Its not just construction. Pretty much any part of economy where human labour (hard work, or fine work) is very important, is becoming impossible to afford and sustain. The real reason for this is the Fed based beast slavery financial system we are in, where as more money is printed, it dilutes the real value of everything, including human labour, and replaces it with fake valueless commodities.

In this system, its much more safer to be earning lots more money in a cushy job than doing hard work, and its by design. They are literally stealing from our labour by devaluing it.

The only catch is that, all the cushy jobs, the more money they earn the less real value they create, and more deeply embedded into the beast illusion. When the crash comes, these are the ones who will be hit hard.

Those who have physical labour skills are the ones who can continue to feed themselves whereas the ones in the corporate job will be in the street on their backs with no way of earning a living.

You will see the truth in this not too far away from now. I myself am dreading the coming changes (in a good way though) because I am not a builder or tradie and i know I will be hit harder. But its the mindset that matters. Once we are willing to switch back into "real economy" with real work and creating real products, and willing to do what it takes to learn new skills and work hard, we will be fine.

People like you, however, will have a great advantage. You should definitely make sure your kids learn some skills from you even if they dont go into your line of work.

So what’s gonna stop this insane price gouging? Competition?

Again, by design. Its impossible to fix the prices with good competition because we are not in a free market. Workers are a problem, by design. Good equipment is expensive, by design. You have to outsource everything, buy cheap chinese crap and hire illegal immigrants paying them slavery wages. By design.

Its all going to implode and its going to be so spectacular, and its going to make a lot of heads explode.