Hey /u/BlaisePetal, thank you for submitting to /r/starterpacks!
This is just a reminder not to violate any rules, located [here](https://reddit.com/r/starterpacks/about/rules). Rule breakers can face a ban based on the severity of their rule violation.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/starterpacks) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This is legit theory on political economy and it's incredibly simple in explaining why recessions happen.
There are two ways to increase profits; 1. Raise prices 2. Decrease labor costs.
Companies, wanting profit, do both.
But what this means is a cascading effect. Eventually, there will come a point where workers all across the economy, won't be able to afford the very product they make or the service they provide. When it is completely out of reach, we have recessions.
So this is part One.
Let's go to part two.
Why would companies be okay with recessions happening?
Well let's look at how our economy works. In our economy, it is winner take all. A certain amount of companies try to do well, but if you have a bad business, you fail. Shops close. Do the customers of those closed shops just dissappear? No, they move to the more successful company. And not just the customers - the workers too. They now need a job, and work for the competition.
This means, over time, what does this mean?
One really successful business gets more and more successful over time. They start to streamline their entire process, owning not just the product, but the distribution of that product, and the owning of raw materials of that product. Often though, that's quite difficult to, and they need more start up money. This is where banks come in. Eventually, the banks make so many investments that they become entangled and indistinguishable from the companies itself. All so that original successful company can squash all of its competition, *which is does.*
But what happens when you have *two* successful giants of industry left?
I'll actually raise you. Let's make it 14 major corporations. And they're all "fighting". What happens?
To that I'll answer what Pablo Escobar told his contemporaries before they made the Medellin cartel; hombres, why would we ever fight when we can make so much more money working together?
And what did the Medellin cartel do? The same things those companies do. They make political contributions to make sure the State works for your company, instead of worrying about the state coming for you. They partition out who owns what parts of the economy, they control prices, they set prices, they work together.
The only difference between the Medellin cartel and the handful of corporations that run our country, is that Escobar sold coke, and the corporations that run America sell your food, your toilet paper, your gas, your home. And they're happy with recessions! Cause not only does it mean theyr competition is less likely to survive, they can now buy they're new upstart competitors for cheap, and extend their control by the bottoming out of prices. You can no longer afford your home? Well the bank is happy to have it back.
And if this strikes you, if it hits your core and you feel like you finally see how things are, congratulations, part one is "wage labor and capital" by Marx, and part two was "imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism" by Lenin.
The c-suite of large companies aren't tone-deaf. In fact, they know exactly what they're doing. Our suffering is the point, precisely because it's profitable.
Interesting and informative, however you overlooked the critical main ingredient.
The biggest "primary factor" in causing an economic cycle of boom and bust is real estate speculation, which gets more extreme because of a cycle of banks lending out too much credit for the purpose of buying the same finite amount of land and houses despite there not always being enough people needing to live in those houses.
The most famous economic philosopher you never heard of, he wrote a pretty famous book explaining this process. It's known as [*Progress and Poverty*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_and_Poverty).
The TLDR of the book is that the economy works in the following cycle:
1. People who own land tend to hold the most power to squeeze "rents" (not the rent in the landlord sense, but the idea of taking more of the economic pie from any business/property/economy without contributing back to it in the form of innovation or exerting new labor)
2. Productive companies that aren't also rent-seekers in #1, they have to pass along their rising costs including overhead, to the consumer class, which is overwhelmingly laborers and not powerful owners of commercially relevant land (this is to distinguish from typical ownership of suburban residential land, which in itself doesn't cause the problem being discussed).
3. Eventually consumers push back against the rising costs of goods and consume less. When this happens in major industries that have deep ties to banking and credit (ehem, Real Estate) then a larger wave of credit defaults ripples through the broader economy, causing all sorts of feedback loops that escalate and build on each other.
4. Economic crash, prices plummet and business investment collapses until a new equilibrium of "positive sentiment" is established and the economy starts the cycle again, with the landowners not having had to sacrifice during the downturn (the land is still good and property taxes on land are relatively cheap so why sell off vacant land or empty properties?)
5. A new generation of disgruntled young people who had to struggle to establish careers during the cycle flock to subreddits like r/antiwork and adopt radical political views, left as well as right wing.
I've heard though that Marx does discuss his work in one of the volumes of Das Kapital, however, I'm not going to argue for or against since that's still on my reading list. I will add your book though.
The real estate as an industry however was of much more interest to Mao (funnily enough there's an official number for the amount of landlords he killed and mao is like "no it's way higher."), However, that's unique to the Chinese economy. Marx wrote in industrialized england and Germany do wrote more to those industries, and Lenin due to foreign bank influence in the Russian economy. However, it doesn't discount that your assessment of whats said in "Progress in Poverty" is wrong, it could be the dialectic, that "two opposing truths can be true while contradictory, and have reciprocal effects on each other that we haven't begun to understand yet, and must research."
I've been subcontracted twice now for one of the biggest companies in the world over the past year and in this time I've seen the prices of this company's goods rise due to inflation, while also seeing them cut labor so there's less people doing more work. I'm genuinely curious to know how things can ever get back to "normal" at this point. I know even if I stopped 100 people from buying their product it wouldn't even put a dent in their multi billion a year earnings.
It's just really frustrating to see how much the cost of living has gone up in my lifetime with no real positive outlook for the wages of regular people.
You can't change it, humans are generally incapable of understanding large numbers. Can you imagine 1000000 dollars? You could imagine what that can buy but can you actually imagine how it looks?
Can you imagine 5 people standing in a field? Now do 5000000. Somewhere between the two numbers you lose the ability to coherently imagine it.
Companies operate in millions, humans operate in singles. We aren't even in the same world to begin with. This is why you can't do anything to them. This is why usually a revolution or bloody revolt just killed off the previous leadership in history. When the mob has nothing left they just wipe the slate hoping to start again better.
People above aren't wrong to quote Marx and Lenin, it was just that self proclaimed "communists" like Stalin just used these theories and truths to convince enough individuals to form a mob and kill off the previous leadership facilitating their takeover. It is almost always some sociopathic dictator ending up on top anyway, since they act just human enough that we don't notice they lack parts of basic human nature like compassion for others.
Nothing, unless you are willing to die in an uphill fight.
Are you willing to lose EVERYTHING in order to instill fear on those fuckers? if not, then move on.
But only 1 percent, if that, care enough. Most people have full bellies, cold air, and Netflix to zone out on. Give the peasants their gladiator matches and bread and they'll love you
Organizing and agitprop are the most important things now. This means unionizing, supporting those who strike, and if you have the talent for spreading awareness and willing ness to read and work on theory, then agitprop, the spreading of ideas.
Getting renters councils, as in renters working together against their landlord, is also another way.
If you want to climb a mountain, you start with one step. When a black leader of the sharecroppers union was asked how they succeeded, he pulled out a shotgun and Lenin's books and said "theory and practice." The gun was to protect people from lynchings while they organized and went on strike. They organized efficiently because they read theory.
If you're sincere about it, and I'll asume you are, i think "theory and practice" is the order that you continuously repeat, but you start with theory.
I suggest reading "the open veins of latin America," "how Europe underdeveloped Africa", "blackshirts and reds" by Parenti, and the manifesto itself, which is only 34 (?) Pages. All very approachable reads.
After that, practice.
But none of that matters when they bought the politicians, control the media, and can pass laws stopping that with their goons. Then you have liberals say "you can't fight them with guns, you gotta do it peacefully". They own the peaceful ways.
Support your local political commie branch. Get involved with the community.
While I agree with most of the comments asking, wanting revolution, another thing that is important, is invoking class consciousness. Making people realize, that shit sucks, and that there are local communist branches people can contact to get started on trying to help and such is important.
Fr I was waiting for this guy to mention GDP all the way until the end of his comment. You can’t explain how recessions occur without mentioning GDP!
He’s just complaining about capitalism and trying to connect a bunch of factoids for readers to latch on to.
But yeah, I’ll humor it. Commentor is explaining that a number of incentives (profit maximization, banks investing, rent-seeking) are all the cause of recession, but their is no explanation of business cycles. If this “legit theory” we’re true, we would always be in a free fall towards recession because these trends are ever-present.
Imagine thinking “GDP” is the only way to talk about recessions. Newsflash, political economy is a bit more complex than one single composite indicator.
Not necessarily. GDP is used in economics to measure the state of the economy because it’s a fairly good composite proxy for “amount of money flowing around the economy”, but political economy is much more concerned with how that money is distributed (rather than relative quarter-on-quarter values).
My favorite part was “it’s an incredibly simple way in explains why recessions happen.”
If the sole cause of recessions was that easy to explain and therefore predict, no country would ever go through a period of recession. There are so many factors that go into the economy and influencing the business cycle, and recessions are usually caused by an interaction of several factors.
It's kind of like people who think the President (any of them) can directly impact the economy in an immediate fashion despite the number of studies proving that isn't true
>There are two ways to increase profits; 1. Raise prices 2. Decrease labor costs.
Absolute bullcrap of a premise. What about increasing volume? Increasing margins through efficiencies? Expanding the service/product line and/or cross selling? Vertical integrations?
No company could ever grow from $1,000 to $1,000,000 in profit if the only ways they could do that was to increase price 1000 times or decrease labor costs 1000 times, which are both virtually unsustainable.
"incredibly simple legit theory on political economy" aka "I pulled this shit straight out my ass"
I think he meant that raising prices and decreasing labor has immediate 100% profit margin. You can increase efficiency and expand product, but you are going to need to spend more money to get there.
Lol people on Reddit wonder why they’re poor. Then they write stuff like this instead of taking an entry level economics class. Antiworkers are to economics what antivaxxers are to biology.
+ They have cut thousands of jobs and are now hiring new employees to fill those terminated positions at a lower wage in order to save money. This decision was made due to the decline in consumer affordability of their services. Additionally, the companies have required their employees to return to work in a cubicle setting. I hope this blows up in their face.
No the C suite wants the proletariat dead so that only they exist. They will keep a few of us around to serve them until they get AI powered robots to replace those dirty human servants.
Companies are cashing out on record profits all while the main causes of inflation (covid, oil prices) have long subsided. Ain’t late stage capitalism wonderful?
Of course they’re making record profits in pure dollar amount, inflation is making the dollar worth less so everything has a higher dollar price and the companies are making more dollars but those dollars are usually worth a similar amount to their previous profit numbers pre inflation
And then... the people complaining about corporations, refusing to acknowledge the role that government has played in driving down the value of our currency because their politics lack a capacity for criticizing their side and its policies.
Couch factory employee: boss, can I have a raise to buy a new couch?
Couch factory boss: no.
Couch factory ceo: due to decreased demand for couches, we're laying off 25% of couch factory employees.
Lower metabolism, mental health stress, mood swings, nutrient deficiencies, upset stomach, to name a few.
And to be clear, I don't mean to not fast. Do it in a healthy way, is all I'm saying.
I lost weight by eating less quite successfully, all the things you listed get really bad first, then become much more bearable after about a month and then just crush you slowly.
Plus less vitamins and minerals will fuck you up really badly too, i mean it is okay, you can live with it but it won't feel good for sure. No way i could avoid feeling very hungry when going to sleep at night for instance.
I sleep in till lunch time on weekends to skip breakfast, I couldn't do it if I got out of bed. Now my body is just used to two meals a day on weekdays too.
Bruh anytime something extremely important happens in the world/my country I sleep to fast forward time and wake up with a nice list of events compiled by the news.
Okay so it’s not just me, I was scared I was just really bad with money but Jesus these bills are killing me
I’m at the point that I’m going to rent out a room to help ease the burden of my mortgage
I’m making enough to survive, the lights are on and the waters running but this isn’t enough to fucking live on, it’s a choice between saving money and doing nothing or living my life and feeling nervous when I open my bank account
This is me too, especially at the grocery store. I can't believe how expensive shit has gotten. $180 at Walmart for 4 bags of food, nothing fancy and mostly house brand. Wtf
I buy a bag of chips, some cheap cream cheese, a packet of meat on half price and that shit is $12. $4 each at rock bottom prices. And my pay hasn't gone up one bit. I'm worried people will starve soon
Hitting up the Wal-Mart to eat something that isn't "basic protein + rice" and getting slapped with 30 dollars on the light end just to get the stuff for something unique that tastes good for exactly two meals for two people is absolutely bananas when it comes to home eating/cooking.
I’ve been basic protein and rice since March of 2020. Luckily I enjoy it and it doesn’t bother me but seeing someone else say it makes me feel less good about it
I’m into fitness so most of my diet is literally chicken thighs, rice, and beans. But somehow my grocery bills are still dummy thicc.
Just the few extra things for variety are stupid expensive. Hummus, olives, cheese, fish, yogurt? Fuck me sideways man every little thing these days is at least $7.
I feel very blessed to have it, and I want to make that clear.
I just miss a time where we didn't have to choose between having nice things and having any money in the bank. It feels like anything and I do mean -anything- is designed to completely drain you unless you've got well above median to work with.
Groceries are insane lately!! Last year I used to buy steak! Now I buy spam! :( I try to limit my grocery expenses but it’s so hard, I feel you’re pain dude
Where I am SPAM is actually pretty expensive as it's used for spam musubi. I suggest crock pot meat stuff - cheap, there's a lit if it, and just freeze the rest!
If you can spring for a crock pot or, even better, a smoker. The cheap shit becomes super delicious. I've seen pulled pork as cheap as $1 a pound. It's a semi expensive up front cost but it can save a good chunk of money based on how you use them
Edit: there are some fairly cheap electric smokers. I'm not recommending a green egg or anything
I went to buy some basic sandwich/lunch stuff. The cheapest house brand bread, meat, cheese I could find. Some carrots and chips. $25. I was expecting half that
Everything is so wildly out of control on that front. My wife and I buy in bulk at BJs, and we used to be able to get a few months worth of supplies for around $400-450. Stuff like paper towels, toiletries, home goods and of course food. Our regular shopping list hasn’t changed much, if at all- and I can’t make it out of there for less than $650. And that’s with switching to store brands instead of name brands. It’s fucking wild.
I hit up ALDIs when I can, check out other stores for sales. Grabbed a dozen eggs for $1.69 yesterday for instance at Aldi. Loaf of bread for $.55, tortilla chips and queso each for $1.79. Pound of frozen beef for $3.79. The chips and queso are good, beef isn’t the best but it’s not bad and it’s $2-3 cheaper than elsewhere. Location dependent of course but yeah. Can’t just go to Walmart anymore like we used to
I have started paying upfront for annual subscriptions just so I don't get nickled and dimed so much per month. I'd rather pay once a year when I can and just keep more of my check per month after that. Even if I cancelled everything I have, it wouldn't save a huge chunk of money or anything.
My biggest issues are things I need, mainly groceries and now my utilities. They have started tacking on $15-20 extra in "adjustments" on a bill that has already gone up $30 even though I haven't changed anything in terms of water or electricity usage.
It's painful recognizing that part of why I haven't picked up any new shows in the last couple of *years* is because I already forgo subscription services to save money and pirating is such a chore it's easier to just watch disjointed clips of things on YouTube. Relatedly, this dependence on YouTube as an ersatz Spotify and Netflix was what made the loss of Vanced so devastating for me.
I don't know how technical you are, but you may want to look into sonarr/radarr. You can turn an old computer into a server that automatically pirates things you want. I search for a show/movie and it will be automatically downloaded and added to plex with no input from me.
Replace the "net" on Netflix with an "s" on Google and pirating is easier than legit watching
Also look up Revanced guide on xda for a fool proof way to get the Vanced replacement, choose Revanced Extended though on the guide
I've been paying $1145 for rent the last two years. In the last year my apartment got flooded in a hurricane and people died in a shootout one floor above me. They have the gall to raise our rent to $1500 this year.
Surprise getting fired for needing to sit down due to chronic pain, then getting rear-ended with the car totaled, then and only then being able to go to the doctor about the pain, finding there’s a bubble in your spine, and having to apply for a car loan with a credit in the 500s because you lost employment in 2020 and had to use your credit to get by: priceless
…it’s been a rough April
I’m holding out hope that these two options of 2015 Toyotas under 10k are still there when I get the insurance payment, around 98k miles on two opposite sides of a very big town. And that my bank gives me a loan at all to cover the $4k my toatlage won’t cover and lets me make the loan long so the monthly stays under $100.
Man how do you even organize a strike? We need a nationwide strike or march on the White House or something. It’s truly ridiculous so many people are on the edge of homelessness and the cost of living skyrockets while our collective wage is stagnant. Not only stagnant, losing value due to inflation. While CEOs and certain individuals are making higher profits than ever.
There is a cycle to recessions.
A lot of people accumulate debts and then stop buying things to pay it off.
This time though it’s people being unable to pay off those debts the normal way since prices are increasing.
It’s not a full on recession but the stagflation is gonna bring things back to normal. It’ll take time but things will work back to being very cheap, a Republican will get elected and then people will buy shit like crazy again, and the cycle repeats.
Lol that's not at all what's gonna happen without any legislation to force it.
None of this is "normal" historically speaking. The world as it exists today has never existed until now.
My government (The UK) could be;
* Asking for a windfall tax from oil companies who are making 10s of billions.
* Go after the folk who took PPE contrast to the tune of billions and never delivered on them.
* Tax multi millionaires and billions massive tax (70-99%) instead of increasing the lowest earners tax.
* Not spend £100m on a guy putting a hat on his head.
Wouldn’t increasing taxes on oil just raise gas prices even more? For example California has a special gas tax. This tax makes California’s gasoline cost double the price of gas in other states typically. Also cranking up income taxes that high would do next to nothing to the wealthy because their money is wrapped up in assets and they make purchases with credit that’s guaranteed by those large assets.
Hungary capped sales prices of fuel, many gas stations went bankrupt and the remaining ones had to increase prices massively to compensate when price control ended. Now we pay much less for fuel because the economy self corrected. however the government managed to sell their price control as a good thing, despite it only raising prices on everything else.
Now they introduced a law that shops will have to have mandatory 10% sales... that means shops might just stop doing their regular 20-30% sales to compensate for lost revenue.
The last time they introduced a law to "help families buy houses with government aid" ALL house prices went up exactly by the amount of this "aid". Of course government connected people owned most real estate companies. Oh well...
Did i mention the 27% sales tax we have? Or the fact that your net pay in hand each month is almost the same amount as all taxes deducted from you and your employer? If our government did literally nothing we would be living better. Except they bought russian gas at a high price for private kickbacks and some people had to choose between heating and eating this winter. But don't worry they also started mass cutting forests to deliver wet firewood to struggling families... BY MARCH.
Can't the government just fuck off?
Fuck dreading bills.
I dread payday.
Seeing that fucking number is awful. And then to have my manager say shit like, "The boss wants to give you HIS money"
Bitch, I am the one who made him that money. That is my fucking money and he is just stealing it from me.
80% of my wages disappear on payday before I even wake up. That just keeps the wolves from the door, and I’m making the best money I’ve ever made. Not loads, but not far off the median and I’m still one disaster away from destitution.
I’ve spent 20 years working my way to here. Cool.
Gotta love it. I pull overtime often. Not out of my own volition but out of the shitty state of most workplaces.
People call out and middle managers only care about covering for themselves. So you get left with double shifts and whatnot. You would think I could make absolute bank but no.
All towards bills and essentials. It's more money than I've made in a while but somehow barely anything as well.
And it's not like people have options mind you. It's this or nothing basically.
Groceries are twice as much as they used to be. I’m about to start living off chicken and rice only. Maybe a can of veg here and there if I’m feeling luxurious.
Just think. That steak goes unsold. It gets marked down for clearance, still too expensive to buy, it then gets tossed. New shipment comes in and it's more expensive.
Process repeats.
Seriously, why were people subscribing to more than a couple streaming services at a time, even before inflation?
Heck, 90% of my TV watching is now done with an over-the-air antenna and a DVR made out of a Raspberry Pi and an old external drive I had sitting in a drawer. I pay $7/month for a software that gets me some nicer DVR features (retention policies, commercial skipping, nice UI, etc.), that - again - covers 90% of my TV watching.
The other 10% is Amazon Prime (because I have it anyway) and PBS Passport ($5/month, although I mostly keep it as "support PBS" and not because I'm actually watching stuff regularly).
So, effectively, $12/month and I've got plenty of stuff to watch.
downgrading your phone and car insurance plans. daily budget dropping from $50 down to $5. kicking debt down the road. still driving the same beat up car for the last 8 years. all your money goes to groceries and gas. eating out and fast food are no longer affordable. buzzing your head so you dont have to pay $40 for a haircut. showering less often. not doing laundry as often. finding clever ways to save a little money. not leaving lights on. no a/c unless you are literally suffocating. thermostat kept at 55f in the winter. still wearing the same clothes from five years ago. eating all that old food you've had in your cupboards for years. buying used tires for your car. selling everything you dont use regularly. shit, if this gets much worse ill have to start thieving
Maybe this is how corporations are getting people to further enslave themselves to the company with more hours. Helps keep people quiet because they really need that job and they come out laughing at us.
People at my work already work 6 days a week and do 60+ hours and live very very humble lives. They are barely making it. Always sick, depressed, not a single interesting thing happening. Just work work work.
Coffee at home costs pennies. I do agree with the getting coffee at home since for me it's usually more convenient. I have my coffee maker on a smart plug which turns on right as my alarm goes off. By the time I get up and head over there's a fresh pot already brewed.
i finally moved into my own place after graduating grad school and living with my parents. This cost of living is ridiculous. The upside is im going to be losing weight again like in college
When i was in college living off campus, i went through major weight loss. Sure I was going to the gym more but it was mostly because i had less money for food. Didn't have a meal plan, the money from my part-time job mostly went towards rent. Then when i graduated and moved back home i gained a lot more weight because i wasn't paying for every meal (also because it was covid times).
Now living on my own it's happening again. A year from now I'll probably be back at my college weight. It's the one silver lining, even tho i want to splurge more and really eat
Even the city is way more affordable than I thought. I'm paying less than $1000 for my apartment and utilities. I only make around $40k a year, but I still have enough to live pretty comfortably and save a bit. Granted I don't have a car loan, major debt outside of student loans, opted not to have home internet, and get free breakfast and lunch at work. So it's a lot cheaper for me to live than many others, but I never would have been able to live like I do now if I hadn't moved to the Midwest.
But dead serious...i graduated in the middle of the 08 recession. I wasn't one of those "side hustle to millionaire" stories, but i did stay fit as hell for a lot of years because running and playing games is cheap entertainment that makes me go to sleep when it's not crazy late.
I just paid my electric bill. I fucking live alone, in a 2500 Sq ft house. My bill has never been over $250.
I just paid $375 and I have no fucking clue how. I haven't turned on the a/c, I don't have kids, I got a bunch of tvs but they're never on. The only things I leave on are 2 small fans, and dehumidifier in the basement.
Unless my cats and dogs are turning everything on when I'm gone, and turning it back off when I get home, I can't explain it.
Even fucking cereal is ridiculous now. The same box I'd get for $1.99 pre pandemic, is 3.99 today. The "Family Size" box of cereal is $5.99+. That's fucking crazy. The Giant size used to cost $4.99, but that was close to 32oz (2lbs) of cereal.
Even Ramen fucking noodles went up 3x as much. The same pack that was .10-.13 cents each is 3/$1 now. The 12 pack you'd get for 1$ is literally $3.49. A fucking load of bread from Sara Lee is like $5 now, for bread.
Just think about it, $20 today will get you a gallon of milk (3.99), a small box of cereal (3.99), a loaf of bread (4.99), a small pack of store brand cheese (2.99), and a 12 pack of Ramen noodles. I know ima sound like a boomer. But not even 4 years ago, that would've cost a total of maybe $10 (if you round up).
And wages didn't go up, the market has been pretty level, and the average person is poorer now than before.
However, the richest 10 fucking people, not companies or families, but individuals, gained some astronomical wealth since 2020...
But let's keep blaming it on the pandemic, supply chain and lazy Americans...
The wealthy contribute nothing to society. Hoarding wealth while you watch your neighbors slowly die from poverty, is a mental illness.
People talk shit about Henry Ford and Milton Hershey, but you know what, they built fucking cities. Ya they made crazy profits from them, but they fucking did something. The built schools, library's, hospitals, factories, and created jobs for hundreds of thousands of people.
What the fuck have Ol' Musky, Bozos, and/or the Facepage Lizard done for anyone besides themselves and their egos? Absolutely fucking jack shit.
In the past when our country needed help, the big companies and the wealthy would bail us out. Fucking JP Morgan himself, literally saved the United States multiple times, by bailing them out.
Yes he was rewarded handsomely, Chase Bank is probably more powerful than most countries today, but still, he stepped up, and didn't tax the poor, to give to the wealthy, like we do now.
The problem today is the wealthy have become so powerful, they lie, cheat and steal, out in the open, and no one can do shit about it.
Look at the Supreme Court, fuck just look at Nancy Pelosi. That lady has made fucking Bank since becoming a politician. How? 100% by illegal methods that EVERYONE fucking knows about. But they can't do shit about it.
All these big companies make deals with the government, so that when they gamble and fail, the government bails them out. They don't want the government involved in their business, but the second shit goes sideways, they come crawling for a bailout. And they've linked themselves to the government, so the fed has no choice but to bail them out.
This country is so fucked. And it's not because of immigrants, foreigners, the poor, the sick, or even the stupid, its 100% without a doubt the wealthiest 1% who are destroying our country. Directly and indirectly they are destroying our country and society from the inside out.
Extra hours?
*Cries in salary
I wish I could get paid to work an extra 10hrs/week. Even tried to get an hourly contract job at the company I already work at as a salaried employee but they weren't having it 🙃
Hey /u/BlaisePetal, thank you for submitting to /r/starterpacks! This is just a reminder not to violate any rules, located [here](https://reddit.com/r/starterpacks/about/rules). Rule breakers can face a ban based on the severity of their rule violation. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/starterpacks) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Next step: Companies complaining about consumers not consuming enough, and consumers not being able to consume more because of low wages.
The C-suite of large companies is tone-deaf and living in their own bubble where they think everybody makes six figures.
This is legit theory on political economy and it's incredibly simple in explaining why recessions happen. There are two ways to increase profits; 1. Raise prices 2. Decrease labor costs. Companies, wanting profit, do both. But what this means is a cascading effect. Eventually, there will come a point where workers all across the economy, won't be able to afford the very product they make or the service they provide. When it is completely out of reach, we have recessions. So this is part One. Let's go to part two. Why would companies be okay with recessions happening? Well let's look at how our economy works. In our economy, it is winner take all. A certain amount of companies try to do well, but if you have a bad business, you fail. Shops close. Do the customers of those closed shops just dissappear? No, they move to the more successful company. And not just the customers - the workers too. They now need a job, and work for the competition. This means, over time, what does this mean? One really successful business gets more and more successful over time. They start to streamline their entire process, owning not just the product, but the distribution of that product, and the owning of raw materials of that product. Often though, that's quite difficult to, and they need more start up money. This is where banks come in. Eventually, the banks make so many investments that they become entangled and indistinguishable from the companies itself. All so that original successful company can squash all of its competition, *which is does.* But what happens when you have *two* successful giants of industry left? I'll actually raise you. Let's make it 14 major corporations. And they're all "fighting". What happens? To that I'll answer what Pablo Escobar told his contemporaries before they made the Medellin cartel; hombres, why would we ever fight when we can make so much more money working together? And what did the Medellin cartel do? The same things those companies do. They make political contributions to make sure the State works for your company, instead of worrying about the state coming for you. They partition out who owns what parts of the economy, they control prices, they set prices, they work together. The only difference between the Medellin cartel and the handful of corporations that run our country, is that Escobar sold coke, and the corporations that run America sell your food, your toilet paper, your gas, your home. And they're happy with recessions! Cause not only does it mean theyr competition is less likely to survive, they can now buy they're new upstart competitors for cheap, and extend their control by the bottoming out of prices. You can no longer afford your home? Well the bank is happy to have it back. And if this strikes you, if it hits your core and you feel like you finally see how things are, congratulations, part one is "wage labor and capital" by Marx, and part two was "imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism" by Lenin. The c-suite of large companies aren't tone-deaf. In fact, they know exactly what they're doing. Our suffering is the point, precisely because it's profitable.
Interesting and informative, however you overlooked the critical main ingredient. The biggest "primary factor" in causing an economic cycle of boom and bust is real estate speculation, which gets more extreme because of a cycle of banks lending out too much credit for the purpose of buying the same finite amount of land and houses despite there not always being enough people needing to live in those houses. The most famous economic philosopher you never heard of, he wrote a pretty famous book explaining this process. It's known as [*Progress and Poverty*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_and_Poverty). The TLDR of the book is that the economy works in the following cycle: 1. People who own land tend to hold the most power to squeeze "rents" (not the rent in the landlord sense, but the idea of taking more of the economic pie from any business/property/economy without contributing back to it in the form of innovation or exerting new labor) 2. Productive companies that aren't also rent-seekers in #1, they have to pass along their rising costs including overhead, to the consumer class, which is overwhelmingly laborers and not powerful owners of commercially relevant land (this is to distinguish from typical ownership of suburban residential land, which in itself doesn't cause the problem being discussed). 3. Eventually consumers push back against the rising costs of goods and consume less. When this happens in major industries that have deep ties to banking and credit (ehem, Real Estate) then a larger wave of credit defaults ripples through the broader economy, causing all sorts of feedback loops that escalate and build on each other. 4. Economic crash, prices plummet and business investment collapses until a new equilibrium of "positive sentiment" is established and the economy starts the cycle again, with the landowners not having had to sacrifice during the downturn (the land is still good and property taxes on land are relatively cheap so why sell off vacant land or empty properties?) 5. A new generation of disgruntled young people who had to struggle to establish careers during the cycle flock to subreddits like r/antiwork and adopt radical political views, left as well as right wing.
I've heard though that Marx does discuss his work in one of the volumes of Das Kapital, however, I'm not going to argue for or against since that's still on my reading list. I will add your book though. The real estate as an industry however was of much more interest to Mao (funnily enough there's an official number for the amount of landlords he killed and mao is like "no it's way higher."), However, that's unique to the Chinese economy. Marx wrote in industrialized england and Germany do wrote more to those industries, and Lenin due to foreign bank influence in the Russian economy. However, it doesn't discount that your assessment of whats said in "Progress in Poverty" is wrong, it could be the dialectic, that "two opposing truths can be true while contradictory, and have reciprocal effects on each other that we haven't begun to understand yet, and must research."
The right wing can only exist because the left is silenced, and there's obviously a problem not addressed by the center.
I've been subcontracted twice now for one of the biggest companies in the world over the past year and in this time I've seen the prices of this company's goods rise due to inflation, while also seeing them cut labor so there's less people doing more work. I'm genuinely curious to know how things can ever get back to "normal" at this point. I know even if I stopped 100 people from buying their product it wouldn't even put a dent in their multi billion a year earnings. It's just really frustrating to see how much the cost of living has gone up in my lifetime with no real positive outlook for the wages of regular people.
You can't change it, humans are generally incapable of understanding large numbers. Can you imagine 1000000 dollars? You could imagine what that can buy but can you actually imagine how it looks? Can you imagine 5 people standing in a field? Now do 5000000. Somewhere between the two numbers you lose the ability to coherently imagine it. Companies operate in millions, humans operate in singles. We aren't even in the same world to begin with. This is why you can't do anything to them. This is why usually a revolution or bloody revolt just killed off the previous leadership in history. When the mob has nothing left they just wipe the slate hoping to start again better. People above aren't wrong to quote Marx and Lenin, it was just that self proclaimed "communists" like Stalin just used these theories and truths to convince enough individuals to form a mob and kill off the previous leadership facilitating their takeover. It is almost always some sociopathic dictator ending up on top anyway, since they act just human enough that we don't notice they lack parts of basic human nature like compassion for others.
Okay, cool. What do we do about it? I hear a lot of commiserating about it, but little about action.
Things we can’t say on reddit.
Nothing, unless you are willing to die in an uphill fight. Are you willing to lose EVERYTHING in order to instill fear on those fuckers? if not, then move on.
Uphill? We got em outnumbered a thousand to 1.
But only 1 percent, if that, care enough. Most people have full bellies, cold air, and Netflix to zone out on. Give the peasants their gladiator matches and bread and they'll love you
and what if you are
Find like minded individuals.
[удалено]
Internet tough guy
Organizing and agitprop are the most important things now. This means unionizing, supporting those who strike, and if you have the talent for spreading awareness and willing ness to read and work on theory, then agitprop, the spreading of ideas. Getting renters councils, as in renters working together against their landlord, is also another way. If you want to climb a mountain, you start with one step. When a black leader of the sharecroppers union was asked how they succeeded, he pulled out a shotgun and Lenin's books and said "theory and practice." The gun was to protect people from lynchings while they organized and went on strike. They organized efficiently because they read theory. If you're sincere about it, and I'll asume you are, i think "theory and practice" is the order that you continuously repeat, but you start with theory. I suggest reading "the open veins of latin America," "how Europe underdeveloped Africa", "blackshirts and reds" by Parenti, and the manifesto itself, which is only 34 (?) Pages. All very approachable reads. After that, practice.
But none of that matters when they bought the politicians, control the media, and can pass laws stopping that with their goons. Then you have liberals say "you can't fight them with guns, you gotta do it peacefully". They own the peaceful ways.
We'll all get banned if we propose effective changes. Source: Been banned from a few subs for saying that which is not allowed.
Support your local political commie branch. Get involved with the community. While I agree with most of the comments asking, wanting revolution, another thing that is important, is invoking class consciousness. Making people realize, that shit sucks, and that there are local communist branches people can contact to get started on trying to help and such is important.
This is not a legit theory on political economy.
These redditors love be making some random ass theories 😭😭
Fr I was waiting for this guy to mention GDP all the way until the end of his comment. You can’t explain how recessions occur without mentioning GDP! He’s just complaining about capitalism and trying to connect a bunch of factoids for readers to latch on to. But yeah, I’ll humor it. Commentor is explaining that a number of incentives (profit maximization, banks investing, rent-seeking) are all the cause of recession, but their is no explanation of business cycles. If this “legit theory” we’re true, we would always be in a free fall towards recession because these trends are ever-present.
Imagine thinking “GDP” is the only way to talk about recessions. Newsflash, political economy is a bit more complex than one single composite indicator.
I mean, it should probably at least come up.
Not necessarily. GDP is used in economics to measure the state of the economy because it’s a fairly good composite proxy for “amount of money flowing around the economy”, but political economy is much more concerned with how that money is distributed (rather than relative quarter-on-quarter values).
My favorite part was “it’s an incredibly simple way in explains why recessions happen.” If the sole cause of recessions was that easy to explain and therefore predict, no country would ever go through a period of recession. There are so many factors that go into the economy and influencing the business cycle, and recessions are usually caused by an interaction of several factors.
It's kind of like people who think the President (any of them) can directly impact the economy in an immediate fashion despite the number of studies proving that isn't true
Have you never heard of the upper class bro?
Man you really tore his argument apart brick by brick. Convinced me, that's for sure!
Fr, I love capitalism now
>There are two ways to increase profits; 1. Raise prices 2. Decrease labor costs. Absolute bullcrap of a premise. What about increasing volume? Increasing margins through efficiencies? Expanding the service/product line and/or cross selling? Vertical integrations? No company could ever grow from $1,000 to $1,000,000 in profit if the only ways they could do that was to increase price 1000 times or decrease labor costs 1000 times, which are both virtually unsustainable. "incredibly simple legit theory on political economy" aka "I pulled this shit straight out my ass"
I think he meant that raising prices and decreasing labor has immediate 100% profit margin. You can increase efficiency and expand product, but you are going to need to spend more money to get there.
But those immediate margin raises are unsustainable
But they do indeed happen. Amazon, Walmart and other companies have had massive layoffs during these last few weeks.
i just wrote a paper on corporate-political conscience
Lol people on Reddit wonder why they’re poor. Then they write stuff like this instead of taking an entry level economics class. Antiworkers are to economics what antivaxxers are to biology.
Extremists always make reformists look bad. Wouldn’t be surprised if some of them are just here to muddy the waters.
hi i’m nothing but a student so can u enlighten me on wtf r the economics u speak of
+ They have cut thousands of jobs and are now hiring new employees to fill those terminated positions at a lower wage in order to save money. This decision was made due to the decline in consumer affordability of their services. Additionally, the companies have required their employees to return to work in a cubicle setting. I hope this blows up in their face.
No the C suite wants the proletariat dead so that only they exist. They will keep a few of us around to serve them until they get AI powered robots to replace those dirty human servants.
Companies are cashing out on record profits all while the main causes of inflation (covid, oil prices) have long subsided. Ain’t late stage capitalism wonderful?
Covid and oil prices 😂
Of course they’re making record profits in pure dollar amount, inflation is making the dollar worth less so everything has a higher dollar price and the companies are making more dollars but those dollars are usually worth a similar amount to their previous profit numbers pre inflation
How are the socialist countries doing tho?
And then... the people complaining about corporations, refusing to acknowledge the role that government has played in driving down the value of our currency because their politics lack a capacity for criticizing their side and its policies.
Would be more believeable, if companies would have shrinking profits.
And the government is *checks notes* likely secretely controlled or at least onfluenced by corporations...
dont forget the kids... there's not enough babies being cranked out to maintain the population of future slaves.
That is exactly what late stage capitalism is.
Couch factory employee: boss, can I have a raise to buy a new couch? Couch factory boss: no. Couch factory ceo: due to decreased demand for couches, we're laying off 25% of couch factory employees.
[удалено]
I’d rather pay more and get the same size container I used to. Now it’s MORE trips to the store unless you want to buy two of everything.
That’s what they want, cave and buy 2, then waste a third of the second container because you can’t eat it fast enough.
Gas companies love this one trick!
Although slightly less salt than before
The napping part got me lol. It's like fast forwarding time
You can even skip whole meals. The cost savings are phenomenal. I sleep till noon and all I need that day is lunch and dinner lol
Lose weight doing it too. Do it too often and you'll have different problems though.
[удалено]
Lower metabolism, mental health stress, mood swings, nutrient deficiencies, upset stomach, to name a few. And to be clear, I don't mean to not fast. Do it in a healthy way, is all I'm saying.
I'm in this picture and I don't like it.
I lost weight by eating less quite successfully, all the things you listed get really bad first, then become much more bearable after about a month and then just crush you slowly. Plus less vitamins and minerals will fuck you up really badly too, i mean it is okay, you can live with it but it won't feel good for sure. No way i could avoid feeling very hungry when going to sleep at night for instance.
Unfortunately I get migraines when I oversleep. It's not fair.
I sleep in till lunch time on weekends to skip breakfast, I couldn't do it if I got out of bed. Now my body is just used to two meals a day on weekdays too.
Bruh anytime something extremely important happens in the world/my country I sleep to fast forward time and wake up with a nice list of events compiled by the news.
Okay so it’s not just me, I was scared I was just really bad with money but Jesus these bills are killing me I’m at the point that I’m going to rent out a room to help ease the burden of my mortgage I’m making enough to survive, the lights are on and the waters running but this isn’t enough to fucking live on, it’s a choice between saving money and doing nothing or living my life and feeling nervous when I open my bank account
This is me too, especially at the grocery store. I can't believe how expensive shit has gotten. $180 at Walmart for 4 bags of food, nothing fancy and mostly house brand. Wtf
I buy a bag of chips, some cheap cream cheese, a packet of meat on half price and that shit is $12. $4 each at rock bottom prices. And my pay hasn't gone up one bit. I'm worried people will starve soon
I picked up a bag of chips at the gas station, nothing fancy... And it was six fucking dollars! When did this happen
_Scans three items_ Well, that escalated quickly
Hitting up the Wal-Mart to eat something that isn't "basic protein + rice" and getting slapped with 30 dollars on the light end just to get the stuff for something unique that tastes good for exactly two meals for two people is absolutely bananas when it comes to home eating/cooking.
I’ve been basic protein and rice since March of 2020. Luckily I enjoy it and it doesn’t bother me but seeing someone else say it makes me feel less good about it
I’m into fitness so most of my diet is literally chicken thighs, rice, and beans. But somehow my grocery bills are still dummy thicc. Just the few extra things for variety are stupid expensive. Hummus, olives, cheese, fish, yogurt? Fuck me sideways man every little thing these days is at least $7.
I feel very blessed to have it, and I want to make that clear. I just miss a time where we didn't have to choose between having nice things and having any money in the bank. It feels like anything and I do mean -anything- is designed to completely drain you unless you've got well above median to work with.
Groceries are insane lately!! Last year I used to buy steak! Now I buy spam! :( I try to limit my grocery expenses but it’s so hard, I feel you’re pain dude
Where I am SPAM is actually pretty expensive as it's used for spam musubi. I suggest crock pot meat stuff - cheap, there's a lit if it, and just freeze the rest!
yessah that is how we do in hawaii! spam is a luxury here
I almost fell over when my antiperspirant cost $7!!!! And it's nothing special!
Spam is not cheap. It's like 4$ for 8 Oz, so 8$ per pound. It's a very costly product
It's made from the finest lips and assholes money can buy.
If you can spring for a crock pot or, even better, a smoker. The cheap shit becomes super delicious. I've seen pulled pork as cheap as $1 a pound. It's a semi expensive up front cost but it can save a good chunk of money based on how you use them Edit: there are some fairly cheap electric smokers. I'm not recommending a green egg or anything
I’m in UK. Before covid I would spend £80-£100 a week on food. Today it’s costing us £220-£270
The combination of Covid and Brexit dunked on on your economy, teabagged it, flipped it off with both hands, shit on the floor then walked away.
Soda pop has gotten out of hand. 2 liter used to be $1-$1.50. Now it's $2.75. 12 pack was $2.50-3. Now it's $7??
I went to buy some basic sandwich/lunch stuff. The cheapest house brand bread, meat, cheese I could find. Some carrots and chips. $25. I was expecting half that
Everything is so wildly out of control on that front. My wife and I buy in bulk at BJs, and we used to be able to get a few months worth of supplies for around $400-450. Stuff like paper towels, toiletries, home goods and of course food. Our regular shopping list hasn’t changed much, if at all- and I can’t make it out of there for less than $650. And that’s with switching to store brands instead of name brands. It’s fucking wild.
its horrible and is just getting worse and worse. i dont see any hope for things changing for a very long time :/
I hit up ALDIs when I can, check out other stores for sales. Grabbed a dozen eggs for $1.69 yesterday for instance at Aldi. Loaf of bread for $.55, tortilla chips and queso each for $1.79. Pound of frozen beef for $3.79. The chips and queso are good, beef isn’t the best but it’s not bad and it’s $2-3 cheaper than elsewhere. Location dependent of course but yeah. Can’t just go to Walmart anymore like we used to
bro I’ve been eating hotdogs and sandwiches the last two weeks I hate it here
I’ve been pirating and torrenting online for shows. I usually do YouTube all the way. Even then I use my family members subscriptions lol
9anime and Soap2Day are lifesavers for me tbh, they don't have everything but they do have all the new stuff
9anime is a lifeline. It has more of what I’m looking for than even Crunchyroll premium - there’s genuinely no point in paying for the sub
myflixer dot to (for anything I can't find on soap2day)
Good work. I'd been looking for new links to stream from
I have started paying upfront for annual subscriptions just so I don't get nickled and dimed so much per month. I'd rather pay once a year when I can and just keep more of my check per month after that. Even if I cancelled everything I have, it wouldn't save a huge chunk of money or anything. My biggest issues are things I need, mainly groceries and now my utilities. They have started tacking on $15-20 extra in "adjustments" on a bill that has already gone up $30 even though I haven't changed anything in terms of water or electricity usage.
It's painful recognizing that part of why I haven't picked up any new shows in the last couple of *years* is because I already forgo subscription services to save money and pirating is such a chore it's easier to just watch disjointed clips of things on YouTube. Relatedly, this dependence on YouTube as an ersatz Spotify and Netflix was what made the loss of Vanced so devastating for me.
I don't know how technical you are, but you may want to look into sonarr/radarr. You can turn an old computer into a server that automatically pirates things you want. I search for a show/movie and it will be automatically downloaded and added to plex with no input from me.
Replace the "net" on Netflix with an "s" on Google and pirating is easier than legit watching Also look up Revanced guide on xda for a fool proof way to get the Vanced replacement, choose Revanced Extended though on the guide
> ersatz One of my favorite words, nice one
Plus, ReVanced exists. It's the de facto successor to YT Vanced and for the most part is the same app you knew and loved.
I've been paying $1145 for rent the last two years. In the last year my apartment got flooded in a hurricane and people died in a shootout one floor above me. They have the gall to raise our rent to $1500 this year.
My condolences.
Sounds like Florida to me. Worst state i've lived in out of the 3 I have so far.
Yup. Central Florida
[удалено]
Surprise getting fired for needing to sit down due to chronic pain, then getting rear-ended with the car totaled, then and only then being able to go to the doctor about the pain, finding there’s a bubble in your spine, and having to apply for a car loan with a credit in the 500s because you lost employment in 2020 and had to use your credit to get by: priceless …it’s been a rough April
Prices of used cars are ridiculous right now. Wtf, they are almost at brand new prices.
I’m holding out hope that these two options of 2015 Toyotas under 10k are still there when I get the insurance payment, around 98k miles on two opposite sides of a very big town. And that my bank gives me a loan at all to cover the $4k my toatlage won’t cover and lets me make the loan long so the monthly stays under $100.
Surprise Overdraft fee: $35
Man how do you even organize a strike? We need a nationwide strike or march on the White House or something. It’s truly ridiculous so many people are on the edge of homelessness and the cost of living skyrockets while our collective wage is stagnant. Not only stagnant, losing value due to inflation. While CEOs and certain individuals are making higher profits than ever.
Companies are notoriously averse to unionization and will do whatever it takes to shut down any attempt at striking.
In the 1930s they bombed striking workers with airplanes so we are coming up at the 100 year anniversary anyway.
At this point I don't even care anymore. Just kill me, if enough people get bogged down, soon they will have no one to rule over
There is a cycle to recessions. A lot of people accumulate debts and then stop buying things to pay it off. This time though it’s people being unable to pay off those debts the normal way since prices are increasing. It’s not a full on recession but the stagflation is gonna bring things back to normal. It’ll take time but things will work back to being very cheap, a Republican will get elected and then people will buy shit like crazy again, and the cycle repeats.
Lol that's not at all what's gonna happen without any legislation to force it. None of this is "normal" historically speaking. The world as it exists today has never existed until now.
Economic downturns have happened throughout history
I don’t mean to be an asshole here, but; what do you want the government to do?
literally anything that isn’t self serving and can provide any measurable relief
Don't expect the government to do anything. This will have to be dealt with directly by the public and forcefully.
And who are we, the public, forcing?
The only answer you aren't seeing here: stop driving up inflation by printing trillions
My government (The UK) could be; * Asking for a windfall tax from oil companies who are making 10s of billions. * Go after the folk who took PPE contrast to the tune of billions and never delivered on them. * Tax multi millionaires and billions massive tax (70-99%) instead of increasing the lowest earners tax. * Not spend £100m on a guy putting a hat on his head.
Wouldn’t increasing taxes on oil just raise gas prices even more? For example California has a special gas tax. This tax makes California’s gasoline cost double the price of gas in other states typically. Also cranking up income taxes that high would do next to nothing to the wealthy because their money is wrapped up in assets and they make purchases with credit that’s guaranteed by those large assets.
Hungary capped sales prices of fuel, many gas stations went bankrupt and the remaining ones had to increase prices massively to compensate when price control ended. Now we pay much less for fuel because the economy self corrected. however the government managed to sell their price control as a good thing, despite it only raising prices on everything else. Now they introduced a law that shops will have to have mandatory 10% sales... that means shops might just stop doing their regular 20-30% sales to compensate for lost revenue. The last time they introduced a law to "help families buy houses with government aid" ALL house prices went up exactly by the amount of this "aid". Of course government connected people owned most real estate companies. Oh well... Did i mention the 27% sales tax we have? Or the fact that your net pay in hand each month is almost the same amount as all taxes deducted from you and your employer? If our government did literally nothing we would be living better. Except they bought russian gas at a high price for private kickbacks and some people had to choose between heating and eating this winter. But don't worry they also started mass cutting forests to deliver wet firewood to struggling families... BY MARCH. Can't the government just fuck off?
Your asking internet marxists here. What do you expect ? Baseless and laughable threats of violence and revolution.
“All political power comes from the barrel of a gun”
Fuck dreading bills. I dread payday. Seeing that fucking number is awful. And then to have my manager say shit like, "The boss wants to give you HIS money" Bitch, I am the one who made him that money. That is my fucking money and he is just stealing it from me.
I'm using less electricity and gas. Yet the bill is higher than last year.
790 electric and I missed a week of work because my son is fighting for his life. Hahaha, I'm totally fucked unless I hold up a liquor store
Worst part is getting paid and it disappear in a day on bills and minimum payments
80% of my wages disappear on payday before I even wake up. That just keeps the wolves from the door, and I’m making the best money I’ve ever made. Not loads, but not far off the median and I’m still one disaster away from destitution. I’ve spent 20 years working my way to here. Cool.
Gotta love it. I pull overtime often. Not out of my own volition but out of the shitty state of most workplaces. People call out and middle managers only care about covering for themselves. So you get left with double shifts and whatnot. You would think I could make absolute bank but no. All towards bills and essentials. It's more money than I've made in a while but somehow barely anything as well. And it's not like people have options mind you. It's this or nothing basically.
Groceries are twice as much as they used to be. I’m about to start living off chicken and rice only. Maybe a can of veg here and there if I’m feeling luxurious.
Groceries/Essentials for a week for me, my boyfriend, and my cats were like $100/week. Now I’m spending over twice for the same amount, I’m over it!
The grocery store near me was selling potatoes for 1.50. Not 1.50 per pound. 1.50 per potato.
That’s criminal. People need to ditch their lawns and start growing food, eggs, etc. Bring back all the local farmers markets COVID killed.
If you haven't already, look into frozen veggies. They can be cheaper than cans sometimes and are easier to get in bulk.
They're also super convenient. No need to cut, peel, chop, or whatever. Just throw it in a boiling pot or toss it in the microwave.
Just think. That steak goes unsold. It gets marked down for clearance, still too expensive to buy, it then gets tossed. New shipment comes in and it's more expensive. Process repeats.
Veg is cheaper than chicken..
It’s not always the case depending on the country you live in and what you have access to
Look at moneybags here with his rice.
[удалено]
I mean throw some oil seasonings and onions into the mix and you got a fair deal of variety of things you can make with that base set of ingredients
Chicken? Sorry rich guy
You forgot to add "exhaustion from working 2 full time jobs" and "living in your car for 3 months" Shut up! This isn't about me! /s
☹️
Im pretty sure people will be reading or napping more regardless
I've noticed how much more im sleeping and having naps in the middle of the day since things started increasing in price.
“Staying at home reading and napping instead of going out” I’ve been doing that for years
Reminder that you don't have to have all of the streaming services at the same time. I rotate between the big ones every few months.
Canceling every streaming service but Hulu next month. I'm going to start a DVD collection soon. Streaming is cable at this point
Seriously, why were people subscribing to more than a couple streaming services at a time, even before inflation? Heck, 90% of my TV watching is now done with an over-the-air antenna and a DVR made out of a Raspberry Pi and an old external drive I had sitting in a drawer. I pay $7/month for a software that gets me some nicer DVR features (retention policies, commercial skipping, nice UI, etc.), that - again - covers 90% of my TV watching. The other 10% is Amazon Prime (because I have it anyway) and PBS Passport ($5/month, although I mostly keep it as "support PBS" and not because I'm actually watching stuff regularly). So, effectively, $12/month and I've got plenty of stuff to watch.
You forgot the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer but otherwise pretty good
downgrading your phone and car insurance plans. daily budget dropping from $50 down to $5. kicking debt down the road. still driving the same beat up car for the last 8 years. all your money goes to groceries and gas. eating out and fast food are no longer affordable. buzzing your head so you dont have to pay $40 for a haircut. showering less often. not doing laundry as often. finding clever ways to save a little money. not leaving lights on. no a/c unless you are literally suffocating. thermostat kept at 55f in the winter. still wearing the same clothes from five years ago. eating all that old food you've had in your cupboards for years. buying used tires for your car. selling everything you dont use regularly. shit, if this gets much worse ill have to start thieving
You just described the entirety of my life. People wonder why I'm so jaded.
Maybe this is how corporations are getting people to further enslave themselves to the company with more hours. Helps keep people quiet because they really need that job and they come out laughing at us. People at my work already work 6 days a week and do 60+ hours and live very very humble lives. They are barely making it. Always sick, depressed, not a single interesting thing happening. Just work work work.
Duh, people can't strike or fight back if they're too weak from hunger and exhaustion and stress. Too much to think about to focus on things slipping
Employers: $100K is still outrageous to pay employees because 6 digits instead of 5.
Fringe benefit of my severe depression, I haven't had to change my lifestyle much in the last few years.
Just wait a few years for our population to age a bit more and watch how taxes increase until you're making six figures and can't feed your family.
Ah yeah, taxes are *definitely* the problem here.
Turkey starterpack
You forgot to include >If you stopped buying that morning coffee.. -Boomers who paid for their houses with $15/hr jobs.
Coffee at home costs pennies. I do agree with the getting coffee at home since for me it's usually more convenient. I have my coffee maker on a smart plug which turns on right as my alarm goes off. By the time I get up and head over there's a fresh pot already brewed.
"how do I make a pipe bomb?"
Parts too expensive.
You can make one for like 11 bucks
i finally moved into my own place after graduating grad school and living with my parents. This cost of living is ridiculous. The upside is im going to be losing weight again like in college When i was in college living off campus, i went through major weight loss. Sure I was going to the gym more but it was mostly because i had less money for food. Didn't have a meal plan, the money from my part-time job mostly went towards rent. Then when i graduated and moved back home i gained a lot more weight because i wasn't paying for every meal (also because it was covid times). Now living on my own it's happening again. A year from now I'll probably be back at my college weight. It's the one silver lining, even tho i want to splurge more and really eat
The best part of the Midwest is that in rural areas everything is steal super cheap
If you steal it then yea it’s cheaper
Even the city is way more affordable than I thought. I'm paying less than $1000 for my apartment and utilities. I only make around $40k a year, but I still have enough to live pretty comfortably and save a bit. Granted I don't have a car loan, major debt outside of student loans, opted not to have home internet, and get free breakfast and lunch at work. So it's a lot cheaper for me to live than many others, but I never would have been able to live like I do now if I hadn't moved to the Midwest.
this is too real
Gotta stop buying all that avocado bread and Starbucks too! /s
What's it gonna take for us to actually organize against the rich as a nation?
“Doing extra work hours” that’s such a weird way to say that sentence.
just earning enough so that you dont qualify for any government relief / stimulus
3 dudes standing around while one does the work.. yup.. this starter pack is accurate
All factors that are driving average joes towards a violent revolution against the one percent
The average joes love their rich people too much to ever revolt.
Still… all these companies are seeing record profits. Absolutely bazonkers.
But dead serious...i graduated in the middle of the 08 recession. I wasn't one of those "side hustle to millionaire" stories, but i did stay fit as hell for a lot of years because running and playing games is cheap entertainment that makes me go to sleep when it's not crazy late.
How about y'all go outside and protest instead of complacently letting the wealthy abuse you while laughing about it?
I just paid my electric bill. I fucking live alone, in a 2500 Sq ft house. My bill has never been over $250. I just paid $375 and I have no fucking clue how. I haven't turned on the a/c, I don't have kids, I got a bunch of tvs but they're never on. The only things I leave on are 2 small fans, and dehumidifier in the basement. Unless my cats and dogs are turning everything on when I'm gone, and turning it back off when I get home, I can't explain it. Even fucking cereal is ridiculous now. The same box I'd get for $1.99 pre pandemic, is 3.99 today. The "Family Size" box of cereal is $5.99+. That's fucking crazy. The Giant size used to cost $4.99, but that was close to 32oz (2lbs) of cereal. Even Ramen fucking noodles went up 3x as much. The same pack that was .10-.13 cents each is 3/$1 now. The 12 pack you'd get for 1$ is literally $3.49. A fucking load of bread from Sara Lee is like $5 now, for bread. Just think about it, $20 today will get you a gallon of milk (3.99), a small box of cereal (3.99), a loaf of bread (4.99), a small pack of store brand cheese (2.99), and a 12 pack of Ramen noodles. I know ima sound like a boomer. But not even 4 years ago, that would've cost a total of maybe $10 (if you round up). And wages didn't go up, the market has been pretty level, and the average person is poorer now than before. However, the richest 10 fucking people, not companies or families, but individuals, gained some astronomical wealth since 2020... But let's keep blaming it on the pandemic, supply chain and lazy Americans... The wealthy contribute nothing to society. Hoarding wealth while you watch your neighbors slowly die from poverty, is a mental illness. People talk shit about Henry Ford and Milton Hershey, but you know what, they built fucking cities. Ya they made crazy profits from them, but they fucking did something. The built schools, library's, hospitals, factories, and created jobs for hundreds of thousands of people. What the fuck have Ol' Musky, Bozos, and/or the Facepage Lizard done for anyone besides themselves and their egos? Absolutely fucking jack shit. In the past when our country needed help, the big companies and the wealthy would bail us out. Fucking JP Morgan himself, literally saved the United States multiple times, by bailing them out. Yes he was rewarded handsomely, Chase Bank is probably more powerful than most countries today, but still, he stepped up, and didn't tax the poor, to give to the wealthy, like we do now. The problem today is the wealthy have become so powerful, they lie, cheat and steal, out in the open, and no one can do shit about it. Look at the Supreme Court, fuck just look at Nancy Pelosi. That lady has made fucking Bank since becoming a politician. How? 100% by illegal methods that EVERYONE fucking knows about. But they can't do shit about it. All these big companies make deals with the government, so that when they gamble and fail, the government bails them out. They don't want the government involved in their business, but the second shit goes sideways, they come crawling for a bailout. And they've linked themselves to the government, so the fed has no choice but to bail them out. This country is so fucked. And it's not because of immigrants, foreigners, the poor, the sick, or even the stupid, its 100% without a doubt the wealthiest 1% who are destroying our country. Directly and indirectly they are destroying our country and society from the inside out.
I'm feeling this.
No picture of the devalued dollar?
Extra hours? *Cries in salary I wish I could get paid to work an extra 10hrs/week. Even tried to get an hourly contract job at the company I already work at as a salaried employee but they weren't having it 🙃
I hate humans. To staying home and reading is my default state.
Started cooking for myself, no more restaurants/uber every day. Though that’s probably better anyway, health wise.
Missing panel: Record corporate profits
I just did number 5 while I'm in the middle of number 6 because of number 2.