The start of Proverb 11 in the King James Bible states "A false balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is his delight." I happened to read this Proverb just before changing the toilet paper roll in the bathroom. I noticed that the roll holder was one and a half inches wider than the roll. My new roll had been made smaller and that probably happened a long time ago. We do not notice many of the slight changes that manufacturers and marketers do to their products and we still pay the same price. Their profits increase at our expense and it is legal because they reflect the change on their labels which many of us do not read. Beer drinkers might notice that some of their twelve ounce bottles have become ten and a half ounce but look the same. Saving that one an a half ounces allows the bottlers to sell more bottles from the same size vat as before the change. Putting your finger on the scale as they used to say was one way of cheating customers but was illegal so just change the quantity a little and reflect it in the fine print on the label and you have achieved the same thing but you are legal. It has been happening for years and maybe hundreds of years but the first time I noticed was years ago as a kid buying candy bars. They were five cents but started to get smaller. It was only a few years that many candy bars had shrunk buy a third but by then the price had risen to twenty five cents.
I got a job selling cars in 1978, and there were many new features that were available for the new cars. Power steering, power brakes, air conditioning and electric windows. All of these features were not part of the car price and if you wanted them you had to pay extra for each one. We found cars still charging extra for a heater and radios but all cars came with them installed. It was a way to increase the price. The 1965 Ford Mustang was one of the first cars that came equipped with fewer add ons to pay for but still many simple devices were sold as extras which inflated the car price to as much as 30% more that original. We still see it at the dealers today and when a friend of mine wanted to but a new pickup truck for his construction company he gave up after being told by many dealers that he could not order or get a plain truck without leather seating, air conditioning and hifi radio. He decided to buy used trucks rather than buy one all decked out for luxury to drive on construction sites.
The five pound bag of sugar is now four pounds and many markets have stoopped trimming the fat off of their prime cuts of meat to increase the weight for sale. Ice cream use to be sold in pints, quarts and half gallons but now the quarts are a pint and a half and the half gallons are now a quart and a half. The price is the same but the quantity has been reduced. The packaging looks the same but it is smaller and many don't realize that they have been taken for another ride. It is legal because the labeling states the correct amount in the package. I've noticed that one of the donut shops sell donuts that are smaller and contain less flour. They look the same but if you are a donut lover you can notice the difference. The seats on airplanes are narrower and with less leg room then twenty years ago even as we are growing bigger in every generation. It is easier to sell tickets when you don't have to raise prices. You just do not have any elbow or leg room to sit comfortably.
One of the most insidious changes that many have not noticed is in clothing sizes. Years ago at thirty pounds heavier I wore large shirts and coats. My tees were large and loose but now at thirty pounds lighter I wear extra large which is about two sizes bigger but really the same size. The new suit I just bought has pants legs that are about half the size of my older suits and feel more like leggins than suit pants. My wife says it is the style but I believe that the style makers are also increasing profits by using less material to make the clothes. Look around and think about all of the denim and acrillics that were saved when they made the clothes you see others wearing. Shoe sizes have stayed the same but many womens' shoes are missing tops and have only a strap but maybe that is just style. It would be hard to use less leather to make a shoe that still fits.
My house in New York was about eighty years old when I bought it and it had full 2x4 inch studs. In fact I I had to order custom windows to replace old ones becaus the walls were too thick. At the time wood studs had shrunk to 1 & 7/8 x 3& 7/8 inches and later they shrunk more to 1&3/4 x 3&3/4 inches. Today wood studs are 1 &1/2 x 3&1/2 inches and cost eight times as much as they did when I was remodeling my house in NY.
I could keep going with many other products ans services that we buy and use every day but I think by now that you get the picture. The weights and measures are legal but they are deceptive and misleading in many cases. The lumber size reduction initially was caused by planning rough lumber which caused the lumber to be reduced a small amount but later it just became a way to get more saleable boards out of a log and increase profits. Many builders have had to use larger dimension lumber to maintain building integrity which has given more profit to the lumber merchants. It is never ending and soon we will be buying dixie cups for bulk ice cream. With toilet paper getting narrower as our butts get bigger we may have to revert to the Sears catalogue again: oops there isn't any catalogues now and we are in big ttrouble.
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