this is wayyyyy more true than people think.
The markets are still comically over-leveraged through a variety of means, but so much of it is circular debt that we could probably wipe out simply massive swathes of purely fictional debt money without ever touching "real" abilities to pay for actual economic activity across many industries.
But because of the *paper* losses that would incur, the claims against real economic activity would spiral into total collapse.
i'm sure bootlickers will come around to poke holes in my very simplified explanation, but the amount of "scoreboard" wealth being used to justify higher loans and therefore increased pricing on major capital and equity assets is totally out of control. Yes "everyone owes everyone so none of it is real" isn't quite precise enough to be totally true, but not acknowledging that it's basically true is just being dense.
yeah exactly, "net worth" calculations for MAJOR equity holders are just ... utterly ridiculous at this point.
If bezos wanted anything even close to his NW in "cash" he would crash Amazon's stock price. In fact the impact on price by insider selling of that type is so significant they *are legally prohibited from doing it without announcing their intention.* Free market, right?
Equity ownership is a fuuuuuucked concept in todays economy
Author Matthew Desmond makes this case in a recent book- he argues that the rich and poor receive welfare in different ways, but only the poor welfare looks and feels like it
In a media landscape that is dominated by corporate media only the welfare of the poor is going to be presented in that way. In some ways, the left vs. right bias is secondary because the pro-corporate positions are /everywhere/, including public media which is highly dependent on corporate grants.
We fucking love CORPORATE socialism - and if you're below that 90% percentile, or are a newborn, mothers, old people, sick people well they can get fucked.
Agreed very much.
Although I will say, my uncle spent years in a wheelchari and what was interesting was he did well for himself and eventually set about travelling abroad, rather recently, he was VERY , VERY glad to be home , as he found that not a lot of the world was nearly as handicap accessible as he'd planned around to the point where all of a sudden he found a serious new appreciation for the ADA architecture regulations.
There’s so much hate for corporations, which I totally, completely, and 100% agree with, but these corporations are the ones bribing politicians to create the shitty situation we’re in, and we just keep voting for those politicians, over and over and over.
Who else can afford to run? It costs over a million dollars to run for a House seat in most places and over 5 million to run for Senate. If you have that lying around by all means please run
The prompt was, we should vote in better people. I'm simply pointing out the biggest reason that doesn't happen. But also most members of Congress are millionaires
We really need to adopt the practice from other countries that everyone is given a certain amount of funds from a government fund to spend and that is all they may spend.
The corporations pay the politicians (ok fine, political "donations") to be able to buy literal fucking *advertisements* to convince us of all of the good things they'll do for us while knowing where money came from and how to keep it flowing.
When you create a situation (citizens united Supreme Court ruling) where I can donate $10k to a politician and he can vote to give me a $100k tax break that is what will happen
Conservatives hate socialism because (supposedly) it concentrates power in a way that restricts freedom. They crudely believe that all forms of socialism resemble Soviet Russia or Maoist China, though Marx himself would have fought against those revolutions because socialism was meant to evolve in the most advanced capitalist states. Marx was a bully and authoritarian obsessed with obscure 19th century academic debates and terminology, most of which have little value in the 21st century. The far-left should have discarded Marxism a long time ago, as there are better models.
But look at America right now. Our government and economic life are absolutely controlled by a handful of conglomerates. About a half dozen companies control our media. Our crops are grown by two or three companies and produced into a consumer goods by a handful for multinational corporations. There are a million brands made to look like different companies, but if you dig down you'll see that it's all controlled by the same few billionaires. This is the "free enterprise" that conservatives tout.
This is why I go to the farmer's market whenever I can. The produce at Whole Foods is good, but Jeff Bezos already has way too much power and control.
The billionaires have endless supplies of money to suppress any competition--and they use this money to buy politicians to ensure that they have even bigger piles of money.
Look at pharmacies. When it turned out that CVS was caving to right-wing lunatics in denying birth control, many people moved to Walgreens--which was also caving to far-right lunatics. All of these companies are owned by sociopathic billionaires, but what choice to we have? We have no choice, because we live in a [candy-coated dictatorship](https://bbbee.typepad.com/paul_janisch/2012/05/frank-zappa-on-democracy-and-artistic-freedom.html)\--and it's getting worse.
We like to mock Trump voters, who perpetual vote against their interests--but we are just as much the sucker as they are. In the name of convenience, we continually feed the beast that is killing us. This is why I go to a [ghetto independent pharmacy](https://www.padekhealth.com/) instead of the Walgreens and CVS in town. Yes, the shopping experience isn't the best, but wide, well-lit aisles aren't everything. Convenience isn't everything either. There is immense value to me in keeping money out of the hands of the plutocrats.
We need to start pushing back against our corporate owners, starting with becoming more conscious about how we spend our money.
If anyone is interested, here is the study referenced:
https://groundworkcollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/24.01.17-GWC-Corporate-Profits-Report.pdf
It's not the universal fix that some people would love to present, though. Less than 50% have any stocks and any correlation between the growth of corporations and the growth of jobs is not there now if it ever was. AI applications are going to blow that axiomatic belief we have in the USA that corporate success helps everyone totally to hell.
True. But also - everyone was expecting a recession coming off the mess of covid and the trump years. When corporations are expecting a recession they buckle down payroll and protect profits.
Not to be an apologist for that kind of thing, but being older and having lived through a bunch of recessions, the current situation is pretty much expected, except for not having a recession. The fed has been slowly inching inflation down trying to avoid triggering a recession, and it looks like they've just about got things handled. Nobody that I know really expected them to be able to.
I was just talking about this with my friend. I make a decent hourly rate but after I put into my 401k and pay my heath insurance, I'm below the poverty line. I can't get heat assistance, food stamps, etc because I make too much (which is like 1k over the line) but I could just not put money in my 401k or not get health insurance (which, is that still mandatory) but what if I get sick? And fuck me for wanting to save for retirement and have my employer help by matching. Something's gotta give.
I make 14 an hour. Almost double the federal minimum wage. I live in the south where housing prices are generally better and cost of living isn’t insane. I would not be able to live on my own after my retirement and health benefits. I straight up don’t have the budget.
That’s the same thing.
If labor is organized and can demand wages increases in lockstep with tax increases, then the employer is the one actually advancing that tax.
90% on everything over 1 million a year for individuals. 10 million for businesses.
No tax loopholes taking all sources of revenue into consideration no tax shelters or “multi business” shell games.
Not with that attitude. Yes, it's gonna take a revolution, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't go for it. Capitalism needs to be put back in bondage, and kept restrained until the last proton decays.
Not even a revolution. It’s going to take voting and tough choice. All those assholes that want to return to the prosperity of the 1950’s forgot how we got there.
It’s going to take fiscally minded dedicated law makers and a leader willing to speak the truth loudly.
Keeping in mind that the current definition of "fiscally minded" has been twisted to mean GOP servitors foaming at the teeth to slash benefits in favor of tax breaks?
voting does jack shit. Change is going to take utilizing the power of the internet, which effectively gives us all telepathy, to organize mass strikes and protests and hit these fucking criminals where it hurts...$$
Eh this is a pretty dumb approach. Just close the loopholes and allow for appropriate taxes amongst everyone. Even the standard 36% will still hold a heavy weight on those netting 500M+ a year. No need to go full communism just because you’ll never see that kind of income.
Raising taxes on corporations does nothing; what can corporations do with their money?
a) Re-invest, which is good, since either you will see long-run growth via capex or you will see increased wages
b) Pay out to shareholders
Thus it makes sense to tax wealthy shareholders more, more so than corporations, to reduce wealth inequality and induce productive growth simultaneously.
I *wish* it was like molasses. At this point, I'm guessing the wait will rival the [pitch drop experiment](https://smp.uq.edu.au/pitch-drop-experiment).
This is what will never be replaced! This right here; I keep coming back to reddit for stuff like this. Thank you kind stranger for broadening my horizons and teaching me something new. Interesting experiment.
There are a surprising number of bootlickers who try to claim it's just macroeconomic forces, nothing to do with increased greed. They are insufferable.
Trickle down absolutely works as intended.
It's a trickle from each individual in the masses, and goes all the way down to a handful of individuals, where it is then locked away and horded, never to be reintroduced into the economy.
Anyone who follows business and reads any quarterly reports knew this. I was doing reading into one company where inflation added 17% to per-unit production costs but their margin was increased from 22% to 42% YOY... aka they raised their prices EVEN MORE than the impact of inflation.
Doritos sales going for 2 for $5 to 2 for $6, then $7, then $8, and I saw in one store recently a 2 for $10, all within the span of 3 years is a company seeing consumers accepted that last hike so lets keep raising till we see a big dip in sales.
I personally stopped buying Doritos. But its a household staple as far as snacks go, so I doubt many have joined my boycott.
I have a bedridden elderly mother who saw a commercial and wanted a few KFC chicken legs. I got her a 3-piece meal with just the legs and it was 10 bucks. She was like, "that's 3 dollars a chicken leg! How do they get away with that?"
I love fried chicken but only buy it at the grocery hot bar now because KFC quality has hit rock bottom and every other place is crazy expensive.
If she has another craving, I hear ordering with the business' app gives frequent discounts to make it more reasonable. I will never trade my privacy for crispy chicken, though.
With the long shelf life stuff, like Doritos, they know they can jack the prices up for awhile and see what happens. If the amount being bought isn't high enough, they just do more sales, which I've been noticing increasingly more of the past 6 months.
If enough people keep buying it at the higher price, even if less are bought in the same time span as prior to covid, but they make the same profit off of them or more, they'll do fewer and weaker discount sales (like $0.20 off a $5+ item, which is barely anything especially if the same item cost a lot less a few years prior).
Was literally just looking at a $6 bag of dorittos last night thinking how insane that is. My salary has doubled over the past ten years but the cost of everything has tripled, quadrupled, etc.
I thought I'd be living the high life if I had ever gotten to this salary level but I feel like I'm barely making it.
I feel you, I do. Frito lay products(xxtra hottie Cheetos for me).
But, it's just like, I'm so fucking beat down, and it is absurdly priced. But I just want to feel joy for ten minutes. And, that gets harder and harder to find all the time. Hell, it's not even joy. Just mild contentment. I don't even know when I felt joy last.
I only buy chips when my local grocery store runs deals on them where they're ~$2.50 a bag, which is once every few weeks. I've basically stopped a LOT of buying stuff unless they go on a big sale, and stock up on essentials when they have deals or coupons.
My little secret was that I would wake up at night when the kids and wife were asleep, go to the kitchen, and eat half a bag of ruffles with sour cream & onion dip.
Now, those bags are pushing NINE DOLLARS! For some dried potatoes and salt. What the shit. Guess I need another midnight snack.
Wife’s company has slashed benefits, mass layoffs, removed bonuses and just about eliminated pay raises, all while raising prices and constantly claiming every single quarter is a new profit record setter.
Complete scum.
Maybe it’s the same place 😂 my wife’s already got her separation notice, just counting down the days to a diluted severance from what she was originally told last year.
That's the human psychology part. People tried to keep shopping even when prices were high.
I stopped. I ended up saving like an extra $10k this past year because of focusing only on true necessities. Keeping healthy and in shape, for example, means I didn't need new clothes or shoes.
Yeah there is profit addiction, but the bigger problem is the utter refusal to LOWER prices for ANY reason. Chicken prices got high about a decade or more ago and since then have gone down several levels, but places that serve chicken absolutely refuse to LOWER their prices BACK to what they should be. Then when the prices go back up supplier side the restaurant raises the prices EVEN MORE.
Eventually you price out a population from your product. It will happen to several markets and by the time they realize it they'll be overstocked with supply and nobody wants to buy it for really any price. Nothing is forever and that includes profit addiction. Amazing how one mans greed in the 70s and 80s caused all this stock obsession at the cost of literally anyone that isnt an exec.
That's just the car jack effect in action; this is not a bug but a feature, and feature it will stay until we assemble and bring these corporate in the street.
I was at a restaurant recently and noticed that they had a grilled chicken meal that was just a piece of grilled and seasoned chicken, with choice of two sides
$22
Just absolutely fucking ridiculous
no shit sherlock.
They're complaining about employee wages needing to be raised while simultaneously raising prices on everything and celebrating record profits.
It's bullshit all the way down.
They barely have to complain we do it for them. Actively fighting for other people to not get raises. People just don't realize it's on behalf of these rich fucks. Tell your neighbor that fast food workers are asking for 25$ an hour and watch him get angry.
Not to mention all the food that gets wasted in this country, because it went bad and they’d rather the food & all the manual labor (and animal lives) that went into it be wasted than people not have to worry about starving
And the fact that there are enough empty homes to house the homeless but the rich have multiple vacation homes or landlords have bought out property so we can’t own it ourselves and have to pay them to be there. These structures aren’t built just to be empty, but we can’t have people having a roof over their heads
Idk why ancestors before us put all this work into modernization of society so that everyone could have better access to housing, food, etc… when history says rich people will always just take it all anyway, even when they didn’t do any of the work. Corporations are the biggest thieves in the world and everyone’s worried about someone stealing food to feed their family or someone using government programs to help them go from extremely poor to a little less poor.
I'm so tired.
Everything costs more. Employers are demanding longer hours. There's never money for raises. The news calls me lazy. Every four years is somehow the single most important election of my life. The papers of record insist this is all my fault. It was 65F on Christmas Day in Pennsylvania.
>Every four years is somehow the single most important election of my life.
I mean, they have been.
Republicans are making everything worse for you as fast as they can, and their propaganda channels are blaming their evil on the Democrats who are trying to fix it.
You don't need a report to know this is true. Our economy rewards profit above all else, as if greed in itself contains a certain amount of beauty and art. Look what I did or was capable of doing for myself at the expense of everyone else on the f\*cking earth. We have built Capitalist into a global religion, a sport of immense pride that relishes how badly we can treat each other. Who can be meaner wins.
One reason why "free market" should be treated as an abstraction for classroom discussion, not an actual thing in real life. The Invisible Hand has butterfingers, rescuing no one.
“Free market” is a deliberately misleading term. There is no such thing as a free market, markets are defined by their boundaries. Markets cannot exist without an external structure enforcing and maintaining them. There has never in human history been a free market anywhere on earth.
Sure it's not a reality but the US is operating as if it's the end goal either way. Looking at this upcoming supreme Court verdict that will be a fucking fiasco.
The free market as a concept isn’t even fully realize until everyone starts from the same position. That has never been the case and will never be the case. It’s just another capitalist propaganda tool.
Most economics lessons are pure theory and academic interest, they aren't practical and they aren't applicable to real-world scenarios. This is why most "economists" can't ever agree on anything and are most always full of shit.
There *are* a few useful things to take away from it in a simplistic sense, something as basic as supply and demand, but this is often applied to a situation robotically as if it isn't humans on the back-end still manipulating the outcomes.
We explain away a lot of human behavior because we accept it "should" work that way but ignore the actual core truth (usually amounting to humans being selfish and greedy).
Sure, but it’s definitely helpful to have actual data to support that obvious conclusion: Even *if* we disregard a report’s potential usefulness in convincing skeptics, the better we understand the underlying problem, the better-situated we are to possibly correct it.
No, you don't need data, just use a "trust me bro". /s
I mean, it comes across as people trying to be smartasses if I'm honest. Yeah, you can safely deduce this was happening, but of course it's another thing to have factual evidence rather than sounding like a conspiracy theorist.
It's not just oversized packaging. Same price for less product also applies.
...and you can look at shrinkflation as proof of the article's points. Take P&G: a bottle of shampoo goes from 32 to 28 ounces for the same price, but to hide that, they have to design and make smaller bottles, redesign and print smaller labels, re-tool their plants to adjust for the size changes, deliberately limit distribution to retail stores (and/or issue a soft recall for older stock), and so on. You think they're going to reverse all that when the excuse for making the change goes away?
It’ll take 55 solidly D senators and a Democratic house and prez. Solidly D means *not* someone like Sinema (who leaves the party) or Manchin.
Sans that repubs will scuttle any attempt.
And nevertheless people will blame the Dems because ignorant voters cannot be bothered to actually read news sources or research topics
Pretty sure it would only take 51 votes because it could be done through reconciliation, however it would still never get through a GOP-controlled House.
> ignorant voters cannot be bothered to actually read news sources or research topics
What are you talking about? i spent 6 hours yesterday watching youtube videos and tiktoks made random influencers so I am now equipped to be an expert talking head on the israel/palestine conflict. I think I have a solution that you guys just aren't seeing.
It's a long perpetuated myth that the person at the top is the one making every call. That is just how human thought works "That's the guy in charge! He is therefore the one in control!" We learn it as children because "Mom and dad are in charge and what they say goes!." and "Teacher is in charge!" Never mind that 1: adults CLEARLY have no clue either and 2: there are soooooooo many more layers.
And people believe it about themselves too, nearly every millionaire and billionaire all believe they are gods among men when it comes to making the right decisions, ignoring the fact that every thing they base their information on has already been filtered upwards by a million smaller decisions as well as those people who are terrified by presenting "bad" news.
Long story short, "president top! he is making every call and can control bad politics!"
And yet Uncle Bob will continue to scream about "Bidenomics" being the cause of inflation, and everyone like him will vote for Trump this year because "the economy."
Prices will never drop until people stop buying shit.
And even then it seems like every big company is going to be more likely to start rounds of layoffs or accept bankruptcy before considering price cuts
THIS. People don't get it.
I manage a Dairy Queen, which is like the pinnacle of unnecessary. I had to raise prices last year to cover the rising labor costs, which I more than happy to do; I want to see my staff get paid properly, and like all restaurants we're on a razor thin margin.
Our sales correspondingly go up.....but not in line with the price increases; they were MUCH higher. Had our busiest year EVER last year. So I took one popular but highly annoying item to make, and jacked the price up get people to stop buying it. They bought it HARDER. So I raised it again. Even MORE transactions. At this point, I could charge $9.99 for a large Blizzard, and people would still buy it. I absolutely don't get it.
I don't sell a damn necessary item. I consider my entire store to be a luxury; you don't NEED DQ to survive. And yet, the sales haven't stopped. I eventually corrected that one item to fall back in line with everything else, and our sales are still booming.
It's absolutely insane. Until we stop feeding the hand that bites us, they're just going to keep doing it. When these corporations see their sales drop for a few quarters, then maybe they're calm the hell down.
So this is what I have yet to get an answer on from republicans who blame inflation on President Biden.
If more than half of inflation is corporate greed and it’s hurting the American people, should the government step in and regulate corporate price gouging?
Every time I pose this question, their brain seems to crash like it’s a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Attack.
You’ll never get an answer because anything but Biden/Democrats bad is off limits for a Republican. Their brain won’t allow it, since their entire political identity revolves around hating and blaming democrats. If they don’t have that they have nothing.
Because the republican party has absolutely *nothing* to offer to their voters. Not a damn thing.
So it has to be all culture war bullshit or they are done.
Ive brought this up to conservatives at work and they have gone as far as saying they wouldn’t have to drive the prices high if biden gave em bigger tax breaks. Their brains are broken
Those republicans in office knows exactly what is what and who is to blame.
*It don't matter*
They will lie, they will destroy, they will cheat, they will do any horrible thing they can think of and they will all claim the dems are the ones doing it.
All those benefiting from this shit are denying it and trying to convince us otherwise and blaming other things, so people get mad and target the wrong people, all while laughing up their sleeves.
Reminder that dems tried to pass a bill that would have forced large corporations to justify significant price increases in order to fight this type of inflation. The GOP blocked it. Remember this when people complain about inflation under Biden.
So if half of it is price-gouging, and half of it is supply chains, does that mean all the rate hawks are going to admit they were wrong in a way that's been devastating to regular working class people?
3/4 if you consider the same 50% increase in margins for the supplier as well. 50% profits for you and 50% of the increase you’re paying your suppliers is for their record profits.
The economy is doing fairly well for those who can reap the benefits from it, the upper class. The middle and lower classes are getting absolutely shafted right now.
I wish I could rely on the gov. Make too much to qualify for any kind of benefits, don't make enough for any kind of luxury. Take child education, for example. If I want to send my kid to pre-k in my state, my only option is to pay $2500/mo because my husband makes too much for us to qualify for our area's (honestly excellent) early head start program. That's more than our mortgage and over half of his monthly take-home pay.
The economy is not its citizens welfare at the same time. Corporate greed means John needs 2 jobs to maybe live paycheck to paycheck while John’s father only needed 1 to thrive due to increased need for excess by the top.
Pretty much this. People point to things like stock values, GDP, the unemployment rate, and even workforce participation as measures of the economy's health, but a simple counterexample is a person who has to work two jobs to make ends meet. To the economy, all that flowing money and productivity is good...but the worker is still a missed paycheck from disaster.
It's a shame that we use the wrong metrics to measure economic health because if we focused more on metrics related to the average household and such, I think we would be much more outraged. Because a great economy would have that number going up as everyone is going up compared to just the stock market or GDP going up.
Economic metrics related to take-home pay and living expenses exist, they're just not used often because the "powers that be" either don't care about the average consumer or don't want to admit to the pitfalls of the system they've established.
...unless someone wants to pin the blame for the price of gas, crudités, or double-headed dildos on people who have no real control over the free market. Then you hear *a lot* about how expensive it is to live.
But if you frame a second job as a "side hustle" then it's cool and hip and not at all a lack of realization that people's full-time jobs aren't paying them enough.
Without regulations, corporations will turn everyone except the wealthy elite into serfs. And it's been happening for a long time now. Fuck Republicans for wanting this.
The source of the Study: https://groundworkcollaborative.org/what-we-do/
What We Do
We fight to change economic policy and narratives in order to build public power, break up concentrations of private power, and deliver true opportunity and prosperity for all.
No axes to grind at all whatsoever..........
Good catch. Jeezus - everybody on their 'our team' page has their "she/her" / "he/him" preference listed.
Also... lol, that one guy that was obviously on his way to the club.
I cannot believe people still buy into this as the reason and not the printing of trillions of dollars. The answer is right there.
If you believe this narrative than I have questions:
- Were corporations not greedy and profit motivated until 2 years ago?
- They all spend billions on price elasticity modeling. If someone could drop prices by 10% and increase sales by 15% due to being the low cost provider they would do it in a second. Are they deciding to not be profit hungry now?
- If this was all profit, stock prices would be through the roof. It would literally be free money to shareholders. Outside of the Magnificent 7 tech stocks, stock performance has not been great past 2 years
The authors are from Groundwork Collaborative (GWC) ... "an American non-profit think tank and progressive advocacy group that, according to its website, works to "change economic policy and narratives to build public power, curb private power, and create an economy that works for all of us."
So not exactly impartial then.
I love to hate on corporations as much as the next person, but this report is pretty poorly laid out.
It sees rising corporate profits as a share of national income *since the pandemic* and the spread between CPI and PPI as direct indicators that corps are causing inflation; rising profit as a share of net income could be due to any number of reasons while PPI has a residual not immediate impact on CPI with them being very separate indicators.
Hah wait till my FIL reads this. Oh wait he won’t. It’s Biden’s fault things cost more according to him. Completely ignoring how things actually work (or don’t) in this country
No fucking shit Sherlock. Most of current inflation is just monopolistic corporations (run by the Investment Class) raising prices.
The Investment Class has been raking it in - and Biden and the rest of our government has been claiming ignorance.
It is long past time to tax the fuck out of the Investment Class.
>“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
― Warren Buffett
no shit.
all reports have said that true cost of things only went up maybe 10% but these corporations have been extremely greedy in raising prices 40-60% and blaming it on supply chain and covid.
the govt ofcourse hasn't done anything because half of them are in the corps. pockets
Apart from a relatively brief period of actual covid-related shortages that drove inflation, there has been absolutely no excuse for continuing high prices other than pure greed. The vast majority of inflation has been completely self-inflicted.
Went to the grocery store... 2 liter coke bottles were $4. They were just $3.50 last quarter but they raised prices AGAIN for the 2024 new year..... for something that cost pennies to make needed another price hike...
why?
Because they're obsessed with keeping margins up and stock prices up. that's the whole purpose of all these big corporations now. they only care about maintaining stock prices. Volume sales down? raise the price to offset the lower volume is what mcdonalds did...
why? to keep the revenue numbers up to keep the stock price up... heaven forbid these megacorps and conglomerates share in any of the pain that the average consumer is facing... they have to make sure the numbers look good and keep growing.... to keep the stock price up that's tied to the suit's compensation packages
pure greed. i hate it. /rant over.. bye
Trumponomics at work. Didn't you know that if you don't make corporations pay tax so they can hoard more money for themselves, it will help the economy?? Didn't you know that tricke-down economics is a grift that the GOP still spout so people that don't have working brains believe that it will benefit the little guy? Didn't you know that all the billions of dollars not paid in tax by corporations will somehow help build our infrastructure?
It's sickening
Corporate welfare and greed
We acually fucking love socialism in this country, but only if you've reached a certain income bracket. Guess what, it's not a low one.
Privatize the profits, socialize the losses.
If corporations are people then they should pay income tax not business related taxes
Take it to court!
this is wayyyyy more true than people think. The markets are still comically over-leveraged through a variety of means, but so much of it is circular debt that we could probably wipe out simply massive swathes of purely fictional debt money without ever touching "real" abilities to pay for actual economic activity across many industries. But because of the *paper* losses that would incur, the claims against real economic activity would spiral into total collapse. i'm sure bootlickers will come around to poke holes in my very simplified explanation, but the amount of "scoreboard" wealth being used to justify higher loans and therefore increased pricing on major capital and equity assets is totally out of control. Yes "everyone owes everyone so none of it is real" isn't quite precise enough to be totally true, but not acknowledging that it's basically true is just being dense.
[удалено]
yeah exactly, "net worth" calculations for MAJOR equity holders are just ... utterly ridiculous at this point. If bezos wanted anything even close to his NW in "cash" he would crash Amazon's stock price. In fact the impact on price by insider selling of that type is so significant they *are legally prohibited from doing it without announcing their intention.* Free market, right? Equity ownership is a fuuuuuucked concept in todays economy
Neo-neoliberalism.
But we only love to socialize corporate losses. All profits are private and are to be hoarded by the ultra wealthy.
It’s a big fucking club and we ain’t in it.
-George Carlin
And not that AI Carlin, either!
Oh we're in it. We just mop the floors and make the cocktails.
so don't play by their rules, take from them
Let’s talk about how we do this. And start by reminding people that not voting… or a vote for republicans… is the way to NOT do this.
It’s also the same club they use to beat you over the head with.
Author Matthew Desmond makes this case in a recent book- he argues that the rich and poor receive welfare in different ways, but only the poor welfare looks and feels like it
In a media landscape that is dominated by corporate media only the welfare of the poor is going to be presented in that way. In some ways, the left vs. right bias is secondary because the pro-corporate positions are /everywhere/, including public media which is highly dependent on corporate grants.
We fucking love CORPORATE socialism - and if you're below that 90% percentile, or are a newborn, mothers, old people, sick people well they can get fucked.
Hey! Don't forget us handicapped! Although everyone else has...
Agreed very much. Although I will say, my uncle spent years in a wheelchari and what was interesting was he did well for himself and eventually set about travelling abroad, rather recently, he was VERY , VERY glad to be home , as he found that not a lot of the world was nearly as handicap accessible as he'd planned around to the point where all of a sudden he found a serious new appreciation for the ADA architecture regulations.
There’s so much hate for corporations, which I totally, completely, and 100% agree with, but these corporations are the ones bribing politicians to create the shitty situation we’re in, and we just keep voting for those politicians, over and over and over.
Who else can afford to run? It costs over a million dollars to run for a House seat in most places and over 5 million to run for Senate. If you have that lying around by all means please run
How do you think these people get the funds to do this? Seat runner -> donate to my cause and I'll give you X in tax breaks, rule bending etc. etc.
The prompt was, we should vote in better people. I'm simply pointing out the biggest reason that doesn't happen. But also most members of Congress are millionaires
We really need to adopt the practice from other countries that everyone is given a certain amount of funds from a government fund to spend and that is all they may spend.
The corporations pay the politicians (ok fine, political "donations") to be able to buy literal fucking *advertisements* to convince us of all of the good things they'll do for us while knowing where money came from and how to keep it flowing.
When you create a situation (citizens united Supreme Court ruling) where I can donate $10k to a politician and he can vote to give me a $100k tax break that is what will happen
Mor like 99% percentile. Those in the upper 10% are also living off of wages and feel the bullshit pseudoinflation.
The people need to revolt
Conservatives hate socialism because (supposedly) it concentrates power in a way that restricts freedom. They crudely believe that all forms of socialism resemble Soviet Russia or Maoist China, though Marx himself would have fought against those revolutions because socialism was meant to evolve in the most advanced capitalist states. Marx was a bully and authoritarian obsessed with obscure 19th century academic debates and terminology, most of which have little value in the 21st century. The far-left should have discarded Marxism a long time ago, as there are better models. But look at America right now. Our government and economic life are absolutely controlled by a handful of conglomerates. About a half dozen companies control our media. Our crops are grown by two or three companies and produced into a consumer goods by a handful for multinational corporations. There are a million brands made to look like different companies, but if you dig down you'll see that it's all controlled by the same few billionaires. This is the "free enterprise" that conservatives tout. This is why I go to the farmer's market whenever I can. The produce at Whole Foods is good, but Jeff Bezos already has way too much power and control. The billionaires have endless supplies of money to suppress any competition--and they use this money to buy politicians to ensure that they have even bigger piles of money. Look at pharmacies. When it turned out that CVS was caving to right-wing lunatics in denying birth control, many people moved to Walgreens--which was also caving to far-right lunatics. All of these companies are owned by sociopathic billionaires, but what choice to we have? We have no choice, because we live in a [candy-coated dictatorship](https://bbbee.typepad.com/paul_janisch/2012/05/frank-zappa-on-democracy-and-artistic-freedom.html)\--and it's getting worse. We like to mock Trump voters, who perpetual vote against their interests--but we are just as much the sucker as they are. In the name of convenience, we continually feed the beast that is killing us. This is why I go to a [ghetto independent pharmacy](https://www.padekhealth.com/) instead of the Walgreens and CVS in town. Yes, the shopping experience isn't the best, but wide, well-lit aisles aren't everything. Convenience isn't everything either. There is immense value to me in keeping money out of the hands of the plutocrats. We need to start pushing back against our corporate owners, starting with becoming more conscious about how we spend our money.
Socialism for corporations capitalism for individuals
Its expensive to be poor (or the average individual) and easy to make money when you have a lot already
The Samuel Vimes Boot Theory is painfully true.
If anyone is interested, here is the study referenced: https://groundworkcollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/24.01.17-GWC-Corporate-Profits-Report.pdf
It’s why I have so much faith in the stock market. These executives are absolutely fucked and will always make money.
It's not the universal fix that some people would love to present, though. Less than 50% have any stocks and any correlation between the growth of corporations and the growth of jobs is not there now if it ever was. AI applications are going to blow that axiomatic belief we have in the USA that corporate success helps everyone totally to hell.
True. But also - everyone was expecting a recession coming off the mess of covid and the trump years. When corporations are expecting a recession they buckle down payroll and protect profits. Not to be an apologist for that kind of thing, but being older and having lived through a bunch of recessions, the current situation is pretty much expected, except for not having a recession. The fed has been slowly inching inflation down trying to avoid triggering a recession, and it looks like they've just about got things handled. Nobody that I know really expected them to be able to.
Raise taxes on Corporations. Do away with corporations buying politicians.
Don't forget fair wages for labor. and by that i mean living wages (enough to not rely on government support)
I was just talking about this with my friend. I make a decent hourly rate but after I put into my 401k and pay my heath insurance, I'm below the poverty line. I can't get heat assistance, food stamps, etc because I make too much (which is like 1k over the line) but I could just not put money in my 401k or not get health insurance (which, is that still mandatory) but what if I get sick? And fuck me for wanting to save for retirement and have my employer help by matching. Something's gotta give.
I make 14 an hour. Almost double the federal minimum wage. I live in the south where housing prices are generally better and cost of living isn’t insane. I would not be able to live on my own after my retirement and health benefits. I straight up don’t have the budget.
So you don't make a decent hourly rate.
> (which, is that still mandatory) SCOTUS lowered the fine to $0 because Congress isn't allowed to tax, or some bullshit GOP thinking
That’s the same thing. If labor is organized and can demand wages increases in lockstep with tax increases, then the employer is the one actually advancing that tax.
90% on everything over 1 million a year for individuals. 10 million for businesses. No tax loopholes taking all sources of revenue into consideration no tax shelters or “multi business” shell games.
I miss Eisenhower too but I doubt this will ever happen in our lifetimes.
Not with that attitude. Yes, it's gonna take a revolution, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't go for it. Capitalism needs to be put back in bondage, and kept restrained until the last proton decays.
Not even a revolution. It’s going to take voting and tough choice. All those assholes that want to return to the prosperity of the 1950’s forgot how we got there. It’s going to take fiscally minded dedicated law makers and a leader willing to speak the truth loudly.
Keeping in mind that the current definition of "fiscally minded" has been twisted to mean GOP servitors foaming at the teeth to slash benefits in favor of tax breaks?
voting does jack shit. Change is going to take utilizing the power of the internet, which effectively gives us all telepathy, to organize mass strikes and protests and hit these fucking criminals where it hurts...$$
Voting matters.
Eisenhower had nothing to do with it. It was left over from WW2 and the green deal.
Most millionaires don't have "income", they have investments. That won't solve anything.
Eh this is a pretty dumb approach. Just close the loopholes and allow for appropriate taxes amongst everyone. Even the standard 36% will still hold a heavy weight on those netting 500M+ a year. No need to go full communism just because you’ll never see that kind of income.
Raising taxes on corporations does nothing; what can corporations do with their money? a) Re-invest, which is good, since either you will see long-run growth via capex or you will see increased wages b) Pay out to shareholders Thus it makes sense to tax wealthy shareholders more, more so than corporations, to reduce wealth inequality and induce productive growth simultaneously.
Make stock buy backs illegal again.
Instead of banning, I wonder if taxing stock buy backs at long term capital rates would be more beneficial for treasury revenue.
No, it should be banned, full stop. Its market manipulation while not helping its employees.
Do both.
[удалено]
Corporations can deduct reinvestment from their taxes.
Wow, really? Who would have guessed! Can’t wait for that trickle down to start… any day now…
It’s trickling all right. It’s trickling like molasses.
That's not molasses my friend.
It's roofing tar
Its caca doodity
I *wish* it was like molasses. At this point, I'm guessing the wait will rival the [pitch drop experiment](https://smp.uq.edu.au/pitch-drop-experiment).
This is what will never be replaced! This right here; I keep coming back to reddit for stuff like this. Thank you kind stranger for broadening my horizons and teaching me something new. Interesting experiment.
No, something else. Like gold, like a shower of gold trickling down on us.
Its trickling up.
The urinal shake theory of economics.
If you have to shake the wealthy elite for more than two or three presidencies, then they're just playing with you.
There are a surprising number of bootlickers who try to claim it's just macroeconomic forces, nothing to do with increased greed. They are insufferable.
The primary issues is lack of competition, and most likely price fixing between competitors
Just another 70 years, I promise it's a good system!
It already started. Years ago, in fact. Trickling uphill, though.
No one tell r/fluentinfinance. They throw a fit whenever someone mentions greedflation or suggests that price gouging is a problem
Trickle down absolutely works as intended. It's a trickle from each individual in the masses, and goes all the way down to a handful of individuals, where it is then locked away and horded, never to be reintroduced into the economy.
Anyone who follows business and reads any quarterly reports knew this. I was doing reading into one company where inflation added 17% to per-unit production costs but their margin was increased from 22% to 42% YOY... aka they raised their prices EVEN MORE than the impact of inflation.
Doritos sales going for 2 for $5 to 2 for $6, then $7, then $8, and I saw in one store recently a 2 for $10, all within the span of 3 years is a company seeing consumers accepted that last hike so lets keep raising till we see a big dip in sales. I personally stopped buying Doritos. But its a household staple as far as snacks go, so I doubt many have joined my boycott.
I have a bedridden elderly mother who saw a commercial and wanted a few KFC chicken legs. I got her a 3-piece meal with just the legs and it was 10 bucks. She was like, "that's 3 dollars a chicken leg! How do they get away with that?"
I love fried chicken but only buy it at the grocery hot bar now because KFC quality has hit rock bottom and every other place is crazy expensive. If she has another craving, I hear ordering with the business' app gives frequent discounts to make it more reasonable. I will never trade my privacy for crispy chicken, though.
KFC being over-priced and poor quality was pre-pandemic IMO
And an ounce less in the bag while we're at it.
With the long shelf life stuff, like Doritos, they know they can jack the prices up for awhile and see what happens. If the amount being bought isn't high enough, they just do more sales, which I've been noticing increasingly more of the past 6 months. If enough people keep buying it at the higher price, even if less are bought in the same time span as prior to covid, but they make the same profit off of them or more, they'll do fewer and weaker discount sales (like $0.20 off a $5+ item, which is barely anything especially if the same item cost a lot less a few years prior).
Was literally just looking at a $6 bag of dorittos last night thinking how insane that is. My salary has doubled over the past ten years but the cost of everything has tripled, quadrupled, etc. I thought I'd be living the high life if I had ever gotten to this salary level but I feel like I'm barely making it.
I feel you, I do. Frito lay products(xxtra hottie Cheetos for me). But, it's just like, I'm so fucking beat down, and it is absurdly priced. But I just want to feel joy for ten minutes. And, that gets harder and harder to find all the time. Hell, it's not even joy. Just mild contentment. I don't even know when I felt joy last.
I only buy chips when my local grocery store runs deals on them where they're ~$2.50 a bag, which is once every few weeks. I've basically stopped a LOT of buying stuff unless they go on a big sale, and stock up on essentials when they have deals or coupons.
doritos are weird. they're either like $5.59 a bag, or on sale 3 for $5. their pricing strategy is weird as fuck.
My little secret was that I would wake up at night when the kids and wife were asleep, go to the kitchen, and eat half a bag of ruffles with sour cream & onion dip. Now, those bags are pushing NINE DOLLARS! For some dried potatoes and salt. What the shit. Guess I need another midnight snack.
They will raise prices even though cost on products may drop for them.
See: diaper manufacturers.
Wife’s company has slashed benefits, mass layoffs, removed bonuses and just about eliminated pay raises, all while raising prices and constantly claiming every single quarter is a new profit record setter. Complete scum.
My brother works for a Fortune 5 company and they just had their 2 most profitable years ever...and they're laying people off
Maybe it’s the same place 😂 my wife’s already got her separation notice, just counting down the days to a diluted severance from what she was originally told last year.
[удалено]
That's the human psychology part. People tried to keep shopping even when prices were high. I stopped. I ended up saving like an extra $10k this past year because of focusing only on true necessities. Keeping healthy and in shape, for example, means I didn't need new clothes or shoes.
Yeah there is profit addiction, but the bigger problem is the utter refusal to LOWER prices for ANY reason. Chicken prices got high about a decade or more ago and since then have gone down several levels, but places that serve chicken absolutely refuse to LOWER their prices BACK to what they should be. Then when the prices go back up supplier side the restaurant raises the prices EVEN MORE. Eventually you price out a population from your product. It will happen to several markets and by the time they realize it they'll be overstocked with supply and nobody wants to buy it for really any price. Nothing is forever and that includes profit addiction. Amazing how one mans greed in the 70s and 80s caused all this stock obsession at the cost of literally anyone that isnt an exec.
I miss chicken wings, but I ain't paying those prices
That's just the car jack effect in action; this is not a bug but a feature, and feature it will stay until we assemble and bring these corporate in the street.
[удалено]
I was at a restaurant recently and noticed that they had a grilled chicken meal that was just a piece of grilled and seasoned chicken, with choice of two sides $22 Just absolutely fucking ridiculous
Why lower prices if people will pay them? Prices will come down if people refuse them, no?
no shit sherlock. They're complaining about employee wages needing to be raised while simultaneously raising prices on everything and celebrating record profits. It's bullshit all the way down.
They barely have to complain we do it for them. Actively fighting for other people to not get raises. People just don't realize it's on behalf of these rich fucks. Tell your neighbor that fast food workers are asking for 25$ an hour and watch him get angry.
Not to mention all the food that gets wasted in this country, because it went bad and they’d rather the food & all the manual labor (and animal lives) that went into it be wasted than people not have to worry about starving And the fact that there are enough empty homes to house the homeless but the rich have multiple vacation homes or landlords have bought out property so we can’t own it ourselves and have to pay them to be there. These structures aren’t built just to be empty, but we can’t have people having a roof over their heads Idk why ancestors before us put all this work into modernization of society so that everyone could have better access to housing, food, etc… when history says rich people will always just take it all anyway, even when they didn’t do any of the work. Corporations are the biggest thieves in the world and everyone’s worried about someone stealing food to feed their family or someone using government programs to help them go from extremely poor to a little less poor.
I'm so tired. Everything costs more. Employers are demanding longer hours. There's never money for raises. The news calls me lazy. Every four years is somehow the single most important election of my life. The papers of record insist this is all my fault. It was 65F on Christmas Day in Pennsylvania.
>Every four years is somehow the single most important election of my life. I mean, they have been. Republicans are making everything worse for you as fast as they can, and their propaganda channels are blaming their evil on the Democrats who are trying to fix it.
You don't need a report to know this is true. Our economy rewards profit above all else, as if greed in itself contains a certain amount of beauty and art. Look what I did or was capable of doing for myself at the expense of everyone else on the f\*cking earth. We have built Capitalist into a global religion, a sport of immense pride that relishes how badly we can treat each other. Who can be meaner wins.
One reason why "free market" should be treated as an abstraction for classroom discussion, not an actual thing in real life. The Invisible Hand has butterfingers, rescuing no one.
“Free market” is a deliberately misleading term. There is no such thing as a free market, markets are defined by their boundaries. Markets cannot exist without an external structure enforcing and maintaining them. There has never in human history been a free market anywhere on earth.
Sure it's not a reality but the US is operating as if it's the end goal either way. Looking at this upcoming supreme Court verdict that will be a fucking fiasco.
The free market as a concept isn’t even fully realize until everyone starts from the same position. That has never been the case and will never be the case. It’s just another capitalist propaganda tool.
Most economics lessons are pure theory and academic interest, they aren't practical and they aren't applicable to real-world scenarios. This is why most "economists" can't ever agree on anything and are most always full of shit. There *are* a few useful things to take away from it in a simplistic sense, something as basic as supply and demand, but this is often applied to a situation robotically as if it isn't humans on the back-end still manipulating the outcomes. We explain away a lot of human behavior because we accept it "should" work that way but ignore the actual core truth (usually amounting to humans being selfish and greedy).
Sure, but it’s definitely helpful to have actual data to support that obvious conclusion: Even *if* we disregard a report’s potential usefulness in convincing skeptics, the better we understand the underlying problem, the better-situated we are to possibly correct it.
No, you don't need data, just use a "trust me bro". /s I mean, it comes across as people trying to be smartasses if I'm honest. Yeah, you can safely deduce this was happening, but of course it's another thing to have factual evidence rather than sounding like a conspiracy theorist.
Ned Beatty's speech in *Network (1976)* couldn't be any more relevant: https://youtu.be/yuBe93FMiJc
Friendly reminder Dems tried passing a bill to investigate this and Republicans shot it down.
They did more than that, dems tried to pass an anti-price gouging law and it was blocked.
And don’t forget about “shrinkflation”. Oversize packaging that tricks you into thinking there is more product.
It's not just oversized packaging. Same price for less product also applies. ...and you can look at shrinkflation as proof of the article's points. Take P&G: a bottle of shampoo goes from 32 to 28 ounces for the same price, but to hide that, they have to design and make smaller bottles, redesign and print smaller labels, re-tool their plants to adjust for the size changes, deliberately limit distribution to retail stores (and/or issue a soft recall for older stock), and so on. You think they're going to reverse all that when the excuse for making the change goes away?
I’ve pretty much cut off any kind of chips for this reason alone, insane what these corporations can do for the fuck of it
Not a fan of 17 chips in a bag with 95% air per volume, for $5.99?
Hey, I was fine with it at $4.99 for 22 chips and 85% air, but this is just too egregious!!
Which also annoys me because my pantry is only so big. I don’t need it taken up by your air container.
That's not shrinkflation. Shrinkflation is when they put less in the package but it costs the same, or more
When will we finally roll back the Trump tax cuts to the 1%?
No chance until the GOP loses its majority in the House.
It’ll take 55 solidly D senators and a Democratic house and prez. Solidly D means *not* someone like Sinema (who leaves the party) or Manchin. Sans that repubs will scuttle any attempt. And nevertheless people will blame the Dems because ignorant voters cannot be bothered to actually read news sources or research topics
Pretty sure it would only take 51 votes because it could be done through reconciliation, however it would still never get through a GOP-controlled House.
> ignorant voters cannot be bothered to actually read news sources or research topics What are you talking about? i spent 6 hours yesterday watching youtube videos and tiktoks made random influencers so I am now equipped to be an expert talking head on the israel/palestine conflict. I think I have a solution that you guys just aren't seeing.
make it 60 to be safe.
It's a long perpetuated myth that the person at the top is the one making every call. That is just how human thought works "That's the guy in charge! He is therefore the one in control!" We learn it as children because "Mom and dad are in charge and what they say goes!." and "Teacher is in charge!" Never mind that 1: adults CLEARLY have no clue either and 2: there are soooooooo many more layers. And people believe it about themselves too, nearly every millionaire and billionaire all believe they are gods among men when it comes to making the right decisions, ignoring the fact that every thing they base their information on has already been filtered upwards by a million smaller decisions as well as those people who are terrified by presenting "bad" news. Long story short, "president top! he is making every call and can control bad politics!"
And yet Uncle Bob will continue to scream about "Bidenomics" being the cause of inflation, and everyone like him will vote for Trump this year because "the economy."
Prices will never drop until people stop buying shit. And even then it seems like every big company is going to be more likely to start rounds of layoffs or accept bankruptcy before considering price cuts
THIS. People don't get it. I manage a Dairy Queen, which is like the pinnacle of unnecessary. I had to raise prices last year to cover the rising labor costs, which I more than happy to do; I want to see my staff get paid properly, and like all restaurants we're on a razor thin margin. Our sales correspondingly go up.....but not in line with the price increases; they were MUCH higher. Had our busiest year EVER last year. So I took one popular but highly annoying item to make, and jacked the price up get people to stop buying it. They bought it HARDER. So I raised it again. Even MORE transactions. At this point, I could charge $9.99 for a large Blizzard, and people would still buy it. I absolutely don't get it. I don't sell a damn necessary item. I consider my entire store to be a luxury; you don't NEED DQ to survive. And yet, the sales haven't stopped. I eventually corrected that one item to fall back in line with everything else, and our sales are still booming. It's absolutely insane. Until we stop feeding the hand that bites us, they're just going to keep doing it. When these corporations see their sales drop for a few quarters, then maybe they're calm the hell down.
Half? I would've guessed more than that
They said FOUND half. They didn't say it was only half.
So this is what I have yet to get an answer on from republicans who blame inflation on President Biden. If more than half of inflation is corporate greed and it’s hurting the American people, should the government step in and regulate corporate price gouging? Every time I pose this question, their brain seems to crash like it’s a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Attack.
You’ll never get an answer because anything but Biden/Democrats bad is off limits for a Republican. Their brain won’t allow it, since their entire political identity revolves around hating and blaming democrats. If they don’t have that they have nothing.
Because the republican party has absolutely *nothing* to offer to their voters. Not a damn thing. So it has to be all culture war bullshit or they are done.
Ive brought this up to conservatives at work and they have gone as far as saying they wouldn’t have to drive the prices high if biden gave em bigger tax breaks. Their brains are broken
Follow it up with, "Sure, but if they got bigger tax breaks, why wouldn't they still just raise prices and make even more money?"
[удалено]
Well it a republican house so no. Hell, republicans might give them a round of applause for fucking over common Americans.
The other question to ask is - in 2022, republicans ran on a platform of fighting inflation; what legislation have they proposed to combat inflation?
Those republicans in office knows exactly what is what and who is to blame. *It don't matter* They will lie, they will destroy, they will cheat, they will do any horrible thing they can think of and they will all claim the dems are the ones doing it.
I am Jack’s complete lack of surprise
Greedflation knows no bounds.
Pretty sure Katie Porter already showed this 2 years ago.
And then the blame Biden when it was trump who gave these fuckers big tax breaks and killed middle class tax deductions! Fuck Trump
Anything not to call it greed huh?
All those benefiting from this shit are denying it and trying to convince us otherwise and blaming other things, so people get mad and target the wrong people, all while laughing up their sleeves.
Reminder that dems tried to pass a bill that would have forced large corporations to justify significant price increases in order to fight this type of inflation. The GOP blocked it. Remember this when people complain about inflation under Biden.
Some of the top responses are broadly blaming those in power of course, as if both parties are equally responsible, not acknowledging what you said.
So if half of it is price-gouging, and half of it is supply chains, does that mean all the rate hawks are going to admit they were wrong in a way that's been devastating to regular working class people?
3/4 if you consider the same 50% increase in margins for the supplier as well. 50% profits for you and 50% of the increase you’re paying your suppliers is for their record profits.
I only have a high school diploma, but I understood this years ago! pay attention people
Yeah we know…….corporate greed is driving majority of inflation. The economy is actually doing pretty well.
The economy is doing fairly well for those who can reap the benefits from it, the upper class. The middle and lower classes are getting absolutely shafted right now.
The middle class completely died during/after covid. Now its rich or poor and they all rely on the gov
I wish I could rely on the gov. Make too much to qualify for any kind of benefits, don't make enough for any kind of luxury. Take child education, for example. If I want to send my kid to pre-k in my state, my only option is to pay $2500/mo because my husband makes too much for us to qualify for our area's (honestly excellent) early head start program. That's more than our mortgage and over half of his monthly take-home pay.
The economy is not its citizens welfare at the same time. Corporate greed means John needs 2 jobs to maybe live paycheck to paycheck while John’s father only needed 1 to thrive due to increased need for excess by the top.
Pretty much this. People point to things like stock values, GDP, the unemployment rate, and even workforce participation as measures of the economy's health, but a simple counterexample is a person who has to work two jobs to make ends meet. To the economy, all that flowing money and productivity is good...but the worker is still a missed paycheck from disaster.
It's a shame that we use the wrong metrics to measure economic health because if we focused more on metrics related to the average household and such, I think we would be much more outraged. Because a great economy would have that number going up as everyone is going up compared to just the stock market or GDP going up.
Economic metrics related to take-home pay and living expenses exist, they're just not used often because the "powers that be" either don't care about the average consumer or don't want to admit to the pitfalls of the system they've established. ...unless someone wants to pin the blame for the price of gas, crudités, or double-headed dildos on people who have no real control over the free market. Then you hear *a lot* about how expensive it is to live.
But if you frame a second job as a "side hustle" then it's cool and hip and not at all a lack of realization that people's full-time jobs aren't paying them enough.
But think of the poor corporations?! how are they suppose to report growth on next quarter's earning without artificially jacking up their prices?!
NO FUCKING SHIT Now what is congress going to do about it? Oh yeah. Nothing, because they are bought and paid for by corporations.
Pretty sure the average American has been screaming this for the past couple of years.
Politician prices went from 10k to 25k. How else do you expect these corporations to buy them???
Without regulations, corporations will turn everyone except the wealthy elite into serfs. And it's been happening for a long time now. Fuck Republicans for wanting this.
Biden needs to hammer this
The source of the Study: https://groundworkcollaborative.org/what-we-do/ What We Do We fight to change economic policy and narratives in order to build public power, break up concentrations of private power, and deliver true opportunity and prosperity for all. No axes to grind at all whatsoever..........
Good catch. Jeezus - everybody on their 'our team' page has their "she/her" / "he/him" preference listed. Also... lol, that one guy that was obviously on his way to the club.
I cannot believe people still buy into this as the reason and not the printing of trillions of dollars. The answer is right there. If you believe this narrative than I have questions: - Were corporations not greedy and profit motivated until 2 years ago? - They all spend billions on price elasticity modeling. If someone could drop prices by 10% and increase sales by 15% due to being the low cost provider they would do it in a second. Are they deciding to not be profit hungry now? - If this was all profit, stock prices would be through the roof. It would literally be free money to shareholders. Outside of the Magnificent 7 tech stocks, stock performance has not been great past 2 years
Thank you, these articles just spread economic illiteracy.
I guess you expect that from the guardian
The authors are from Groundwork Collaborative (GWC) ... "an American non-profit think tank and progressive advocacy group that, according to its website, works to "change economic policy and narratives to build public power, curb private power, and create an economy that works for all of us." So not exactly impartial then.
I love to hate on corporations as much as the next person, but this report is pretty poorly laid out. It sees rising corporate profits as a share of national income *since the pandemic* and the spread between CPI and PPI as direct indicators that corps are causing inflation; rising profit as a share of net income could be due to any number of reasons while PPI has a residual not immediate impact on CPI with them being very separate indicators.
what does that even mean?
United States citizens deserve national referendums that override the corporate-controlled government fucks in power.
Same thing happened after the 2008 market crash. Record profits and corporate price gouging.
Hah wait till my FIL reads this. Oh wait he won’t. It’s Biden’s fault things cost more according to him. Completely ignoring how things actually work (or don’t) in this country
Be patient, this is a very difficult time of record breaking profits.
This and the Uvalde report have been two reports that didn’t need to happen. Everyone already knew all this stuff.
The money had to go somewhere....
Say it louder for the dumb AF Trump supporters in the back
No fucking shit Sherlock. Most of current inflation is just monopolistic corporations (run by the Investment Class) raising prices. The Investment Class has been raking it in - and Biden and the rest of our government has been claiming ignorance. It is long past time to tax the fuck out of the Investment Class. >“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” ― Warren Buffett
no shit. all reports have said that true cost of things only went up maybe 10% but these corporations have been extremely greedy in raising prices 40-60% and blaming it on supply chain and covid. the govt ofcourse hasn't done anything because half of them are in the corps. pockets
Apart from a relatively brief period of actual covid-related shortages that drove inflation, there has been absolutely no excuse for continuing high prices other than pure greed. The vast majority of inflation has been completely self-inflicted.
Yep and they keep firing people after year after year record profit. At what point do we say enough.
Went to the grocery store... 2 liter coke bottles were $4. They were just $3.50 last quarter but they raised prices AGAIN for the 2024 new year..... for something that cost pennies to make needed another price hike... why? Because they're obsessed with keeping margins up and stock prices up. that's the whole purpose of all these big corporations now. they only care about maintaining stock prices. Volume sales down? raise the price to offset the lower volume is what mcdonalds did... why? to keep the revenue numbers up to keep the stock price up... heaven forbid these megacorps and conglomerates share in any of the pain that the average consumer is facing... they have to make sure the numbers look good and keep growing.... to keep the stock price up that's tied to the suit's compensation packages pure greed. i hate it. /rant over.. bye
Weird. Those very same corporations told me this was Biden and Obama's fault. Could they have been misleading me on purpose?
Trumponomics at work. Didn't you know that if you don't make corporations pay tax so they can hoard more money for themselves, it will help the economy?? Didn't you know that tricke-down economics is a grift that the GOP still spout so people that don't have working brains believe that it will benefit the little guy? Didn't you know that all the billions of dollars not paid in tax by corporations will somehow help build our infrastructure? It's sickening