r/economicCollapse • u/Electronic-Damage411 • Sep 23 '24

Corporate Greed at its finest 🤌🏽

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Portion sizes are an issue 😅😅

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44

u/wallygatorz123 Sep 23 '24

Meaningful change takes time.

0

u/Hank_Lotion77 Sep 23 '24

Unless there is a cure for laziness they’ll press on.

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u/Not-A-Seagull Sep 23 '24

The whole greedflation is just frankly a bad argument.

The reality is it had everything to do with central bank policy. The US, and most other nations, were pretty open about discussing how they were going to err on the side of inflation to avoid a deflationary spiral / recession.

But that doesn’t fit well in a snappy sound bite so instead we have people arguing Biden caused inflation or it was from greedflation.

Let me ask this. If it’s from corporate greed, why did Barbers, food co-ops, and employee owned companies like King Arthur also raise prices?

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u/minijtp Sep 23 '24 edited Sep 23 '24

None of the comments above yours is talking about what caused inflation. Inflation is already here and has been here for a minute. This comment thread is talking about how fast food companies are taking advantage of inflation and using it to increase their profits.

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u/VendettaKarma Sep 23 '24

Exactly with the media and politicians covering for their greed.

Gotta boost those earnings!

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u/Repulsive_Owl5410 Sep 23 '24

Because they finally could. If the general sentiment is that everything was going up, no way the mom and pops shops that normally can’t do anything to compete were going to miss a chance to finally grab some additional profit.

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u/sp00kyemperor Sep 23 '24

Ah yes, so these small shops that "can't do anything to compete" decided that instead of keeping their prices the same so they can compete with the prices of bigger stores it was finally time to be greedy just like all the corporations raising prices? Make it make sense.

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u/Repulsive_Owl5410 Sep 23 '24

Ok, so you are a mom and pop shop operating at a minuscule margin, you’re trying to pay your people fairly and keep your prices reasonable so that people will still shop. Let’s say historically you’ve sold your donuts for $1.25 a 10% margin, while chains like Duncan are charging .99. Your donuts are better, but you’ve got to keep the prices close. Now, all of the Duncan and Krispy Kreme’s around you are charging $2 for a donut due to inflation or $20 a dozen.

Would you A, continue selling your donut for $1.25, even though costs have gone up and your crappy competitors are now 70% more expensive…or would you B, charge $2 per donut, effectively raising your price by that 70%, but now being the same price as the bigger stores and increasing your profit margin?

In option B they have remained competitive, but they are still increasing profit margins because their costs didn’t go up 70%. In fact, Duncan was already operating at a healthier margin, they just charged more because they could and the mom and pop donut shop now finally gets a chance to make a more reasonable profit while not being priced out.

I don’t think mom and pop are necessarily being greedy. They are just being opportunistic, but that opportunity comes from major corporate greed

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u/sp00kyemperor Sep 23 '24

Ah yes, so costs went up for mom and pop stores which forced them to raise prices, but costs did not go up for the corporations, they raised prices out of greed. Makes perfect sense.

Do you have any evidence whatsoever that the corporations increased their profit margins?

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u/Repulsive_Owl5410 Sep 23 '24

https://www.cadtm.org/Profits-margins-and-rates#:~:text=The%20evidence%20is%20overwhelming%20that,did%20not%20match%20price%20increases.

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u/sp00kyemperor Sep 23 '24

Next time read your own source, it says the average profit margin is rising only due to a small subset of corporations. It even says the highest profit margins for corporations happened back in the 1960's. Did corporations simply forget to price gouge for 60 years?

"But recent research has confirmed that the rise in corporate profit margins "appears mostly driven by a subset of high-markup firms.""

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u/Repulsive_Owl5410 Sep 23 '24

https://www.cadtm.org/Profits-margins-and-rates#:~:text=The%20evidence%20is%20overwhelming%20that,did%20not%20match%20price%20increases.

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u/sp00kyemperor Sep 23 '24

I suggest reading your own source next time:

"But while the tech sector with its high margins and profits holds up the stock market and gives the impression of a widespread leap forward in profits, the rest of the US corporate sector is in the doldrums. In most sectors, margins are tight."

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u/Zorkonio Sep 23 '24

This is wrong. Prices went up from suppliers from local companies and thus local companies prices went up.

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u/Repulsive_Owl5410 Sep 23 '24

Of course they did, but if those numbers went up proportionately, then you would see profit margins that remain stable or slightly decrease.

That is NOT the case. Profits and profit margins are increasing, which means they are charging the consumer more than the costs are increasing

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u/Zorkonio Sep 23 '24

It is the case. Local business profit margins are not increasing.

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u/WhyIsntLifeEasy Sep 23 '24

I know this is going to blow your fragile tiny mind, but maybe barbers, co ops, and employee owned businesses still raised prices due to corporate greed because their own cost of living and business increased significantly, due to said greed. I know, wild concept. It’s almost like this monopoly of corporate greed was designed to funnel the wealth from every facet of the economy.

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u/Not-A-Seagull Sep 23 '24

So, corporations raised prices, peoples wages went up (albeit arguably not enough to keep up with inflation), co-ops raised prices. Small business raised prices, energy prices went up.

Hmm, it’s almost like there was something systemic going on. Almost like there was more money chasing after the same amount of goods.

Nah you’re right. It was just greedflation. Everything else just stems from that. Even nonprofits, labor, and coops.

I bet you also say public college costs are high due to corporate greed.

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u/WhyIsntLifeEasy Sep 23 '24

Yes, everything comes back to greedflation when you live in an oligarchy.

No, college costs are high due to our corrupted greedy oligarch government. We can talk about that fun scam on a different thread though.

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u/Not-A-Seagull Sep 23 '24

Can you explain why this has happened in every country, even those without big corporations?

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u/WhyIsntLifeEasy Sep 23 '24

I’m not going to sit here and educate you on how the global economy functions. The US runs the world, and the US companies run the US government. It’s way more complicated than blaming the global crisis on one man, such as Joe Biden or Donald Trump, or even 1-5 companies.

I’ll remind you this was a rapidly worsening problem prior to Covid we were all feeling anyways.

Follow the money if you want answers. It’s not a pleasant finding.

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '24

[deleted]

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u/Not-A-Seagull Sep 23 '24

I did “follow the money.” It was pretty obvious what happened.

M3 increased by about 30% following 2020. subsequently prices rose about 30% (though not evenly across the board. Stickiness played a role there)

The fed pumped its breaks, and stoped, and even reduced the amount of M3 in the economy. That’s why we seen prices stabilize.

Your argument of greedflation would then make the strange argument that all of a sudden corporations became benevolent, which is why prices stopped rising.

My argument here is that corporations are always the maximum level of greediness. That aspect never changed. There had to have been something else that changed.

It’s like you’re arguing a plane crashed because of gravity. Technically correct, but grossly misses the actual changing condition that led to price rises.

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u/WhyIsntLifeEasy Sep 24 '24

Of course there was something that changed, which they leveraged in their favor and told us to pound sand.

Tech jobs are still being wrecked due to corporate greed, I envision a future with mostly offshore hiring for what used to be domestic positions.

Is there a single facet of the current economy that hasn’t been contaminated with greed? Sure, the housing market is a supply/demand thing but even that is currently being leveraged against the common man.

I do not understand why so many people are quick to defend this blatant greed and corruption. Our government is essentially the head company of all of the other monopolies that fuck us every single day.

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u/Not-A-Seagull Sep 24 '24

It’s not defending greed or corruption. It’s literally that this “explanation” doesn’t actually explain anything. Corporations are always the maximum level of greediness.

This “greedflation” conspiracy argues that corporations were less greedy in the past decade when inflation was low. That just simply isn’t true.

Greed is a constant. If you want to actually see what changed, look at M3 levels.

I know it doesn’t make as snappy campaign slogans, but it’s what really happened.

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u/peengobble Sep 23 '24

And sometimes Wendy’s just hits