Thinktank report says ‘resounding evidence’ shows companies continue to keep prices high even as their inflationary costs drop
  • agitatedpotato@lemmy.world
    985·
    10 months ago

    I like how every layman said that this is what was happening but in the moment you could find half a dozen ‘economists’ on national news networks explaining it as if it was all just normal and no one was benefiting from it. Economics is a fake science, it’s not even worthy of the title social science. It’s literally just learning how to justify rich peoples actions and nothing else.

    • dumpsterlid@lemmy.worldEnglish
      193·
      10 months ago

      Economics is just astrology but for bros in business suits and without all the fun parts of astrology.

    • skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de
      71·
      10 months ago

      find half a dozen ‘economists’ on national news networks

      Oh, you mean that news that is owned by the very same oligarchs? Everyone should just collectively start ignoring national news. (Not trying to agitate you, dear potato, just…yeah, national news, their owners, and their ‘economists’ should be banned and charged with some crime for lying to the nation at every turn.)

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
      4·
      10 months ago

      Just like any other field of study, you can buy an expert pretty easily. It doesn’t mean Economics is fake. It Means those guys got paid to say that by someone like the US Chamber of Commerce. (Which isn’t a government agency, no matter how much they try to seem like one)

    • eksbEnglish
      191·
      10 months ago

      The other half is executive compensation.

  • roscoe@startrek.website
    441·
    10 months ago

    If you want to know how bad we’re being fucked, search for the PPI, the producer price index. CPI, the one we always hear about, is the measure of inflation to us, the consumer. The PPI is the measure of inflation to producers, what they pay for goods and services to produce the goods and services we buy.

    The PPI has been back to “normal” for a while now. Pretty much as soon as the post COVID logistics issues were mostly ironed out. The difference between PPI and CPI changes is pure profit.

    We don’t get daily articles on the PPI though, I wonder why.

    Edit: tell people about PPI whenever you can, online or off, the more people know, the better. It’s easy enough to say inflation is just down to greed but being able to back it up by comparing two simple charts will help people really understand.

    • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
      14·
      10 months ago

      For anyone curious, here are the BLS pages for PPI and CPI where you can see just how badly they’re screwing us. Especially when you look at the long term graph showing that they’re just barely above where they were a decade ago.

    • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
      101·
      10 months ago

      It is not accurately “pure profit,” but this is a post that is so common sense and dead on that quibbling on that detail misses the point.

      The question is: why would they reduce costs if they’re being paid? People being mad about it doesn’t affect their bottom line unless it actually affects their bottom line.

      It’s more profitable to keep up the misery and take the gain until forced to change then apologize and change. It’s free money. Why would they charge less if they can make money charging more? There is no incentive for them to bring down their own profit margins just because people don’t like it.

      • roscoe@startrek.website
        3·
        10 months ago

        Hopefully the knowledge can affect their bottom line. Consumer sentiment affects spending habits. If people know they’re being gouged instead of just feeling like it, maybe they’ll curb their non-essential spending enough to put downward pressure on prices.

        Maybe not, but it can’t hurt.

      • TheHarpyEagle@lemmy.world
        1·
        10 months ago

        Indeed, people are actively giving them the excuse. It’s more important to paste your clever “I did this” sticker than it is to ask why oil companies have posted record profits the past couple years.

  • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
    384·
    10 months ago

    We know.

    That’s what happens when both of your ruling parties are bought, paid-for, and only interested in finding ways to send more of our money to war.

    • theherk@lemmy.world
      1·
      10 months ago

      Just remember, if you don’t vote for one geriatric corporatist, you’re basically voting for the other geriatric corporatist. So you better be a good little voter.

  • Candelestine@lemmy.worldEnglish
    30·
    10 months ago

    Article needs some charts and graphs. Ross Perot had a good approach to economic messaging, strong enough to peel support away from the repubs. He just got on tv and basically gave a business presentation. With lots of charts and graphs. Not too different from the youtuber perun’s video style.

    Fox News already takes this approach, and abuses it of course. But it’s one of the drivers of their success imo. Data visualizations have a different appeal from narrative-based presentations, certain kinds of learners tend to just naturally prefer them for whatever reason.

  • psud@lemmy.world
    14·
    10 months ago

    It is telling that prices have gone up so much on manufactured products, but there has been nearly no change in price of meat from a butcher

    Land usage prices haven’t changed, raw materials haven’t changed. It’s just the companies.

  • iAvicenna@lemmy.world
    91·
    10 months ago

    yea it is an endless circle in Turkey too, people get %10 raise and then prices increase by %15 because salary costs increase. It has been like this since the last 5 years and basically the price of everything increased about 15-20 times (salaries 10-15 depending what you are doing).