type of soil inoculating these with the right truffle spores and hoping for the best frequent irrigation is necessary and even after trees and truffle spores have been planted plus labor and money sunk into it it's not guaranteed the truffles will successfully grow on a truffle farm when they do grow it might be more than half a decade before the truffle farmer can get a bountiful harvest that he or she could be proud of these days however up to 70 of the truffles consumed worldwide are cultivated though the best truffles are normally still found in the wild truffles are sneaky the third reason why truffles cost so much is that they're sneaky it's actually rather hard to find as previously mentioned truffles tend to grow near trees like oak and beach but finding exactly which tree has truffles growing near it is a hard job back in the day pigs were used in truffle hunting by smelling out truffles for the hunter there was a problem however and that during truffle hunting pigs tended to eat any truffles they sniffed up and dug up also once pigs sniff truffles they tend to get rather excited and that excitement will damage the environment they found the truffle in making it hard for more truffles to grow there in the future that's why italy banned truffle hunting pigs during the mid 1980s the more you know eventually dogs were specially trained for the role and have turned out to be rather excellent at it training these dogs is also though a time-consuming and resource-consuming endeavor just as you would expect and despite their training there are truffle hunting dogs that end up eating the truffle they sniff out and dig out before the hunter can get there once the presence of truffles has been indicated by a trained canine it must be painstakingly dug out by hand this takes time and patience and harvest to them any other way will result in their being damaged to an unacceptable extent travel hunting isn't the easiest job in the world and despite all the sweat and labor involved the typical truffle hunter only gets his hands on a few ounces two to three actually of truffles they are seasonal and not storable the fourth reason why truffles are expensive is that they're seasonal crops that can't be stored or refrigerated once harvested they need to be processed and shipped to customers as fast as possible five percent of the weight of a truffle disappears daily which means that once it's been dug out of the bowels of the earth truffles start getting smaller and the smaller they get the less they're going to bring once they're put on sale additionally five days after being harvested the pungent smell of truffle will have and this results in a reduced value too the taste is also negatively affected truffles essentially become worthless some seven to ten days after the harvest truffles are also seasonal so getting them outside of the few seasons that they grow in is really hard now would you spend four thousand dollars and end up buying a kilo of white truffles let us know in the comment section below climate change the fifth reason why truffles are so expensive can be explained by the harmful effects of climate change due to climate change global warming and loss of woodland the harvest of wild truffles has shown an alarming decline for example during the 19th century at least a thousand tons of wild truffles were harvested annually this is however dwindled to about 30 tons at present moreover edible truffles are normally found in the wild places like italy spain and france however the trees these fungi depend on to flourish are being increasingly cut down for the expansion of cities farms and the like with summers getting drier and hotter around the globe it's increasingly difficult for truffles to thrive and absorb the moisture and nutrients needed to make them big enough to be worth harvesting as our world gets hotter and harsher to life there are fears that truffles will vanish altogether because they can no longer be grown on farms or found in the wild that would be a pity fact a new set of prescription designer glasses can often cost a shocking 800 if not more so why are glasses so expensive there's a monopoly at work the first reason why glasses are so expensive can be explained by the action of a monopoly that has been hard at work for years to keep the prices as high as possible see according to the vision council about three-fourths of all adults in the us utilize some sort of site correcting tool and two-thirds of these people wear glasses these two-thirds translate to some 126 million or so americans now the average cost all these people pay for a frame is 231 dollars add lenses to the frame and now you're talking overall 300 to 400 that's what millions of americans have yearly paid for their glasses right well it turns out they might have been fleeced see some of these glasses sold for hundreds of dollars utilized acetate frames these are built of metal and plastic and their overall cost is around 10 to 15 dollars each lenses too are not that expensive and are also made of plastic and can be mass manufactured quickly and cheaply then why are consumers in america and elsewhere paying far over what glasses are actually worth well most of the blame can be laid at the fee of a firm called luxottica luxotica has for an impressive amount of time controlled most of the market for glasses in the u.s and elsewhere in fact if you have a designer eyeglass chances are good that it came from luxotica or the frames were made by it luxxotica is huge and both own and license some very big brand names in the eyewear sector we're talking about brooks brothers chanel armani burberry michael kors dkny dolce gabbana versace ray-ban personal oakley valentino oliver peeples polo ralph lauren and tiffany luxottica's italian brands also control lens crafters imed vision care sears optical target optical sunglasses hut and pearl vision as of early 2019 luxxotica had nearly 8 000 optical stores around the globe and some serious competition was never something that i had to worry about now a few years ago luxonica went and got married sorry it merged with essilor which in case you were unaware is the biggest contact lens and prescription eyeglass maker in the world it now goes by slurl exotica the merger means that the new firm will be able to further expand its reach eliminate competition and waste as well as streamline overall operations so why is this all important simply because due to its size and influence luxxotica and now essler exotica can charge as much as they think that the market will bear and for some reason they do believe that americans and the rest of the world really should pay premium prices for lenses that cost a few bucks at the most to make while luxottica and his new iteration might cite the recouping of researcher development costs as the reason why its frames and glasses caused an airman-like it's not true with over 100 million americans wearing eyewear and regularly changing this every few years as required luxonica should long have made back several times when it's spent on any new research and development to create new frames and glasses instead it appears that the only reason why it said its price is so high is that it can plus there's little competition in the sector so there's no one to tell it no compete with it like ogley did and it might ought to stop carrying your products in its stores thereby depriving you of revenue and thereafter buying your stock at target basement prices and forcing a merger luxottica is one serious juggernaut and no one appears interested in doing battle with it branding the second reason why glasses can be so expensive has to do with branding brand name products tend to cost more than generic ones even if both are the same quality and made according to the same specifications while having a brand on your glasses can say you have taste and money to spend it it also might be foolish as you can often get a better or the same quality glasses for significantly less essentially by buying branded designer glasses you're paying a premium for the name or the logo stamped on it even though this might have absolutely no bearing on the overall quality and before we forget do remember that luxottica owns and controls the majority of brand-name glasses out there so what's the most you've ever paid for a pair of designer glasses let us know in the comments section below physical shops charge a premium the third reason why glasses are expensive is that they're often bought at brick and mortar shops this seems unremarkable till you start remembering that these shops have overheads such as salaries electricity taxes licensing fees warehousing and the like that you the consumer will pay for one way or the other while buying at physical shops can seem like an excellent idea it isn't if you're looking for cheap glasses plus frames that can stand the test of time online shops appear to be a better deal and then there's the fact that there's the intense competition in the online sphere and this leads to low prices and excellent products get this a pound of saffron will easily set you back a colossal ten thousand dollars so why saffron so expensive it's a monster to harvest the first reason why saffron is so expensive is that it's a monster to harvest the saffron flower on its own useless it's the stigmas inside of each flower that are worthy the saffron flower is one very delicate creature thus there's no way saffron can be harvested with machinery without the flower and the stigmas it bears suffering some grievous damage what this means is that the saffron flower harvesting is always done by hand and this takes a lot of time and resources in fact around 40 hours of heavy manual labor during harvesting is required to produce about a kilogram of saffron minuscule harvests are routine the next reason why saffron is so expensive is that the harvest tends to be on the very small side and this is because each saffron flower actually produces very little saffron the flowers are called crocus and each contains a trio of stigmas that provide the spice as a matter of fact around 75 000 flowers must be harvested to produce about a single pound of saffron a single flower on the other hand delivers around six thousandth of a gram of the spice shocking right as if that's not enough not all of the parts of the stigmas make it to all saffron packets sold in shops what we're saying is that the best quality saffron which is more expensive utilizes just the red tips of the stigmas compared to a saffron of lower quality that uses all or most of the stigmas in addition it bears remembering that once harvested from the crocus the stigma is dried to prevent spoilage this reduces the weight when dried up to 80 percent of the weight of the saffron can be lost and the price is increased to make up for this saffron plants are not hearty the third reason why saffron can be so expensive is that the plants are not very hardy they are instead vulnerable to weather conditions like drought flooding and frost weather conditions vary from year to year and determine how plentiful or otherwise the harvest will be a plantable harvest might result in a small fall in price with a reduced one sparking a steep price increase since what's produced will not be enough to meet the demand not suitable for global cultivation the next reason why saffron is so expensive is that it can't be grown everywhere the plant requires a specific soil type and climate and does not do well outside of those conditions usually saffron does its best in dry and warm climates with a certain mixture of temperature and rainfall though flowers do tend to be bigger when there's rainfall just before the harvest commences the required climate for saffron cultivation cannot be found everywhere on the planet and restricts just how many countries can plant the crop and how much of it can be produced have you ever bought saffron well how much did it cost you let us know in the comments section below saffron farming needs workers okay with low hay the fifth reason why saffron is so expensive is that it requires a set of workers who are willing to perform long hours of backbreaking work picking crocus in the fields and sorting it previously there were more than a few places where large numbers of workers could be found who'd then consent to be paid chicken scratch for their efforts but that's not really any longer the case iran for example grows the vast majority of the world's saffron and the people who harvest the crops are treated and paid very little with improving wages farmers can no longer profitably farm saffron and as a result they turn to other crops with this restricting the overall supply of the spice and again boosting its prices supply and demand the sixth reason why saffron is so expensive is that the demand for it keeps increasing and the supply just isn't there on average every year about 30 billion saffron flowers are used to produce more than 200 metric tons of saffron threads but that's just not enough so great is the demand for saffron that there are lots of fakes around plus lots of adulterated saffron in 2010 for example around 190 000 kilos of saffron was exported from spain normal news right well see that year the country actually produced a grand total of 1500 kilos of the spice the production of fake saffron is so lucrative that criminal gangs have long since gotten into the act of it what this means is that whatever saffron you buy these days has a good chance of being fake abundance of land required for cultivation the seventh reason why saffron farming is so expensive that requires the use of large expanses of land which doesn't come cheap now suppose you planted saffron on an acre of land what you would get in return is a pound of saffron at the most that's not enough to make a living off of especially when the cost of growing the crop are taking into account you need lots of land to grow saffron and that's not always available climate change the eighth reason why saffron is so expensive is climate change our world is just now hotter and drier than it ever has been and this affects the production of food as well as spices like saffron drought unseasonal flooding and extreme weather conditions also affect soil conditions and fertility reducing crop yields and forcing farmers to sell off their now unproductive lands such as what's happening in formerly heavy saffron growing regions like cashmere which produced about 16.5 metric tons of saffron in 2017 and a mere six and a half metric tons in 2018. as the effects of climate change worsen it's gonna become increasingly harder to grow saffron and that means the price for the spice will just continue to go on its bullish run fact a liter of oil paint can set you back an outrageous 1100 bucks so why is oil paint so expensive pigments the first reason why oil paint is so expensive is that it makes use of pigments and these can either be hard to come by or difficult to produce oil paint of the highest quality can be a maximum of 75 pigment and the most popular pigments can be worth much more than gold of similar weight see pigments don't just fall from the sky they take lots of time to discover and perfect and that makes them very expensive during roman times tyrion purple was a popular pigment used by the nobility it was obtained from sea snails around 20 000 sea snails were needed to produce a couple of grams of the purple color they were known for and none survived the pigment extraction attack with that being the case just how the sea snail population was not wiped out to make purple clothing still puzzles us a little decades ago there was a pigment known as indian yellow this was obtained by letting cows gorge themselves on mango leaves with their pee being collected afterwards to make the pigment matter red on the other hand was created by mixing cow manure and oxblood think that's gross well check this out during the 16th and 19th centuries there was what was known as mummy brown pigment as the name implies this pigment was collected by the simple expedient of grinding up the mummified remains well the pigment obtained from all this mummy grinding saw use in painting the most realistic skin tones but there was a problem in that demand for egyptian mummies came to be so great that nearly every available mummy was used up and no new ones can be found thankfully there's no need these days to grind up a mummy in the name of making oil paint paper there are now multiple synthetic pigments in existence that do the job of the older more objectionable ones an issue though is that some of these new pigments are still hard to produce and costly as a result for example to get a cobalt blue heating a range of components till they reach a steering temperature of around 1200 degrees celsius is necessary given the cost of making it the fact that cobalt blues and expensive pigment oil paints having this specific pigment cost a lot of money now perhaps the most costly pigment of all was ultramarine this was dug out of the ground in afghanistan and is derived from lapis lazuli should you want to get your hands on a kilo of lava's lazuli these days you can expect to be asked to cough up a maximum of thirty thousand dollars lapa's lazuli ceased being used as a pigment when an artificial form of it was invented in the second decade of the 19th century lapis lazuli is a blue precious stone that lets artists add vibrant blue colors to their paintings and creations so blue was this pigment that it came to be reserved only for use on the dress of the holy virgin as we've been saying so far pigments are usually the biggest driver of the oil paint cost professional oil paint comes into series with series 1 to 7 being the usual setup series 1 oil paint is the cheapest with series 7 being the most expensive and this expense of course is due to the pigments used which might be rare hard to get or so much in demand that what's produced cannot meet the needs of the users special manufacturing processes the second reason why oil paint is so expensive is the pigments currently in use require special and select manufacturing processes they need special equipment must be handled with strict parameters and must be ground to a fine or coarse texture with this varying from one pigment to the other and care must be taken not to over or under grind the pigment or it'll fail to meet the expected performance requirements while changing color too each pigment is essentially different in the process of making it will differ from the rest the number of components like oil they need during the production process varies too and this all makes pigments hard to work have you ever worked with oil paints how much did a bucket or a package set you back let us know in the comment section below pigment research takes time the third reason why oil paint is so expensive is that a lot of the time effort and resources are needed to perfect the appearance color and details of the pigment research on each new pigment can take months if not years and the components that will be used in conjunction with need to be investigated and their most fitting ratio established since pigment research can take a lot of time and plus not insignificant resources it makes sense for oil plant manufacturers to recoup what they sunk into developing new pigments by setting high oil paint prices click on the playlist to the right to binge watch more so expensive seasons see you there

Channel: So Expensive.

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Keywords: so expensive season 2, so expensive series 2, so expensive, compilation, so expensive marathon, marathon, supreme, apple, Parmesan Cheese, Rolex Watches, Healthcare, Caviar, Yeezys, College, Truffles, Glasses, Saffron, Oil Paint, So Expensive.

Id: THHtBjbjzzc

Length: 71min 37sec (4297 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 23 2021