Companies continue to raise prices to unheard of levels to keep raking in obscene profits. They brag about it on their earnings calls.
Inflation isn’t the problem. Corporate greed is. Yet again.
Greed was always there. Such a constant does not explain why now prices are rising.
Because when supply chains got fucked up during COVID, they raised their prices for legitimate reasons, and found to their delight that people kept on buying, and In fact, because people were panic shopping, and stuck at home bored, they actually bought more.
So when things calmed down, instead of lowering prices, they continued to rise. because if they didn’t, they’d be making less profit than last quarter (which is unacceptable)
Combine that with the wage stagnation that’s been going on for decades and a housing shortage and you now have an economy where people can’t afford rent, food, or basic goods
They noticed that everybody else was rising the prices and that they can get away with it.
When you get fit everyone a board room table, you don’t have competition. You have an oligopoly. At the highest level of these companies, everyone knows everyone. They all go to the same events, people have moved around between the companies, and they all run in the same social circles.
It’s greed plus tacit coordination. If all the companies in an industry raise prices at the same time, and almost none of them defect by unilaterally lowering prices, then they can all increase prices together. One theory is that markets are too concentrated now so tacit coordination during inflationary periods are easier.
Makes me wonder how people are managing it.
I get paid every 2 weeks and I go through and pay down or pay off all my cards every payday.
When I put them back in my wallet, I put the paid off cards in first, and the not paid off cards upside down so I don’t unintentionally add more debt to them.
As of last Friday, I have two cards that are not fully paid off. One with a 0% loan on a large electrical project, the 0% deal expires in April, but I expect to pay it off in January.
The other has a brand new $1,000 debt because I just paid my Christmas lights install company.
You really aren’t the average person if you can pay $1000 to have your Christmas lights installed. I’m trying to even envision the Christmas light situation at your house that could possibly cost that much to put up. It must be impressive.
There’s some custom work done because we have this awesome round window that’s hard to work with.
This was last year:
You went into debt on a credit card so you could pay someone else to install Christmas lights?
Not just Christmas lights, they’re cleaning the gutters too, and taking the lights down after the holidays.
Just over $1,000.
Jesus. That is an insane amount of money for that unless you live in a 5000+ sf. house.
20% inflation since the start of the pandemic (higher on necessities like food and shelter), stagnant wages, massive wealth concentration and transfer from the poor and middle class to the rich… not surprising at all. Between wealth inequality, climate change, and political unrest, we are heading towards major societal collapse.
tl;dr: increased credit card usage
What I really need right now is yet another article explaining to me how I’m actually better off now than I was a year or two ago, I’m just too stupid or whatever to realize it. Inflation was kicking our ass, and then we had two separate student loans kick in at once, on top of taking on a shitton of debt to take care of some of the broke boomers in our lives.
on top of taking on a shitton of debt to take care of some of the broke boomers in our lives
You might consider making some different choices
Maybe they’re not the stereotypical rich fuckhead boomer and you should show a little compassion or class solidarity.
