Poll of the Day > Why do prices on everything keep going up

(+) Yeah! (+)

Because for prices to go down we'd have to have slave labor.
Capitalism doesn't actually function unless there's someone at the very bottom. That makes no money at all.

They were lower before... we don't need slave labor, just make the corporations cut the price gouging

Prices have always been going up since the beginning of time. And the government borrowing money printed out of thin air from the fed doesn't help with inflation. Hope you enjoyed your $2000 stimmy money, and if student loan repayment goes through, get ready for even more inflation.

It wasn't always like this. When Nixon put the final nail in the coffin of the gold standard in 1971, that's when everything started to really spiral out of control.

Greed.

The person at the bottom wants more money to survive. That's minimum wage (ya know, to prevent slavery). When they get more, everything goes up in price in response, and then minimum wage can't afford food again, repeat the cycle, prices go up.

And yet the people at the top seem to be getting more and more inflation-adjusted purchasing power, while those are the bottom get less and less. I wonder if that's related to prices going up...

Because for prices to go down we'd have to have slave labor.
Capitalism doesn't actually function unless there's someone at the very bottom. That makes no money at all.

who the fuck still uses stamps

It contributes

The person at the bottom wants more money to survive. That's minimum wage (ya know, to prevent slavery). When they get more, everything goes up in price in response, and then minimum wage can't afford food again, repeat the cycle, prices go up.

Bruh like every study done shows that minimum wage going up isn't the reason for this insane inflation, educate yourself and be better.

Educate myself. Uh huh.
It's funny how so many on the internet lack any form of critical thinking skills.
I do wonder how some figured out you have to turn the glass upright to fill it with water.

Want the actual cause of inflation.
People have too much money. That might not make sense to those starving in poverty, but it's basic economics. To much money and too little goods means prices rise.

Its funny you skipped post 22 to respond to this one instead

You sound like everyone else I took Econ 201 with and then all of a sudden thought they were experts in economic issues.

I'm no expert.

Yeah, I mean weve established that part.

I'm no expert.

Want the actual cause of inflation.
People have too much money. That might not make sense to those starving in poverty, but it's basic economics. To much money and too little goods means prices rise.

It stems from the all the free money given in 2020 & 2021. People were showered in money just for existing and bought all types of useless junk & speculated like crazy (Bitcoin, stonks, homes, pokemon cards you name it). It raised the price level of everything & once a price level is set high, it is unlikely to come down quickly, since that is the new expectation that everyone bases thier pricing on.

Except that's not what's happening at all. In terms of actual purchasing power, the middle and lower class have been progressively getting poorer than they ever were, with no recent noteworthy increases in purchasing power that can be cited as causing inflation. At no point has a majority of Americans been in the position of having more money than they can spend, which is the phenomenon to which you're referring (surplus money=willing to spend more=companies charge more). The only ones getting richer are those that are already rich, who boast about record profits then in the same breath claim that they need to increase prices to stay solvent in the midst of such rampant inflation.

If you want a specific trigger, a large part of the current wave stems from the petrochem industry realizing that the war in Ukraine and subsequent sanctions on Russia were a good excuse to double gas prices despite there being no commensurate increase in the price of oil. They got away with that because the general public was happy to accept that war is disruptive, that established a new baseline for fuel prices much, much higher than the previous one, and cost increases to everything else trickled down from that because the world is cripplingly dependent on oil. Every other corporation then jacks their prices up further than is actually needed to cover the cost of petrochem executives' greed because "inflation" is enough of an excuse for them to get away with it (not that anyone can really do anything about it because there aren't really alternatives that aren't doing so), and you get a cost of living crisis.

It stems from the all the free money given in 2020 & 2021. People were showered in money just for existing and bought all types of useless junk & speculated like crazy (Bitcoin, stonks, homes, pokemon cards you name it). It raised the price level of everything & once a price level is set high, it is unlikely to come down quickly, since that is the new expectation that everyone bases thier pricing on.

Prices are artificially high now because people were given about $1000 3 years ago? That doesn't add up son.

We've had high fuel prices before. While it does hurt the economy and cause inflation, it has never caused inflation to this level. Corporate greed is an ever constant. What isn't constant is a global pandemic that shuts down the whole economy and trillions of dollars in aid to try to support the economy. The inflation started during the recovery. Deny it all you want, but it is beared out by the stats. They called in transitory in Q1 2021, but it obviously stayed.

Prices are artificially high now because people were given about $1000 3 years ago? That doesn't add up son.

You do realize we gave far more than $1,000 a person: generous unemployment benefits, business subsidies, massive grants to NGOs & governments, zero percent interest rates. We spent trillions, about 5 trillion on Covid related measures and that is not even counting the zero percent interest rates as well, which also put a crap ton of money in the system. Our GDP is around 6 trillion and you don't think 5 trillion in spending isn't going to make a difference? How many bridges do you want to buy?

<image I'm not reposting>

I'm sorry, I don't listen to anyone who supports the Russian state and despite being a Senator for years hasn't done anything meaningful with his position except ***** and moan.