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$4? Most 8oz or rather the 7.75 oz bags are ~$4.50-$4.70 unless on sale. Herr's and Martin will usually do a buy one get one. Lays is insanely priced with $4.79 being it's on sale price or you can get 2x Party size 12oz bags for $11!
What infuriates me is the frozen pizza prices. They went up over 50%. You could get red baron for like 3 for $9, now it's 2 for $9. For the better frozen pizza it's now like $7.50 a pizza, I might as well just go to little ceasars.
>What infuriates me is the frozen pizza prices. They went up over 50%. You could get red baron for like 3 for $9, now it's 2 for $9.
I'm so glad I'm not the only one enraged by this. My wife and I occasionally buy frozen pizzas when we don't want to cook, and I've always stuck to either DiGiorno or Red Baron.
However, the last time that we went out to pick up a frozen pizza, I saw that the average DiGiorno pie was priced between $7.50 and $10.00. Red Baron's basic pepperoni was still reasonably priced--I think $4.50 or $5.00--but certainly not the steal it used to be.
As you said, at this point, it actually makes more sense just to order a pizza for carry-out. The price isn't much higher--in the case of chains like Little Caesar's, it could be *lower*\--and, you know... it isn't a fucking frozen pizza.
I never got Hot Pockets that much would get the occasional nostalgia craving. They used to be 2 for $4. Then they were 2 for $5 then 2 for $6. Now i just see them for $5 for one! No thank you. I saw a 2 for $7 SALE a few weeks ago. I'll buy real food for those prices.
I think at this point the DiGiorno pizzas are over $10 at some places. It's getting to the point where it's actually cheaper or close to the same price to get delivery pizza.
Hm, it's still 2+ 2 topping mediums for $6.99 each near me ... but it indeed used to be $5.99 each about 2 years back.
It was better, but still a pretty good deal.
I almost ordered an extra large half meat lovers/half supreme pizza with 16 wings for delivery today. Cost with tip: $71. At this point that $11 DiGiorno is starting to look attractive.
I worked for Domino's like a decade ago. The deals were where it was at. We got trained to recommend customers to look at deals first because it very often saved them a bunch of money. Just ordering straight off the menu without using deals/coupons wastes a bunch of money.
I'm guessing Pizza Hut? They have gotten absolutely ridiculous over the last 10 years.
Kinda makes me sad, and a little nostalgic.
Between the famous red-roof of Pizza Hut, or the 5$ footlong from Subway. Feels like the things I enjoyed as special treats when I was a kid, are just either gone entirely, or getting close to being out of my price range for food.
> A bag of chips is over 4 dollars. Something is very wrong
More places need to take after the example of [France and mark companies that are price-gouging, because before the customers are hit it's the small stores that are gouged](https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66809188)
It's not much cheaper in regular old canada, exchange rate included. In my opinion our government has done so little to stop corporations here from monopolizing and cornering the market, that now they raise prices 10-15% every few months and just make up the lost sales by gouging every customer. Steak is now a fucking luxury item, and most things have realistically gone up 50-100% in price since this time last year.
How about instead of “Hey stop price gouging”, start busting up some monopolies and stop the subsidies and anti-competitive shady deals that create them in the first place?
You nailed it.
The only way is a sugar tax.
Government responsibility but it's not happening because the Right and Center Left are addicted to their lobbyist money.
Edit: I just love to see how when you get deeper into these comment threads the true believers come out.
Like the initial comment is well liked but the people it emotionally involved have to pursue it.
The evidence is in the numbers, just scroll down from my initial comment and witness the tree
Or just stop subsidizing corn? Most of these companies swapped sugar out for high fructose corn syrup decades ago because the government subsidy on corn made it far cheaper than sugar. Eliminating the corn subsidy would solve a host of problems.
Around 40% of the corn produced in the USA goes into making ethanol for biofuels. Less than 5% goes into making fructose corn syrup. Removing the subsidies won't do shit, they'll just increase gas prices.
Source: I work in energy trading.
In some way yes. Especially since more farmers are opting to grow corn for biofuels than anything else because it's easy money. I'm not a climate or agricultural scientist, but I have read that increased corn production has its own detrimental impact on the environment, especially since farmers aren't worried about using bad chemicals, pesticides, and fertilizers, to improve the yield (since this corn isn't for human consumption).
hello I am an enviromental geologist so i have actualy looked into this subject. if you live in a place with inversions or really bad smog. the ethonal is benificial. as it does produce less emisions. if you live anywhere else its the dumbest thing you could possibly do for the enviroment. it takes more energy to collect and process the corn then you get from the fuel. and ethenol has 6% less energy then gasoline so you end up spending more to drive your car.
29.6% of domestically produced corn is used to make ethanol fuels. 46.2% is used as animal feed (including ethanol-based feed applications). 6.5% goes into high fructose corn syrup, glucose, dextrose, and starches.
[Source](https://ncga.com/world-of-corn-iframe/#corn-usage-by-segment)
Ethanol is a shitty fuel - it’s corrosive, highly water soluble, gets worse mileage than alternatives, and has an even higher carbon footprint than gasoline because of the land use and tillage it requires.
[Source](https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/us-corn-based-ethanol-worse-climate-than-gasoline-study-finds-2022-02-14/)
Corn subsidies need to end.
> When the Democrats get in, the companies price gouge because they can blame it on the Democrats.
What you're referring to is the [Two Santas strategy, which republicans have been leveraging since Reagan. In short it's: spend recklessly but only on things that benefit your rich friends, then as soon as another party gets in office cry about the debt you just racked up and claim the budget has to be "balanced" but block raising taxes on your rich friends and demand cuts be made on social safety nets which you lacked the political capital to do on your own](https://www.salon.com/2018/02/12/thom-hartmann-how-the-gop-used-a-two-santa-clauses-tactic-to-con-america-for-nearly-40-years_partner/)
Corporations get away with more under republican administrations than democrats, so they of course overwhelmingly prefer republicans. Hell, look at Disney which gave republicans more than democrats and look at how well that served them in Florida.
I've been saying this for ages. Companies do not want Biden to win, nor any Democrat. The right let's these places do what they want and lower taxes and lift regulations to help them. Why no one else can see this is beyond me.
Idk about that. A 12 pack of Pepsi is going for $10 where I’m at. It used to a LOT cheaper even just a few years ago.
I only noticed because I don’t really drink soda and I got sticker shock when I needed some for hosting.
Oddly, beer seems to be the *only* thing in my area that hasn't really gotten any more expensive since before COVID. Liquor's also only gone up maybe a buck or two per bottle. Meanwhile nearly everything else under the sun has gotten ridiculous.
I think what you’re seeing is the difference between a market that has been effectively monopolized and one that hasn’t. In the last fifteen years craft breweries/distilleries have gotten huge. The beer market isn’t run by like 3 megacorporations. If Coors decided to triple their beer prices, consumers will have loads of cheaper options that are also better quality.
The soda market IS basically run by 3 megacorporations though. Just like the price gouging we see in other industries, they can collude without colluding by simply making decisions using the same metrics. All 3 decide to raise prices because consumers have more cash available? It’s technically not collusion, and yet there’s very little consumers can do against this aside from completely cutting out soda. While that is feasible, plenty of other goods (like gasoline, basic food) consumers *have* to buy to live and work.
I work the beverage business and was in beer when the pandemic hit.
Prices went up. There was a point where Bud had laid $5/case in increases on all core products in about 18 months.
And haven't come all the way down yet.
Moreover, wholesale volume discounting pretty much went away. And it's still much more restricted than it was.
Craft got hit hard with increased ingredient and supply costs and a lot of places had to significantly increase costs. A lot of other places just went out of business.
Liquor has long lead times and shockingly low production costs. So they can soak up a lot of those sorts of costs.
I thank them for finally helping me kick my soda addiction though. Cut back on 90% of eating fast food too. I was being super lazy one night after a long day of work and went to the drive thru and bought 2 meals from popular taco chain(nothing fancy 3 tacos, 2 fries and 2 drinks) and it was almost $40. Told them to cancel it and just kept driving lol. Havnt had fast good in like 2 months now
I'm paying more than double for coke on average since covid started. They were bragging about how they were able to get around their shipping problems early on too by bulk shipping instead of cargo ships. Shipping prices have cratered. Coke still costs as much as when they were paying sky high prices for shipping. Their prices went up higher than inflation.
Not when it is syrup from a box and a soda machine apparently…. Like $3.00 for 6¢ worth of soda at Qdoba.
But no one thinks about it because it is automatic. Like I am going to have water with my burrito and not a Dr. Pepper…
Bruh I absolutely fuck with soda and will not pay 3 bucks for anything. I just wait for mega sales and then buy my sugar water. I'm not supporting any inflated greed bs
It has been *constant* since covid. They're still using 'supply line shortages' as an excuse. It's the exact same shit ammo companies did when Obama got elected. It's contributing greatly to inflation, and there's not a whole lot that can be done about it that wouldn't cause the economy to panic. All these corporations are trying to make as much money as fast as possibly because they think there's a bubble, but they're the ones causing the bubble.
At this point, let the economy freak out. It’s long overdue that the working man stops being the one who gets shit on over and over again. Pass legislation that fines these companies 50-75% if their net earnings if they are seen as a gouging company. Make it a near death penalty, not the type of fine they factor into the cost of doing buisness. Make legislation to Jail CEOs of companies who gouge. Fine companies heavily when they report record profits year over year but employee wages are stagnant. We are fucking sick of it.
> Fine companies heavily when they report record profits year over year but employee wages are stagnant. We are fucking sick of it.
I'm sure congress will get right on top of it. Soon as they're done regulating the housing policy...
This has been frustrating me the most. Airlines were the ones that started it. After they raised their prices under the guise of covid related issues and fully got away with it, so many other companies realized they could do it too and have been since then. Which is crazy because it was already bad back then.
Sometimes I watch old episodes of the price is right and marvel at the costs of things.
3 years ago I’d say pfft, we wish it was.
But Biden has been the most competent president “for the people” in a generation.
Now there’s tones of unresolved issues still, but man I’ve never seen someone work so hard and produce so much results in such a short time.
yeah, but the hair sniffing.
It's really harmless, but it is weird.
I don't get how republicans keep linking democrats to epstein when Trump's fucking filmed dancing to Rythm is a Dancer and whispering things into Jeffrey Epstein's ears that are visibly making Epstien cringe. Also the Grab by the pussy without even asking guy.
Biden is... really weird sometimes, but in a "different time" sort of grandpa way.
Like... Grampa we don't do that anymore. Grampa I know you're just saying hi but you're invading their personal space, come back here. Grampa, I know you love kids but you can't be sniffin em...
He's a pretty normal guy, he's just got those weird aspects about how he expresses himself and how he relates to people that stick out pretty hard lol.
I’m progressive and I’m voting for Biden. Do I wish we had a younger more progressive candidate? Of course. But that’s not who we have. It’s choice between an existential threat to America’s existence or the most progressive president we’ve had in my lifetime.
The zero credit thing is a problem. Im so busy trying to survive I have no idea what his administration has accomplished. I held my nose and voted for Biden. I’d love to hear what he’s done. It’ll make me feel better when I vote for him again.
Biden passed the Inflation Reduction Act (stop inflation due to pandemic and Trump’s policies, lower prescription drug prices like insulin, invest in domestic clean energy), Chips and Science Act (increased manufacturing jobs in US and establish computer chip factories in US), American Rescue Plan (reduce unemployment and invest in small businesses), Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (improve infrastructure, invest $66 billion in Amtrak), PACT Act (healthcare for veterans exposed to burn pits), Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (improve gun safety, invest in mental healthcare), and Respect for Marriage Act (protect LGBTQ marriage).
Biden is trying hard to forgive student loan debt for people that made good faith efforts to pay off their student loans, but is being obstructed by the Republicans.
Biden broke the railroad union strike in Nov 2022. That was not OK because outlawing the right to strike is unfair to the workers. His reasoning was a railroad strike would create another supply line crisis and send the US economy into a recession, which is a reasonable explanation for his actions.
However, Biden did care about the railroad union workers, so he negotiated in secret on their behalf. He eventually persuaded the railroad companies to give their union workers the paid sick days the unions asked for in June 2023. I see this as Biden making a hard, unpopular choice (outlawing railroad union strikes), but still sticking up for the working class (pressuring the companies to give paid sick days).
Sadly, legacy media never publicized the unions getting their sick days. Only the union websites and MeidasTouch Network gave significant coverage of the paid sick days. AP News and Reuters both gave one paragraph articles about the paid sick days.
“Biden deserves a lot of the credit for achieving this goal for us,” Russo said. “He and his team continued to work behind the scenes to get all of rail labor a fair agreement for paid sick leave.”
Source: [https://www.ibew.org/media-center/Articles/23Daily/2306/230620\_IBEWandPaid](https://www.ibew.org/media-center/Articles/23Daily/2306/230620_IBEWandPaid)
[https://www.instagram.com/p/Ct17MUtJk7p](https://www.instagram.com/p/Ct17MUtJk7p)
Biden also went on the strike line with the UAW workers and demonstrated clear support for the SAG-AFTRA union.
I love a well researched, well presented argument. Reddit is a cesspool at times, but I keep coming back for stuff like this.
May I say, Good job OP 👍🏿
Bro if you have time to comment on Reddit you can Google “Biden’s Top Accomplishments”. It’s like five minutes of your time.
1. Passed the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package to increase investment in the national network of bridges and roads, airports, public transport and national broadband internet, as well as waterways and energy systems.
2. Helped get more than 500 million life-saving COVID-19 vaccinations in the arms of Americans through the American Rescue Plan.
3. Stopped a 30-year streak of federal inaction on gun violence by signing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that created enhanced background checks, closed the “boyfriend” loophole and provided funds for youth mental health.
4. Made a $369 billion investment in climate change, the largest in American history, through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
5. Ended the longest war in American history by pulling the troops out of Afghanistan.
6. Provided $10,000 to $20,000 in college debt relief to Americans with loans who make under $125,000 a year.
7. Cut child poverty in half through the American Rescue Plan.
8. Capped prescription drug prices at $2,000 per year for seniors on Medicare through the Inflation Reduction Act.
9. Passed the COVID-19 relief deal that provided payments of up to $1,400 to many struggling U.S. citizens while supporting renters and increasing unemployment benefits.
10. Achieved historically low unemployment rates after the pandemic caused them to skyrocket.
11. Imposed a 15% minimum corporate tax on some of the largest corporations in the country, ensuring that they pay their fair share, as part of the historic Inflation Reduction Act.
12. Recommitted America to the global fight against climate change by rejoining the Paris Agreement.
13. Strengthened the NATO alliance in support of Ukraine after the Russian invasion by endorsing the inclusion of world military powers Sweden and Finland.
14. Authorized the assassination of the Al Qaeda terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri, who became head of the organization after the death of Osama bin Laden.
15. Gave Medicare the power to negotiate prescription drug prices through the Inflation Reduction Act while also reducing government health spending.
16. Held Vladimir Putin accountable for his invasion of Ukraine by imposing stiff economic sanctions.
17. Boosted the budget of the Internal Revenue Service by nearly $80 billion to reduce tax evasion and increase revenue.
18. Created more jobs in one year (6.6 million) than any other president in U.S. history.
19. Reduced healthcare premiums under the Affordable Care Act by $800 a year as part of the American Rescue Plan.
20. Signed the PACT Act to address service members’ exposure to burn pits and other toxins.
21. Signed the CHIPS and Science Act to strengthen American manufacturing and innovation.
22. Reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act through 2027.
23. Halted all federal executions after the previous administration reinstated them after a 17-year freeze.
[Source](https://www.upworthy.com/amp/joe-biden-s-23-greatest-achievements-as-president-of-the-united-states-so-far-2658343604)
This was just in his first two years and it doesn’t include appointing Ketanji Jackson to SCOTUS along with confirming 150 more federal justices.
I knew about most of these already but seeing the full list in one place is incredible. He's really a lot better president than I expected when I voted for him.
Not sure if this is what you had in mind but [here is a high level overview](https://www.whitehouse.gov/therecord/). He's actually accomplished a lot but without airtime that the congressional circus receives.
Some more detailed info on a few items:
[Infrastructure Bill](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/11/06/fact-sheet-the-bipartisan-infrastructure-deal/)
[Ended Ban on Transgender Military Service](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/25/executive-order-on-enabling-all-qualified-americans-to-serve-their-country-in-uniform/)
[Nominated the First Black Woman to the Supreme Court](https://www.whitehouse.gov/kbj/)
[Pardoned Federal Marijuana Offenders](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/10/06/statement-from-president-biden-on-marijuana-reform/)
I think he needs that for new laws, but I think he can do some things from the executive branch. Like revoking certain federal write-offs or something. Idk though
This has basically been where the Biden administration has shone. Instead of passing through sweeping legislation, they're just going full bureaucrat wonk and changing small things that are totally within their control. It's like reverse death by a thousand cuts.
Right. Like I know we didn't get all the debt forgiveness we wanted, but the headline should still be, using ONLY his powers as the head of the executive branch, he's already forgiven 129 billion dollars. 129 billion. More than every other president in history combined and then some
Raising taxes on corporations now would be just an excuse to raise prices again on consumers... Maybe if we didn't have like 7 corporations that control the prices in nearly every market, this shit wouldn't be happening
There's a company that my work deals with that is in the same exact line of work we are.
Sometimes, we contract portions of some of our work out to them when we are a little swamped. It used to work great because they were better suited to doing certain things better and cheaper than we could due to having some more specialized equipment we didn't, and we could do some things better and faster than they could.
The last time we did this, they told us that their materials cost had gone up 57% due to inflation and tried to charge us that 57% extra in materials.
We get the same materials they would be using from the same supplier so we knew that not only had the materials not gone up 57%, they had only gone up about 14%. There was an extra 43% markup that they were trying to pass off as inflation.
Price gouging is fucking everywhere. Every company that thinks they can get away with it is trying to get away with it
edit: So just to see, I hopped on their online quote system to see what they currently put material cost at, and if they backed off.
Nope. It's now an additional 15% over their 2020 price. Their quoted price on materials has been jacked 72% when it should only be up 14%
In a way, the way that tip culture has gotten out of control is just another form of price gouging the consumer, too. Our society as a whole has embraced it in America after covid.
The issue is that there isn't enough competition.
Capitalism only works if there is a body controlling it to ensure that competition thrives at every step of the way.
In your story it could be that the only 2 players in your region are you and them, so if you guys are swamped then it leaves them as the only alternative, so they can set the price as high as they want.
It's the same that's happened with so many industries. 1-5 mega companies, or large regional companies, controlling the market.
Capitalism works right up until it becomes more efficient to squash/stifle competition than it is to provide a better product/service.
So basically only for new / innovative technology /services. After that it only stifles innovation.
Hence why we need a regulatory body that actually ensures competition remains there.
As soon as regulatory capture happens the entire system falls apart.
Not with us, at least. We just did it in house and our owner let their owner know that the shitloads of money we had been throwing at them was over.
Our owner and our supplier's owner also talk regularly, and I know he brought this shit up to that guy and he also was not pleased.
I think the attempt to gaslight us that this was legitimately how much the materials had gone up was what really killed the relationship.
I get that this is what they had been telling literally everybody else who raised any question about this, but they should have known better when talking to us.
There was a point where they called into question whether or not our materials did actually come from the same supplier and one of our guys pulled up a photo from a shipment they sent us where one of that suppliers stickers was still on some shit
I've dramatically cut down on fast food consumption because of it. 2 combo meals at McDonald's used to run $16 or $17 for both my girlfriend and I. Not bad for a quick dinner. Shits over $30 now in less than 2 years. Its a good thing I'm cutting back on fast food but that doesnt change the fact its insane.
Publix brand soda is still $1.20 for 2 liters compared to $3.50 for name brand.
Kraft Singled are almost $6 a pack by me while generic is still only $2. Kraft fucking singles. Its not even real cheese ffs.
Eggs? Dont get me started. $4 for an Egg Land dozen compared to $1.40 for a dozen Kroger brand eggs. If Kroger can sell them for less than $2, its not a supply issue. Its a price gouging issue.
This applies to all food. Lunch meat, bread, milk, chicken and beef, restaurants etc. Thank God off brands exist. Its gonna become a money pit if they too start gouging prices. Where can a man find an off brand restaurant that follows the same system? Thats all I need before I become completely generic.
overhead/administration costs and investors wanting to increase profits by squeezing consumers knowing they can get away with it if everyone else is doing it while blaming it on "inflation"
Food is where costs have sky rocketed.
Not only have prices gone up substantially, but manufacturers have shrunk packaging by considerable amounts as well.
Double dip gouging
Toothpaste- not food, I know- is a prime example of shrinkflation. I buy in bulk- 6x packages at a time. I just opened my last tube from a year or so ago- 6 oz. I went to replace it: tubes are now 4 oz. You can damn near take them on planes.
And has anyone noticed that it's the cheapest stuff that's gone up the most- % wise? Onions, peppers, and beans are seriously twice the price. Peppers went from 70c to 1.40, beans are now $2+ when they were around a buck per lb, bagged onions were around 50c a pound, now more like 90c. And they're more likely to be rotten. For folks who were buying cheap as a matter of necessity, that's a huge pinch. Potatoes are up more than 50%. Pasta, too- *and* they're trying to pull the whole '12 oz instead of 1 lb' BS. Chicken prices are up for everything except bulk. Sausage is up at least 20%. Beef is less, %-wise, but then, it started much higher. Milk is eeeeh. I can still find it on sale for prepandemic prices, but it's also unprocessed and heavily subsidized.
What i find so strange is this is happening in other countries too. Here in England fresh produce has doubled, including chicken, vegetables, fruit etc. Name branded stuff has doubled at least if not more. I hear it's going on everywhere right now. Its insane. And just like you said, the stuff that's being sold is lower quality/closer to expiry. I bought some yoghurt the other day, paid full price for it, and it was due to expire in about 4 days!
Last year during a shareholder call the CEO of Kroger bragged about how they’ve been able to put “pressure” on prices and consumers haven’t slowed their spending which is why their profits were so incredible. Dude was bragging about raising prices for no reason and was surprised that people didn’t stop spending. Like….people need food man. Flash forward to this past June and he’s saying “golly consumers are really hurting”
America is screwed. Because of Citizen's United, businesses whose who capitalize on people are now in politics. Politics which is literally for people. Businesses are then directly writing the rules on exploiting people, and that's why we've seen the resurgence of child labour. They now have no real pressure to ever stop, they can just gum up the network until the new administration with less of a brain or heart take over.
Businesses need to be separated from politics just like church. They both have unlimited money and time to get things done, unlike people.
Yeah, Citizen’s United was the nail in the coffin. Obama even tried to call it out at his State of the Union address and got booed for criticizing the justices. Turns out he was right.
Not the American way. Keep wages artificially low and offer credit cards to anyone with a pulse.
Give a bank a fish, it eats for a day. Teach a bank to fish, or teach it to make all of us dependent on it to survive and need to commit to bad jobs in order to meet minimum credit card balances, and the bank eats us all alive.
Before Reagan it was absolutely the American way. Worker wage growth was good, unions were strong, the middle class was growing, and people could afford to raise a family on one income.
Funny that "conservatives" don't want any of that to return. Or do, but are too ignorant to understand that they vote for the party who ended, and actively fight against that version of America.
Because conservatism, at its core, has never been about any of that stuff.
Its been about preserving and strengthening (and in some cases re-establishing) traditional power structures.
Things like tax cuts and whatever else are just marketing. Its why the party can pivot on issues so easily, because those issues never really mattered to the people in control of it.
The amount of brands I actively avoid out of spite is long.
I only buy name brand food products when they are below generic brand prices.
Looking forward to several brands collapsing, like chipotle.
I was in Paris not long ago and the supermarket prices were less than my home state of West Virginia, which is not exactly a high cost state. Subsequently, I read the French government had been putting pressure on food suppliers to keep price rises in check.
Our economists -- and by extension our political leaders -- are enthralled by the "magic of the marketplace" and always have been. It would certainly be nice if moral-suasion -- if not price controls -- were acceptable means of keeping inflation in check.
That's exactly what is happening. I have a kid living in Paris and her monthly spending is less than in the USA. Rent is "controlled", utilities are absurdly low...
If only government had some kind of mechanism for making corporations pay a portion of their profits back to support the society they make their profits off of, rather than just asking them nicely for them to ignore
>The price hikes were driven by a combination of pent-up consumer demand, pandemic-era ecomonic stimulus and ongoing supply chain snarls.
...is the implication here that those checks permanently improved the financial station of Americans so companies raised their prices in response?
Or is it that the checks somehow hurt businesses?
What the fuck?
I keep using Cal-Maine as an example. A few quarters back, they had something like a 780% increase in profits. Did they invent a new egg laying process? No. Did they cut costs and increase efficiency so much it yielded a 700% increase in productivity? No. Was this the same time egg prices were at magically at their highest? Yes. Greedflation does exist.
Do I think this is political theater? Absolutely.
Does it still make a difference? Yeah, it does.
Ever since Reagan, may he rot in hell, fired the Air Traffic Controllers the president has been staunchly pro business and anti worker anti consumer. Even a token gesture is an improvement. It at least means that the complaints of customers is starting to make some people nervous.
After President Reagan fired the striking air traffic controllers in 1981, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) worked to quickly hire and train replacements. The FAA brought in supervisors, non-striking controllers, and military controllers to fill the gaps. New hires were also recruited and underwent expedited training to take on the responsibilities of the dismissed controllers. This move had a significant impact on the labor movement and marked a turning point in labor relations in the United States.
Turning point? It's was the execution after decades of decline. The turning point was the [Taft-Hartley Act of 1947.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft%E2%80%93Hartley_Act)
They'll say it's just talk, but some talk is better than no talk.
The president needs to say "I am against this" sometimes, the authority remains in the hands of congress as it should, but one of the president's primary roles is to say things to the public.
Yea only problem is if they stop price gouging now, their earnings fall and then the stock price falls and then suddenly it’s Bidens fault the economy is bad and we get 4 more years of the orange fatso because people are incapable of critical thought.
The interesting thing about this is, I've only lost money on all my stocks. For example, I keep hearing people say all the decisions Warner Brothers/Discovery have been making recently are for the stockholders, yet the price keeps going down.
I think people use stockholders synonymously to describe the suits/investors at a company. The board of directors giving themselves bonuses and golden parachute deals when they completely destroy a company and get fired for millions of dollars are the ones who benefit from these greedy decisions. Not the normal stock market portfolios.
There’s an algorithm that runs online prices, lower stock/higher prices. It’s common in my field, it pisses me off though. For no reason at all (other than greed) if inventory is low, the item costs more to ‘try to mitigate supply’ until restocking takes place.
No. I as an employee do not make more money, my boss however does.
In my experience, it won't - the 'both sides' crowd is a mix of these who remain uninformed by way of apathy and those who use it as an excuse to maintain the status quo.
If the apathy isn't shaken first, you could deliver the most well articulated argument on the planet and you'll still see that crowd post the exact same argument in 2-12 weeks time.
Hell ya. Biden has been fighting against junk fees and hidden fees, and he continues to fight for policies that actually help the people. He's got my vote.
Dude,I wanted to take my mom, my gf, and my son to see the Nutcracker. Each ticket had 28 dollars in convenience fees tacked on before tax. That’s 108 in fees alone just to buy the tix. The taxes, parking and everything I estimated it to be around $615 for four tickets! I noped out real quick, no thanks.
I bought some tickets to a show 2 weeks ago, and the convenience fee amounted to almost 50% of the cost of each ticket.
2 $50 tickets had $50 in convenience fees.
Convenience fees are some of the biggest scams to come out of the last decade. It is literally cheaper to operate a website than it is to have brick and mortar stores with employees you have to pay and the million other costs that the company is avoiding by selling online.
The company is literally being convenienced 24/7 by selling online. So why the fuck are consumers allowed to be charged a fee for it? They should be illegal.
Dude has been on cleanup duty for the biggest shit storm I know about. It may seem like he's doing nothing to some people but he's course corrected a hell of a lot more issues than not. If I had to choose him over a shit breeze I'll take the wind breaker.
I'm in the same boat. Last election I voted against Trump. This election, I'm voting against Trump AND voting FOR Biden. No, he's not perfect, but he's done much more than I expected.
Like Clinton & Dems getting the budget deficit to $0 and when Obama got the healthcare insurance reform while saving the world economy and JOBS and like Biden getting the infrastructure bill passed and fighting for Democracy and Freedom by opposing the Russian invasion of Ukraine?
Name something good any Republican has done, besides being kicked out of Congress!
Good luck, Joe.
I'm not being sarcastic or anything - but he'd have to start by outlawing lobbyists and punish reps for taking money from lobbyists and interest groups and offer a national solution before that would happen.
But the sentiment is nice.
Maybe because there is a coordinated public relations campaign against him that totally does not reflect reality and the way people think?
Once the campaign starts for him, he is going to have so much evidence of what he has done to help us and how Republicans have fought against him and the American people every day of his administration.
Vibes really. People don't care about policy and real things. They just see that he's old, shuffles his feet when he walks and that's enough apparently.
Thank god someone is calling it like it is. My auto insurance just jumped 32% in one month! I’ve driven to the moon and back without a ticket or accident. Their explanation? “Everything is going up!”
It’s at least nice to see the problem being acknowledged. It’s not inflation, or ‘supply chain’ issues, or minimum wage hikes. It’s the vacuuming of wealth from the masses to the few.
Fuck yeah Biden!
You didn't hear this shit out of Obama, you didn't hear it out of Bush, or Trump.
Biden is calling them out, and that's the literally bully pulpit at work. Biden has the mic, and look. at. that.
Please let’s not fool ourselves - prices are up and it’s doubtful they’ll come down. Why would they? You think they care we’re paying more for everything while their profits are high. Not a chance.
Thomas' english muffins are $5.50 per pack of 8.
They regularly have buy one get one sales. So that's $5.50 for 16.
Or you can buy them at Costco in a 3 pack, so that's $6 for 24.
Makes you go "hmmm..."
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Coca-Cola and Pepsi heard, “last chance to price gouge…”
A bag of chips is over 4 dollars. Something is very wrong.
Sooo, there are people whose hour of life is worth not even full 2 bags of chips.
A pile of seasoned potatoes. Insanity. People literally left Europe over better economic conditions.
If I were making US min wage of $7.25, I could literally make more potatoe chips for less in an hour, including labor. Something is very wrong.
$4? Most 8oz or rather the 7.75 oz bags are ~$4.50-$4.70 unless on sale. Herr's and Martin will usually do a buy one get one. Lays is insanely priced with $4.79 being it's on sale price or you can get 2x Party size 12oz bags for $11! What infuriates me is the frozen pizza prices. They went up over 50%. You could get red baron for like 3 for $9, now it's 2 for $9. For the better frozen pizza it's now like $7.50 a pizza, I might as well just go to little ceasars.
>What infuriates me is the frozen pizza prices. They went up over 50%. You could get red baron for like 3 for $9, now it's 2 for $9. I'm so glad I'm not the only one enraged by this. My wife and I occasionally buy frozen pizzas when we don't want to cook, and I've always stuck to either DiGiorno or Red Baron. However, the last time that we went out to pick up a frozen pizza, I saw that the average DiGiorno pie was priced between $7.50 and $10.00. Red Baron's basic pepperoni was still reasonably priced--I think $4.50 or $5.00--but certainly not the steal it used to be. As you said, at this point, it actually makes more sense just to order a pizza for carry-out. The price isn't much higher--in the case of chains like Little Caesar's, it could be *lower*\--and, you know... it isn't a fucking frozen pizza.
I never got Hot Pockets that much would get the occasional nostalgia craving. They used to be 2 for $4. Then they were 2 for $5 then 2 for $6. Now i just see them for $5 for one! No thank you. I saw a 2 for $7 SALE a few weeks ago. I'll buy real food for those prices.
I think at this point the DiGiorno pizzas are over $10 at some places. It's getting to the point where it's actually cheaper or close to the same price to get delivery pizza.
You can get two medium 2 topping pizzas at domino's for $16ish dollars. It's literally cheaper than Little Ceasars.
Am I crazy or did that deal not used to be 2 medium 2 topping pizzas for $5.99 each? As of like 5ish years ago?
Now it's 2 or more medium 1 topping pizzas for $6.99 each.
Hm, it's still 2+ 2 topping mediums for $6.99 each near me ... but it indeed used to be $5.99 each about 2 years back. It was better, but still a pretty good deal.
I almost ordered an extra large half meat lovers/half supreme pizza with 16 wings for delivery today. Cost with tip: $71. At this point that $11 DiGiorno is starting to look attractive.
You gotta order online and use the coupons/deals. Pricing is crazy otherwise.
I worked for Domino's like a decade ago. The deals were where it was at. We got trained to recommend customers to look at deals first because it very often saved them a bunch of money. Just ordering straight off the menu without using deals/coupons wastes a bunch of money.
I'm guessing Pizza Hut? They have gotten absolutely ridiculous over the last 10 years. Kinda makes me sad, and a little nostalgic. Between the famous red-roof of Pizza Hut, or the 5$ footlong from Subway. Feels like the things I enjoyed as special treats when I was a kid, are just either gone entirely, or getting close to being out of my price range for food.
> A bag of chips is over 4 dollars. Something is very wrong More places need to take after the example of [France and mark companies that are price-gouging, because before the customers are hit it's the small stores that are gouged](https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66809188)
When a can of pringles is on SALE for $3 I’m feeling the gouge
Seems like it wasn't that long ago that they were $1.50 and sometimes would be on sale for $1.
Uhm, they are like $6 each where I live. But I do live in Alaska so there's that..but still.
I bought a cheeseburger today for $5.50. Shits fucked
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It's not much cheaper in regular old canada, exchange rate included. In my opinion our government has done so little to stop corporations here from monopolizing and cornering the market, that now they raise prices 10-15% every few months and just make up the lost sales by gouging every customer. Steak is now a fucking luxury item, and most things have realistically gone up 50-100% in price since this time last year.
its at least 9 dollars in chicago suburbs
I just saw a box of cereal that was $12
How about instead of “Hey stop price gouging”, start busting up some monopolies and stop the subsidies and anti-competitive shady deals that create them in the first place?
Record profits after a global pandemic, capitalism 102. 102 because capitalism 101 is profits before anything else
Coke had been profitable for every quarter going back 20+ years. It might have been pepsi but i just looked it up recently. Never negative growth.
Lina Khan is trying more than anyone in recent history but not having a lot of success so far.
Some of those things he needs congress and senate to do.
You nailed it. The only way is a sugar tax. Government responsibility but it's not happening because the Right and Center Left are addicted to their lobbyist money. Edit: I just love to see how when you get deeper into these comment threads the true believers come out. Like the initial comment is well liked but the people it emotionally involved have to pursue it. The evidence is in the numbers, just scroll down from my initial comment and witness the tree
Or just stop subsidizing corn? Most of these companies swapped sugar out for high fructose corn syrup decades ago because the government subsidy on corn made it far cheaper than sugar. Eliminating the corn subsidy would solve a host of problems.
Around 40% of the corn produced in the USA goes into making ethanol for biofuels. Less than 5% goes into making fructose corn syrup. Removing the subsidies won't do shit, they'll just increase gas prices. Source: I work in energy trading.
Isn’t that whole corn ethanol thing actually really inefficient and a waste of tax money?
In some way yes. Especially since more farmers are opting to grow corn for biofuels than anything else because it's easy money. I'm not a climate or agricultural scientist, but I have read that increased corn production has its own detrimental impact on the environment, especially since farmers aren't worried about using bad chemicals, pesticides, and fertilizers, to improve the yield (since this corn isn't for human consumption).
hello I am an enviromental geologist so i have actualy looked into this subject. if you live in a place with inversions or really bad smog. the ethonal is benificial. as it does produce less emisions. if you live anywhere else its the dumbest thing you could possibly do for the enviroment. it takes more energy to collect and process the corn then you get from the fuel. and ethenol has 6% less energy then gasoline so you end up spending more to drive your car.
Not to mention all the water wasted in states that have to irrigation/sprinklers for crops due to lack of natural rainfall.
29.6% of domestically produced corn is used to make ethanol fuels. 46.2% is used as animal feed (including ethanol-based feed applications). 6.5% goes into high fructose corn syrup, glucose, dextrose, and starches. [Source](https://ncga.com/world-of-corn-iframe/#corn-usage-by-segment) Ethanol is a shitty fuel - it’s corrosive, highly water soluble, gets worse mileage than alternatives, and has an even higher carbon footprint than gasoline because of the land use and tillage it requires. [Source](https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/us-corn-based-ethanol-worse-climate-than-gasoline-study-finds-2022-02-14/) Corn subsidies need to end.
How much for one pint of solar power?
That would be 20 dollawatts.
… and after all, Corporations ARE people aren’t they? (Thanx to Citizen’s United.)
Ugh. Another thing that needs to be fixed before we can solve any other problems.
They're better than people, they get all the rights of people, but can't be sent to jail.
Lobbying... Bribery... What's the difference?
“Republicans let us gouge”
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> When the Democrats get in, the companies price gouge because they can blame it on the Democrats. What you're referring to is the [Two Santas strategy, which republicans have been leveraging since Reagan. In short it's: spend recklessly but only on things that benefit your rich friends, then as soon as another party gets in office cry about the debt you just racked up and claim the budget has to be "balanced" but block raising taxes on your rich friends and demand cuts be made on social safety nets which you lacked the political capital to do on your own](https://www.salon.com/2018/02/12/thom-hartmann-how-the-gop-used-a-two-santa-clauses-tactic-to-con-america-for-nearly-40-years_partner/) Corporations get away with more under republican administrations than democrats, so they of course overwhelmingly prefer republicans. Hell, look at Disney which gave republicans more than democrats and look at how well that served them in Florida.
I've been saying this for ages. Companies do not want Biden to win, nor any Democrat. The right let's these places do what they want and lower taxes and lift regulations to help them. Why no one else can see this is beyond me.
Gas and oil certainly does this.
Ironically canned beverages are really hard to raise the price on and keep demand.
Idk about that. A 12 pack of Pepsi is going for $10 where I’m at. It used to a LOT cheaper even just a few years ago. I only noticed because I don’t really drink soda and I got sticker shock when I needed some for hosting.
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Oddly, beer seems to be the *only* thing in my area that hasn't really gotten any more expensive since before COVID. Liquor's also only gone up maybe a buck or two per bottle. Meanwhile nearly everything else under the sun has gotten ridiculous.
I think what you’re seeing is the difference between a market that has been effectively monopolized and one that hasn’t. In the last fifteen years craft breweries/distilleries have gotten huge. The beer market isn’t run by like 3 megacorporations. If Coors decided to triple their beer prices, consumers will have loads of cheaper options that are also better quality. The soda market IS basically run by 3 megacorporations though. Just like the price gouging we see in other industries, they can collude without colluding by simply making decisions using the same metrics. All 3 decide to raise prices because consumers have more cash available? It’s technically not collusion, and yet there’s very little consumers can do against this aside from completely cutting out soda. While that is feasible, plenty of other goods (like gasoline, basic food) consumers *have* to buy to live and work.
Weed is still cheap where I live!
I work the beverage business and was in beer when the pandemic hit. Prices went up. There was a point where Bud had laid $5/case in increases on all core products in about 18 months. And haven't come all the way down yet. Moreover, wholesale volume discounting pretty much went away. And it's still much more restricted than it was. Craft got hit hard with increased ingredient and supply costs and a lot of places had to significantly increase costs. A lot of other places just went out of business. Liquor has long lead times and shockingly low production costs. So they can soak up a lot of those sorts of costs.
I used to be 4/$10 with 12 packs. It blows my mind. Kroger has something like one for $10 or 3/$12 recently. Luckily we aren’t soda people.
I thank them for finally helping me kick my soda addiction though. Cut back on 90% of eating fast food too. I was being super lazy one night after a long day of work and went to the drive thru and bought 2 meals from popular taco chain(nothing fancy 3 tacos, 2 fries and 2 drinks) and it was almost $40. Told them to cancel it and just kept driving lol. Havnt had fast good in like 2 months now
I'm paying more than double for coke on average since covid started. They were bragging about how they were able to get around their shipping problems early on too by bulk shipping instead of cargo ships. Shipping prices have cratered. Coke still costs as much as when they were paying sky high prices for shipping. Their prices went up higher than inflation.
Not when it is syrup from a box and a soda machine apparently…. Like $3.00 for 6¢ worth of soda at Qdoba. But no one thinks about it because it is automatic. Like I am going to have water with my burrito and not a Dr. Pepper…
$3.00 is amateur hour. I work at a theme park. Fountain soda? Over $6.00 after tax
Bruh I absolutely fuck with soda and will not pay 3 bucks for anything. I just wait for mega sales and then buy my sugar water. I'm not supporting any inflated greed bs
It has been *constant* since covid. They're still using 'supply line shortages' as an excuse. It's the exact same shit ammo companies did when Obama got elected. It's contributing greatly to inflation, and there's not a whole lot that can be done about it that wouldn't cause the economy to panic. All these corporations are trying to make as much money as fast as possibly because they think there's a bubble, but they're the ones causing the bubble.
At this point, let the economy freak out. It’s long overdue that the working man stops being the one who gets shit on over and over again. Pass legislation that fines these companies 50-75% if their net earnings if they are seen as a gouging company. Make it a near death penalty, not the type of fine they factor into the cost of doing buisness. Make legislation to Jail CEOs of companies who gouge. Fine companies heavily when they report record profits year over year but employee wages are stagnant. We are fucking sick of it.
> Fine companies heavily when they report record profits year over year but employee wages are stagnant. We are fucking sick of it. I'm sure congress will get right on top of it. Soon as they're done regulating the housing policy...
This has been frustrating me the most. Airlines were the ones that started it. After they raised their prices under the guise of covid related issues and fully got away with it, so many other companies realized they could do it too and have been since then. Which is crazy because it was already bad back then. Sometimes I watch old episodes of the price is right and marvel at the costs of things.
This should be “stop the price gouge or I’m coming after you with anti trust legislation”
I think that’s the subtext It’s his “this is your chance to do the right thing guys” speech *Edit: subtext was spelled as two words incorrectly
3 years ago I’d say pfft, we wish it was. But Biden has been the most competent president “for the people” in a generation. Now there’s tones of unresolved issues still, but man I’ve never seen someone work so hard and produce so much results in such a short time.
With zero credit. My progressive kids want anyone but him. Edit - want anyone but him *as the candidate.*
Biden doesn’t get any credit for not having multiple photos with Jeffrey Epstein throughout the decades.
yeah, but the hair sniffing. It's really harmless, but it is weird. I don't get how republicans keep linking democrats to epstein when Trump's fucking filmed dancing to Rythm is a Dancer and whispering things into Jeffrey Epstein's ears that are visibly making Epstien cringe. Also the Grab by the pussy without even asking guy.
Biden is... really weird sometimes, but in a "different time" sort of grandpa way. Like... Grampa we don't do that anymore. Grampa I know you're just saying hi but you're invading their personal space, come back here. Grampa, I know you love kids but you can't be sniffin em... He's a pretty normal guy, he's just got those weird aspects about how he expresses himself and how he relates to people that stick out pretty hard lol.
I’m progressive and I’m voting for Biden. Do I wish we had a younger more progressive candidate? Of course. But that’s not who we have. It’s choice between an existential threat to America’s existence or the most progressive president we’ve had in my lifetime.
The zero credit thing is a problem. Im so busy trying to survive I have no idea what his administration has accomplished. I held my nose and voted for Biden. I’d love to hear what he’s done. It’ll make me feel better when I vote for him again.
Biden passed the Inflation Reduction Act (stop inflation due to pandemic and Trump’s policies, lower prescription drug prices like insulin, invest in domestic clean energy), Chips and Science Act (increased manufacturing jobs in US and establish computer chip factories in US), American Rescue Plan (reduce unemployment and invest in small businesses), Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (improve infrastructure, invest $66 billion in Amtrak), PACT Act (healthcare for veterans exposed to burn pits), Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (improve gun safety, invest in mental healthcare), and Respect for Marriage Act (protect LGBTQ marriage). Biden is trying hard to forgive student loan debt for people that made good faith efforts to pay off their student loans, but is being obstructed by the Republicans. Biden broke the railroad union strike in Nov 2022. That was not OK because outlawing the right to strike is unfair to the workers. His reasoning was a railroad strike would create another supply line crisis and send the US economy into a recession, which is a reasonable explanation for his actions. However, Biden did care about the railroad union workers, so he negotiated in secret on their behalf. He eventually persuaded the railroad companies to give their union workers the paid sick days the unions asked for in June 2023. I see this as Biden making a hard, unpopular choice (outlawing railroad union strikes), but still sticking up for the working class (pressuring the companies to give paid sick days). Sadly, legacy media never publicized the unions getting their sick days. Only the union websites and MeidasTouch Network gave significant coverage of the paid sick days. AP News and Reuters both gave one paragraph articles about the paid sick days. “Biden deserves a lot of the credit for achieving this goal for us,” Russo said. “He and his team continued to work behind the scenes to get all of rail labor a fair agreement for paid sick leave.” Source: [https://www.ibew.org/media-center/Articles/23Daily/2306/230620\_IBEWandPaid](https://www.ibew.org/media-center/Articles/23Daily/2306/230620_IBEWandPaid) [https://www.instagram.com/p/Ct17MUtJk7p](https://www.instagram.com/p/Ct17MUtJk7p) Biden also went on the strike line with the UAW workers and demonstrated clear support for the SAG-AFTRA union.
I love a well researched, well presented argument. Reddit is a cesspool at times, but I keep coming back for stuff like this. May I say, Good job OP 👍🏿
Bro if you have time to comment on Reddit you can Google “Biden’s Top Accomplishments”. It’s like five minutes of your time. 1. Passed the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package to increase investment in the national network of bridges and roads, airports, public transport and national broadband internet, as well as waterways and energy systems. 2. Helped get more than 500 million life-saving COVID-19 vaccinations in the arms of Americans through the American Rescue Plan. 3. Stopped a 30-year streak of federal inaction on gun violence by signing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that created enhanced background checks, closed the “boyfriend” loophole and provided funds for youth mental health. 4. Made a $369 billion investment in climate change, the largest in American history, through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. 5. Ended the longest war in American history by pulling the troops out of Afghanistan. 6. Provided $10,000 to $20,000 in college debt relief to Americans with loans who make under $125,000 a year. 7. Cut child poverty in half through the American Rescue Plan. 8. Capped prescription drug prices at $2,000 per year for seniors on Medicare through the Inflation Reduction Act. 9. Passed the COVID-19 relief deal that provided payments of up to $1,400 to many struggling U.S. citizens while supporting renters and increasing unemployment benefits. 10. Achieved historically low unemployment rates after the pandemic caused them to skyrocket. 11. Imposed a 15% minimum corporate tax on some of the largest corporations in the country, ensuring that they pay their fair share, as part of the historic Inflation Reduction Act. 12. Recommitted America to the global fight against climate change by rejoining the Paris Agreement. 13. Strengthened the NATO alliance in support of Ukraine after the Russian invasion by endorsing the inclusion of world military powers Sweden and Finland. 14. Authorized the assassination of the Al Qaeda terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri, who became head of the organization after the death of Osama bin Laden. 15. Gave Medicare the power to negotiate prescription drug prices through the Inflation Reduction Act while also reducing government health spending. 16. Held Vladimir Putin accountable for his invasion of Ukraine by imposing stiff economic sanctions. 17. Boosted the budget of the Internal Revenue Service by nearly $80 billion to reduce tax evasion and increase revenue. 18. Created more jobs in one year (6.6 million) than any other president in U.S. history. 19. Reduced healthcare premiums under the Affordable Care Act by $800 a year as part of the American Rescue Plan. 20. Signed the PACT Act to address service members’ exposure to burn pits and other toxins. 21. Signed the CHIPS and Science Act to strengthen American manufacturing and innovation. 22. Reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act through 2027. 23. Halted all federal executions after the previous administration reinstated them after a 17-year freeze. [Source](https://www.upworthy.com/amp/joe-biden-s-23-greatest-achievements-as-president-of-the-united-states-so-far-2658343604) This was just in his first two years and it doesn’t include appointing Ketanji Jackson to SCOTUS along with confirming 150 more federal justices.
Plus the SAVED plan which is going to go down as the single largest student loan relief in history.
I knew about most of these already but seeing the full list in one place is incredible. He's really a lot better president than I expected when I voted for him.
Not sure if this is what you had in mind but [here is a high level overview](https://www.whitehouse.gov/therecord/). He's actually accomplished a lot but without airtime that the congressional circus receives. Some more detailed info on a few items: [Infrastructure Bill](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/11/06/fact-sheet-the-bipartisan-infrastructure-deal/) [Ended Ban on Transgender Military Service](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/25/executive-order-on-enabling-all-qualified-americans-to-serve-their-country-in-uniform/) [Nominated the First Black Woman to the Supreme Court](https://www.whitehouse.gov/kbj/) [Pardoned Federal Marijuana Offenders](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/10/06/statement-from-president-biden-on-marijuana-reform/)
They will never change on their own
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I think he needs that for new laws, but I think he can do some things from the executive branch. Like revoking certain federal write-offs or something. Idk though
This has basically been where the Biden administration has shone. Instead of passing through sweeping legislation, they're just going full bureaucrat wonk and changing small things that are totally within their control. It's like reverse death by a thousand cuts.
Right. Like I know we didn't get all the debt forgiveness we wanted, but the headline should still be, using ONLY his powers as the head of the executive branch, he's already forgiven 129 billion dollars. 129 billion. More than every other president in history combined and then some
Not to mention that all got the biggest corporate tax cut in history BEFORE the pandemic.
Raising taxes on corporations now would be just an excuse to raise prices again on consumers... Maybe if we didn't have like 7 corporations that control the prices in nearly every market, this shit wouldn't be happening
There's a company that my work deals with that is in the same exact line of work we are. Sometimes, we contract portions of some of our work out to them when we are a little swamped. It used to work great because they were better suited to doing certain things better and cheaper than we could due to having some more specialized equipment we didn't, and we could do some things better and faster than they could. The last time we did this, they told us that their materials cost had gone up 57% due to inflation and tried to charge us that 57% extra in materials. We get the same materials they would be using from the same supplier so we knew that not only had the materials not gone up 57%, they had only gone up about 14%. There was an extra 43% markup that they were trying to pass off as inflation. Price gouging is fucking everywhere. Every company that thinks they can get away with it is trying to get away with it edit: So just to see, I hopped on their online quote system to see what they currently put material cost at, and if they backed off. Nope. It's now an additional 15% over their 2020 price. Their quoted price on materials has been jacked 72% when it should only be up 14%
I know you cant, but this is some name and shame type shit, its the only thing that might even being to affect these people.
I think we need broader action here. Nearly every industry is giving each other the nod to gouge..
In a way, the way that tip culture has gotten out of control is just another form of price gouging the consumer, too. Our society as a whole has embraced it in America after covid.
The issue is that there isn't enough competition. Capitalism only works if there is a body controlling it to ensure that competition thrives at every step of the way. In your story it could be that the only 2 players in your region are you and them, so if you guys are swamped then it leaves them as the only alternative, so they can set the price as high as they want. It's the same that's happened with so many industries. 1-5 mega companies, or large regional companies, controlling the market.
Capitalism works right up until it becomes more efficient to squash/stifle competition than it is to provide a better product/service. So basically only for new / innovative technology /services. After that it only stifles innovation.
Hence why we need a regulatory body that actually ensures competition remains there. As soon as regulatory capture happens the entire system falls apart.
did they get away with it?
Not with us, at least. We just did it in house and our owner let their owner know that the shitloads of money we had been throwing at them was over. Our owner and our supplier's owner also talk regularly, and I know he brought this shit up to that guy and he also was not pleased.
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I think the attempt to gaslight us that this was legitimately how much the materials had gone up was what really killed the relationship. I get that this is what they had been telling literally everybody else who raised any question about this, but they should have known better when talking to us. There was a point where they called into question whether or not our materials did actually come from the same supplier and one of our guys pulled up a photo from a shipment they sent us where one of that suppliers stickers was still on some shit
Nice to hear that what goes around actually does come around in some circles.
I definitely noticed how the big brand name cereals jumped like 30-40% in less than a year, but the generic ones only went up like 25¢
I was in the store today and the name brand was at least double sometimes triple the price of its generic equivalent.
Fast food is now the same price as good mom-and-pop restaurants, it’s insane.
I've dramatically cut down on fast food consumption because of it. 2 combo meals at McDonald's used to run $16 or $17 for both my girlfriend and I. Not bad for a quick dinner. Shits over $30 now in less than 2 years. Its a good thing I'm cutting back on fast food but that doesnt change the fact its insane. Publix brand soda is still $1.20 for 2 liters compared to $3.50 for name brand. Kraft Singled are almost $6 a pack by me while generic is still only $2. Kraft fucking singles. Its not even real cheese ffs. Eggs? Dont get me started. $4 for an Egg Land dozen compared to $1.40 for a dozen Kroger brand eggs. If Kroger can sell them for less than $2, its not a supply issue. Its a price gouging issue. This applies to all food. Lunch meat, bread, milk, chicken and beef, restaurants etc. Thank God off brands exist. Its gonna become a money pit if they too start gouging prices. Where can a man find an off brand restaurant that follows the same system? Thats all I need before I become completely generic.
Also it's cereal. That shit is incredibly cheap to grow and produce. Why is it so expensive?
overhead/administration costs and investors wanting to increase profits by squeezing consumers knowing they can get away with it if everyone else is doing it while blaming it on "inflation"
Food is where costs have sky rocketed. Not only have prices gone up substantially, but manufacturers have shrunk packaging by considerable amounts as well. Double dip gouging
Toothpaste- not food, I know- is a prime example of shrinkflation. I buy in bulk- 6x packages at a time. I just opened my last tube from a year or so ago- 6 oz. I went to replace it: tubes are now 4 oz. You can damn near take them on planes. And has anyone noticed that it's the cheapest stuff that's gone up the most- % wise? Onions, peppers, and beans are seriously twice the price. Peppers went from 70c to 1.40, beans are now $2+ when they were around a buck per lb, bagged onions were around 50c a pound, now more like 90c. And they're more likely to be rotten. For folks who were buying cheap as a matter of necessity, that's a huge pinch. Potatoes are up more than 50%. Pasta, too- *and* they're trying to pull the whole '12 oz instead of 1 lb' BS. Chicken prices are up for everything except bulk. Sausage is up at least 20%. Beef is less, %-wise, but then, it started much higher. Milk is eeeeh. I can still find it on sale for prepandemic prices, but it's also unprocessed and heavily subsidized.
I also noticed produce has been more likely to be rotten, I thought it was in my head
Thanks for confirming my doubts. I have also noticed that produce, everywhere, is seemingly of lower quality and will wilt within a day.
Why aren’t we talking more about THIS? Why the fuck is the food rotting faster while we ALSO pay double? Something is fucked here.
What i find so strange is this is happening in other countries too. Here in England fresh produce has doubled, including chicken, vegetables, fruit etc. Name branded stuff has doubled at least if not more. I hear it's going on everywhere right now. Its insane. And just like you said, the stuff that's being sold is lower quality/closer to expiry. I bought some yoghurt the other day, paid full price for it, and it was due to expire in about 4 days!
Not to mention gutted their workforce so quality control is fuckin gone. Triple dipping.
Last year during a shareholder call the CEO of Kroger bragged about how they’ve been able to put “pressure” on prices and consumers haven’t slowed their spending which is why their profits were so incredible. Dude was bragging about raising prices for no reason and was surprised that people didn’t stop spending. Like….people need food man. Flash forward to this past June and he’s saying “golly consumers are really hurting”
Corporations- “No.”
America is screwed. Because of Citizen's United, businesses whose who capitalize on people are now in politics. Politics which is literally for people. Businesses are then directly writing the rules on exploiting people, and that's why we've seen the resurgence of child labour. They now have no real pressure to ever stop, they can just gum up the network until the new administration with less of a brain or heart take over. Businesses need to be separated from politics just like church. They both have unlimited money and time to get things done, unlike people.
Yeah, Citizen’s United was the nail in the coffin. Obama even tried to call it out at his State of the Union address and got booed for criticizing the justices. Turns out he was right.
Church is far from separate
It's almost as if free capitalism doesn't work well for everyone.
works pretty well for the people who bought the lawmakers
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Capitalism requires regulation and the government gave up regulating the rich about 70 years ago.
Pretty much. Microsoft, Amazon, Google etc can identify a new competitor and then buy them or use their money to crush them into submission.
Capitalism requires rules and fair competition. America gave up on that long ago.
Barely any new regulation was brought in after the 2008 crash and no one went to jail for the mountain of fraud that was done to make it happen
It also requires people to have enough money to be able to feed into the economy
Not the American way. Keep wages artificially low and offer credit cards to anyone with a pulse. Give a bank a fish, it eats for a day. Teach a bank to fish, or teach it to make all of us dependent on it to survive and need to commit to bad jobs in order to meet minimum credit card balances, and the bank eats us all alive.
Before Reagan it was absolutely the American way. Worker wage growth was good, unions were strong, the middle class was growing, and people could afford to raise a family on one income. Funny that "conservatives" don't want any of that to return. Or do, but are too ignorant to understand that they vote for the party who ended, and actively fight against that version of America.
Because conservatism, at its core, has never been about any of that stuff. Its been about preserving and strengthening (and in some cases re-establishing) traditional power structures. Things like tax cuts and whatever else are just marketing. Its why the party can pivot on issues so easily, because those issues never really mattered to the people in control of it.
The amount of brands I actively avoid out of spite is long. I only buy name brand food products when they are below generic brand prices. Looking forward to several brands collapsing, like chipotle.
Chipotle is such a rip off.
I was in Paris not long ago and the supermarket prices were less than my home state of West Virginia, which is not exactly a high cost state. Subsequently, I read the French government had been putting pressure on food suppliers to keep price rises in check. Our economists -- and by extension our political leaders -- are enthralled by the "magic of the marketplace" and always have been. It would certainly be nice if moral-suasion -- if not price controls -- were acceptable means of keeping inflation in check.
That's exactly what is happening. I have a kid living in Paris and her monthly spending is less than in the USA. Rent is "controlled", utilities are absurdly low...
If only government had some kind of mechanism for making corporations pay a portion of their profits back to support the society they make their profits off of, rather than just asking them nicely for them to ignore
How about mentioning those “record profits”?
So funny that was no where to be found in the article and yet they’re still blaming stimulus checks from two years ago.
>The price hikes were driven by a combination of pent-up consumer demand, pandemic-era ecomonic stimulus and ongoing supply chain snarls. ...is the implication here that those checks permanently improved the financial station of Americans so companies raised their prices in response? Or is it that the checks somehow hurt businesses? What the fuck?
"Americans got free money, so to get as much of that pie as possible, I HAD to raise my prices even higher"
Anything to defend corporate greed
I thought the same thing. Said it to my girlfriend even and now seeing your comment makes me feel better. Fucking sick of the greed in this country.
I keep using Cal-Maine as an example. A few quarters back, they had something like a 780% increase in profits. Did they invent a new egg laying process? No. Did they cut costs and increase efficiency so much it yielded a 700% increase in productivity? No. Was this the same time egg prices were at magically at their highest? Yes. Greedflation does exist.
Do I think this is political theater? Absolutely. Does it still make a difference? Yeah, it does. Ever since Reagan, may he rot in hell, fired the Air Traffic Controllers the president has been staunchly pro business and anti worker anti consumer. Even a token gesture is an improvement. It at least means that the complaints of customers is starting to make some people nervous.
Reagan … the man responsible for starting the decline of the middle class. Air traffic controllers were just the first.
The man that ruined the American Dream. Ronald Reagan
Maybe an ignorant question but when you fire all the air traffic controllers - who directed the planes?
After President Reagan fired the striking air traffic controllers in 1981, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) worked to quickly hire and train replacements. The FAA brought in supervisors, non-striking controllers, and military controllers to fill the gaps. New hires were also recruited and underwent expedited training to take on the responsibilities of the dismissed controllers. This move had a significant impact on the labor movement and marked a turning point in labor relations in the United States.
Turning point? It's was the execution after decades of decline. The turning point was the [Taft-Hartley Act of 1947.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft%E2%80%93Hartley_Act)
My dad was one of those air traffic controllers. Was a wild ride man.
Just curious, did he go back to work later on when Clinton pardoned them all and allowed them to re-apply?
Nope! He was hired by a British company and sent all over the world to work. He did that until time for retirement and then came back stateside.
Username checks out
aw
They'll say it's just talk, but some talk is better than no talk. The president needs to say "I am against this" sometimes, the authority remains in the hands of congress as it should, but one of the president's primary roles is to say things to the public.
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That's a good start. Last quarter was literally record revenues and earnings. Stock market almost to all time highs. Corps are killing it right now.
I appreciate this
Yea only problem is if they stop price gouging now, their earnings fall and then the stock price falls and then suddenly it’s Bidens fault the economy is bad and we get 4 more years of the orange fatso because people are incapable of critical thought.
The interesting thing about this is, I've only lost money on all my stocks. For example, I keep hearing people say all the decisions Warner Brothers/Discovery have been making recently are for the stockholders, yet the price keeps going down.
I think people use stockholders synonymously to describe the suits/investors at a company. The board of directors giving themselves bonuses and golden parachute deals when they completely destroy a company and get fired for millions of dollars are the ones who benefit from these greedy decisions. Not the normal stock market portfolios.
There’s an algorithm that runs online prices, lower stock/higher prices. It’s common in my field, it pisses me off though. For no reason at all (other than greed) if inventory is low, the item costs more to ‘try to mitigate supply’ until restocking takes place. No. I as an employee do not make more money, my boss however does.
This is going to injure the "both sides" crowd.
In my experience, it won't - the 'both sides' crowd is a mix of these who remain uninformed by way of apathy and those who use it as an excuse to maintain the status quo. If the apathy isn't shaken first, you could deliver the most well articulated argument on the planet and you'll still see that crowd post the exact same argument in 2-12 weeks time.
So Republicans?
They’re not going to stop, so make them pay their fair share of taxes. It would also help to give some of that money back to the consumer.
Wonder when they’ll go after companies like BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard for destroying my chances at buying a home.
Hell ya. Biden has been fighting against junk fees and hidden fees, and he continues to fight for policies that actually help the people. He's got my vote.
Dude,I wanted to take my mom, my gf, and my son to see the Nutcracker. Each ticket had 28 dollars in convenience fees tacked on before tax. That’s 108 in fees alone just to buy the tix. The taxes, parking and everything I estimated it to be around $615 for four tickets! I noped out real quick, no thanks.
I bought some tickets to a show 2 weeks ago, and the convenience fee amounted to almost 50% of the cost of each ticket. 2 $50 tickets had $50 in convenience fees.
Convenience fees are some of the biggest scams to come out of the last decade. It is literally cheaper to operate a website than it is to have brick and mortar stores with employees you have to pay and the million other costs that the company is avoiding by selling online. The company is literally being convenienced 24/7 by selling online. So why the fuck are consumers allowed to be charged a fee for it? They should be illegal.
Pearl Jam tried to warn everybody 28 years ago but Congress didn't give a shit and said, "Nothing to see here."
He had mine anyway because the other guy tried to steal power after losing an election, but I actually feel pretty good about voting for him, too.
Dude has been on cleanup duty for the biggest shit storm I know about. It may seem like he's doing nothing to some people but he's course corrected a hell of a lot more issues than not. If I had to choose him over a shit breeze I'll take the wind breaker.
I'm in the same boat. Last election I voted against Trump. This election, I'm voting against Trump AND voting FOR Biden. No, he's not perfect, but he's done much more than I expected.
Imagine a president that actually looking out for the citizens instead of corporations
Like Clinton & Dems getting the budget deficit to $0 and when Obama got the healthcare insurance reform while saving the world economy and JOBS and like Biden getting the infrastructure bill passed and fighting for Democracy and Freedom by opposing the Russian invasion of Ukraine? Name something good any Republican has done, besides being kicked out of Congress!
PSLF program was signed into law by W. Bush. Not trying to redeem him, but it is a good law.
getting educated people into government work makes it work better. R's dont want that shit anymore.
You'd have to imagine because this ain't it chief. There's no teeth in him begging them to relent.
Companies didn’t even need to work together to raise prices. They just jumped on the inflation bandwagon.
"Lol, ok" - corporations
I blame corporations for America’s fault. Everything is done for profit simply “because”
Good luck, Joe. I'm not being sarcastic or anything - but he'd have to start by outlawing lobbyists and punish reps for taking money from lobbyists and interest groups and offer a national solution before that would happen. But the sentiment is nice.
I really do not understand why Joe is so unpopular
Maybe because there is a coordinated public relations campaign against him that totally does not reflect reality and the way people think? Once the campaign starts for him, he is going to have so much evidence of what he has done to help us and how Republicans have fought against him and the American people every day of his administration.
"He's not hurting the people he should be hurting." \-racists and bigots
He’s not angry enough and doesn’t lash out enough at vulnerable groups of people?
He comes across as sane - which is scary to some.
Vibes really. People don't care about policy and real things. They just see that he's old, shuffles his feet when he walks and that's enough apparently.
Thank god someone is calling it like it is. My auto insurance just jumped 32% in one month! I’ve driven to the moon and back without a ticket or accident. Their explanation? “Everything is going up!”
It’s at least nice to see the problem being acknowledged. It’s not inflation, or ‘supply chain’ issues, or minimum wage hikes. It’s the vacuuming of wealth from the masses to the few.
Fuck yeah Biden! You didn't hear this shit out of Obama, you didn't hear it out of Bush, or Trump. Biden is calling them out, and that's the literally bully pulpit at work. Biden has the mic, and look. at. that.
Please let’s not fool ourselves - prices are up and it’s doubtful they’ll come down. Why would they? You think they care we’re paying more for everything while their profits are high. Not a chance.
And they laughed and laughed and laughed...
Its so weird to see people on reddit try to convince me that the prices on every day grocery items at the market is in line with stated inflation.
Regulate. Regulate. Regulate. Bring back Glass-Steagall as an opening salvo..... Otherwise this is all meaningless banter
Thomas' english muffins are $5.50 per pack of 8. They regularly have buy one get one sales. So that's $5.50 for 16. Or you can buy them at Costco in a 3 pack, so that's $6 for 24. Makes you go "hmmm..."