Inflation has created a dark cloud over how everyday Americans view the economy
Inflation has created a dark cloud over how everyday Americans view the economy
Anger about higher prices appears to outweigh the benefits of a hot labor market in the minds of consumers.
Replace "inflation" with corporate greed to understand the true problem.
They've lobbied they way into creating a system there they have practically no bounds.
I mean, they even found a way around human rights and labor laws with prison slave work and even getting laws signed in some states in favor of child labor in the US. And that's only in the US. In some other countries where manufacturing was moved there are literal slaves and children doing the work.
Then there's the whole enshittification where they change the ingredients or the process to use the least material as possible to cut costs, selling food that barely passes for food and products that fall apart and break faster. Or hell, even have services now provided by some stupid AI. Oh and they also slightly reduce the amount per packaging as well thinking we won't notice.
Then after they turn around and charge big bucks for that crap. It's shameful. But they got the governments in their pocket.
I mean, they even found a way around human rights and labor laws with prison slave work
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." (emphasis added)
I don't think they really "found a way" around it insomuch as they explicitly continued to allow it in the text of the 13th Amendment. It's not a bug, it's a feature!
even that doesnt tell the story well enough, blaming "corporate greed" is too impersonal. corporations are made up of flesh and blood real people making conscious choices that help themselves and hurt others. the greed is human and the humans have names, THEY are collectively AND INDIVIDUALLY responsible.
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True. And government inflation does directly put money into banks, leading to more corporate profits
It turns out when you measure "the economy" with old metrics that only really impact rich people there is a disconnect between "the economy" and how everyone experiences the actual economy.
It's not inflation when the cost to the companies doesn't go up and they keep reporting record profits...
Record profits (and expenses) are exactly what you'd expect given inflation.
Say you make widgets as a side gig. You spend $500 a month on supplies and manage to get $750 in revenue, yielding $250 in profit each month. Then, the ghost of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe is somehow elected to chair the Federal Reserve, and after a year passes, we see 100% inflation, causing your expenses to blow up to $1000 a month. You raise your prices to match, giving you $1500 a month in revenue. You now have record profit of $500 a month! Of course, each dollar is worth half as much as was a year ago, so despite these literal record profits, you're in the exact same financial situation as before. My general understanding is that supply-side costs have increased quite a lot, which accounts for a lot, but probably not all, of the higher costs for consumer goods. I know people in my family talked about how wood and other home supplies got a lot more expensive, and the owner of a local cafe told me about how he was seeing significantly higher costs for basic things like cups and lids.
This is not to say that things like greed don't apply as well, but record profits during inflation aren't an indicator of this (and it's not as if greed is a particularly new discovery). To put it another way, record employee wages during inflation also don't mean very much if the cost of everything else rises to match those gains.
Let me put it this way, When there was a shortage on that important computer chip that all cars need now days, cars were more expensive. So dealerships tried to inflate the price even more and push terrible financial choices. One straight up said "we can charge whatever we want" when I pointed out the multi-thousand difference from the same brand new vehicle online.
I think it is more like what you say is technically true, but human nature and greed leads to it happening to a more artificial degree, and at an accelerated rate. And the thing is, prices don't really go back down unless it was something where the price fluctuated anyway such as produce and oil.
Why be proud of an economy when it does nothing to help you stop suffering? That's something that touches probably 80-90% of people.
It's not inflation. It's greedflation. I live in Denmark, where greedflation is increasing, but nothing like in Norway! Also, Norwegian companies were complaining about electricity prices last year and got a shit-tonne of money to not go bankrupt. Turns out, many of the companies had record profits - we're talking more than doubling their previous record (in the billions...).
Eat the rich!!
if 'the economy' is not really a metric the common man should care about in any capacity, why do news agencies push it like its the new god?
The "economy" means the stock market. It's what is important for capital gains. Guess who owns the news?
The stock market was doing fine even when the economy was at its worst. 2008, this was not.
why do news agencies push it like its the new god?
Because it is the new god. Praise The Holy Economy and Its Invisible Hand!
I pretty much don't spend money unless I absolutely need to.
Fuck this shit.
If I don't need it, I don't buy it. If I do need it, I make it. If I can't make it, I'll buy it second hand.
Because people see prices go up all the time and rarely see them go back down.
The job market is ass right now
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My $300 average supermarket shopping every two weeks is now at $400.
Who would have thought that people would have negative views of the economy after banks fuck it up.
Am I supposed to be grateful for the banking industry destroying the economy? What a god damn joke.
CNBC can lick my nuts.
Economy? Who has faith in any aspect of humanity these days...
People that don't read too much news. Which is also usually owned by for-profit companies, incidentally, who get money when we consume their content.
If we all start killing ceos at the same time… 3…2……