Cutting back on spending is the only thing I know that works. When consumers don’t buy things, the prices come down.
For groceries this means splurging less, avoiding things you don’t need (drink tea instead of soda, don’t buy snacks and chips). Fruits and vegetables are definitely still cheaper than prepared foods in many cases. Even when frozen. And they can be used to make a meal stretch, along with beans and rice.
Buy cheap bar soap and store brands of basic things.
Coupons aren’t really a thing anymore, but you can use the app for stores like the grocery, Target, Walmart, to “clip” deals and save.
A lot of the high prices right now are just greed. They aren’t tied to actual supply chain or labor issues. A grocery store in France just told PepsiCo to take a hike because their prices were so outrageous.
If you want the government to get involved, I encourage you to write your representatives about enforcing existing anti-trust laws. The mega mergers and buyouts are driving prices up because of less competition. Kroger wants to buy Albertsons for example. That just means more layoffs and higher grocery prices.
The biggest thing is to be aware of how much things should cost, and just refuse to buy them if they're gouging.
Can I afford $13 for a case of Coca-Cola? Sure, I absolutely can. I can afford $24 a case. I'm just not willing to pay that. That same case was $7 in 2019. You can't tell me their costs have doubled.
And even if I believed their costs doubled (and I don't), that doesn't mean their prices have to double. They're not entitled to growing percentage profit on a larger number. Just because they made 20% on that $7 case doesn't mean they deserve 20% on that $13 case. 20% of $7 is $1.40. They could absolutely take $2 profit on $10 and be happy with it. But they won't. Because people don't pay attention and they can get away with it.
There are enough barriers to entry and cooperation among would-be competitors that they can charge basically whatever the duck they choose.
cutting back spending is hard when it's one of the main ways to feel joy; you already have to spend on groceries and bills anyway, and it feels that much more stark and grim denying yourself the fun foods and nice convenience items to save like $10, then your rent goes up $50 because they said so, and so what's the point anyhow...
Think of it as a protest then. When they’re charging stupid prices for beef, say “hell no” and eat lentils for a time. It’s all in the attitude. It’s honestly good for us to cut back a bit. If spending money is one’s main way to feel joy then something is wrong to begin with. Time to read a good library book or take more walks for joy. And most of us could stand to eat a little less beef anyway.
I would highly recommended finding other sources of joy. Buying things has been proven again and again to just give small bursts of happiness that quickly fade, this is the cycle these corporations often feed on.
Look into cheap hobbies you can do. Recovering from getting used to these small hits of joy isn't always easy, but it will give you back more control of your life. I'm not perfect at this myself but I am much more aware of it and able to say no in the majority of my life.
You could also look into Minimalisim, there are some interesting ideas in there to be adopted, even if you don't eat the whole pie.
While I personally do appreciate the level of detail and amount of options provided in this reply, the more straightforward and longer-term solution is to eat the rich.
I'm fortunate enough to not be in a position where money is tight for food, but re: beans and rice, I absolutely love my instant pot!
Mexican-style beans are, IMHO, delicious, easy to make, and dirt cheap. I love them, our toddler loves them, and it's easy on the wallet. Dry beans are really affordable, and a 25lb bag of rice is great to have in the pantry (note: careful with bulk brown rice as I think it can go rancid). A stove and a pot can do both, but an instant pot and a rice cooker makes it so easy.
I also drink a fair amount of coffee, but again, bulk or even just "make coffee at home" is very affordable. A few cups at Starbucks costs the same as a pound of beans (which yields many cups).
Exactly this. Also try Indian Madras Lentils packets (I get them at Costco), really cheap for a serving and microwavable. Also bulk Indian spice pastes if you can get them cheap enough. Makes the rice+beans gourmet for dirt cheap. And with coffee, I've gotten to the point where the biggest cost is actually filters. To help with this I got a reusable mesh filter from Amazon. Works well, easy to clean, and holds up (I've used it for over 100 cups now). Then you're at like 10 - 15¢ / cup if you use bulk coffee mate and sugar.
I started buying dry beans recently and it has been a complete game changer for me. Same goes for things like rice, potatoes, and oats. My grocery bill is way lower than it used to be, and I haven't have to skip meals to get through the month in a while. I spend a bit more time cooking now, but I'm a college student with no kids or other major responsibilities, so it's not a big deal in my case. I've honestly started to enjoy cooking, and my roommates are nice about helping me learn.
I dunno why I'm putting all this out there, I guess I'm just happy about it. I grew up hungry, not to the extent that some kids do, but enough that it took a toll. This is the best nourished I've been in my life, and the difference it's made caught me by surprise. I feel better physically, obviously; but I also never realized how much the stress was weighing on me. It's hard to explain, but I feel like a whole different person without it, y'know?
Sorry for getting off topic. I hope it's okay if I leave this here for my own sake lol. But yeah! Rice and beans ftw! xD
This is good advice. And I think it helps to think of it as a protest. None of us wants to deprive ourselves, but if they’re charging stupid prices for beef then give them the middle finger and eat lentils for a time. It can be an empowering experience instead of a shameful one if it’s intentional and you can get your whole family bought into the concept.
They're not really talking about Supply Side Economics. SSE is a macroeconomic theory about cutting taxes in the hopes rich people having more money will invest in the economy and then the money will "trickle down". You're right that it doesn't work.
They're gesturing at supply and demand having an effect on prices which every economic school I'm aware of agrees about, Marx to Chicago. Supply and demand certainly starts becoming less of a factor in monopolistic and inelastic markets when you don't have a choice not to buy. In the case of food you can choose to spend less by buying less meat and processed goods. That will have an effect. If not done en mass the effect probably won't matter. It's an effective survival strategy though.
I agree they're not advocating the most effective praxis. I think more effective alternatives like buying clubs and food co-ops would start generating alternative economies. Political advocacy, local and federal could also have an effect but I expect every victory to be rolled back as soon as convenient.
The big other thing is to build external power. That’s not like militias per se (though with the rising fascism it’s not a bad idea), but rather stuff like gardening, learning to do repairs, and practicing mutual aid. Reduce your and your community’s dependence on the corporations. And make it an issue people around you care about.
Learning to do repairs yourself has never been easier thanks to YouTube. There's also a ton of sources for replacement parts online these days, many of which provide repair videos for the more common parts. My dishwasher broke a few months ago; $60 for a new intake pump and a few hours of my time and it's working as if it's brand new. My TV died out a little over a year ago; $35 for a new power supply (probably could've repaired it for a few bucks if I had just replaced a capacitor or two) and less than an hour of my time and it's right as rain. Most repair jobs are a lot less daunting than people assume they are.
But big daddy government says guns are really bad and only they should have them!!! (jk)
Learning skills like sewing, planting/storing extra food, first aid and knowing how to use a gun isn't something for crazy bunker dwellers or the Amish. It's skills that my grandparents knew.
It makes you more resilient and capable, especially in an emergency when supply chains/govt are strained (that's why the preppers do it). You don't have to go all Stardew Valley but I think it's good stuff to know at a basic level.
Yeah I have mixed feelings about guns because on one hand an armed proletariat is more able to resist, but on the other hand sure seems like easy access to weapons is helping fascists more than anyone else and fuck am I just exhausted by the constant and unyielding gun violence in my country as well as the fact that any weapons that are effective against a larger force on shared turf are illegal for anyone but cops and troops. But antifascists and workers demonstrating our capacity to organize as a militia may make fascists rethink action.
But yeah aside from my rambling as a tired American, these skills aren’t even just for emergencies. Gardening is a hobby that gives food and sometimes drugs as a reward. And it’s healthier stuff, with the added benefit of being in season. Repair skills not only save money, they save the planet and they make you feel more comfortable and capable.
My girlfriend is an Appalachian leftist who does a lot of the prepper stuff because growing up impoverished in a place where that was normal and it’s just useful even now that she’s middle class and out of all that. When you get comfortable with repairs and making stuff you can just turn other people’s stuff they want to get rid of into things you want. You can just make furniture if you have the tools. And yeah it may not look as polished, but it’s often sturdier because you’re not going to use particleboard to build your bed, but companies sure will
As a non American the gun argument for being able to rebel seems like such an empty argument. Assuming you mod your rifle to full automatic fire you are going up against tanks, jets, drones, artillery, the entire armed forces of one of the strongest military forces on this planet. Ak47s didn't work out so well for Iraq why do you think you will be different?
Prices on goods rise when demand for goods stays sufficient to support the price going up. The less everyone buys, the less things will cost.
Prices for goods have almost nothing to do with the price of rent, but the mechanisms there are the same - it's just that you have to encourage building rather than "live somewhere less" because the second option really isn't tenable, for obvious reasons.
If you want rent to come down, campaign for, vote for, or even run for office to be the candidate that will change zoning laws and encourage building multifamily housing.
the myth of supply based economics, and other fairytales.
Realistically there is no reason for produce or rent to be increasing in price, there is not any actual reason for the hikes in COL other than "record profits"
Rent is increasing because there are millions more people but we haven't built enough housing since the 60s. The US is now 5million houses short, and this shortage is entirely caused by cities preventing construction of everything but single family homes.
Realistically there is no reason for produce or rent to be increasing in price, there is not any actual reason for the hikes in COL other than "record profits"
There absolutely is. You think farmers don't have expenses? At the very least they need to pay employees wage increases to match inflation.
Rent is a different thing entirely and it's based on what people are willing to pay to live in that area. You can't charge a California rent in Ohio (unless you're selling a penthouse apartment) because nobody will pay it.
the myth of supply based economics, and other fairytales.
More quitter talk and apathy just like the other comment of yours I bumped into.
Fact of the matter is, if every 25% of people that normally bought X product stopped and got something else, that brand would drop prices. You can't make record profits off a 10% price hike if 25% of your sales just vanished.
Cry and hope for a revolution. Since the Supreme Court decided money is speech, we have no power. Representatives don't care about their constituents unless a message comes with a "charitable donation". The rich are seemingly immune to laws, but somehow there's a surplus of money available to fuck over the little guy. This is a failed country of the corporations, and for the corporations.
Unfortunately, many of the people who most heavily dislike the corporate-controlled status quo are feverishly attempting to pass laws to make it harder and more dangerous to do anything other than hope.
Medium answer: become unionized so that you can bargain collectively for more pay instead of individually. It's like forming a political party with your labour, and then voting for yourself
Unions are a very good answer to this. They aren't a complete solution, but they are a big step in the right direction. And they're something almost everyone can do.
Stop buying their shit. Obviously there's things you need to live and that's fine but stop wasting your money and making them rich by buying all the ancillary shit.
This is the answer. Its simple but not easy. Do you think the average person knows what they're spending money on each month? And how much? One chick I knew was spending almost $500 a month dining out!! A MONTH!
It is difficult to not have any "fun" purchases tho, nearly impossible imo. But you have to have spending discipline and next to no people have that.
But let's say everyone stops spending on non essentials, taken to its conclusion that would leave only grocery stores, dr offices, mechanics, and banks left to do business lol maybe a few others.
Or get out the guillotines which soon get turned on your allies (and innocent poor people), then after that collapses get taken over by a fascist dictator, who undoes most of the progressive changes you made and rampages across Europe, killing millions of people (including French people).
The only solution is to demand more money and buy less. Buying less will decrease demand and cut their profits, having more money will cover inequity.
This pretty much already happened with the “nobody wants to work” bullshit. People moved to better jobs, and jobs that could no longer pay a living wage either raised wages or closed their doors. Workers need to keep demanding more, unionizing, and raising wages to keep the money in their pockets. The people complaining are complaining they can’t have 4 car garages when the employees can’t afford rent. Fuck those people.
Plant a vegetable garden.
Build a rain catchment system.
Build a solar power system.
Read books instead of consuming other media.
Buy only local.
Start a consumer or retail cooperative.
Don't participate in wanton consumerism.
Voting in the US doesn't yield desirable results because of the gerrymandering and the voting system; however most changes which directly affect people are made at a grassroots level so participate in activities at a grassroots level.
This is the answer. And it comes with other benefits also.
I do okay financially. I don't have problems affording necessities. But I have found there is also a lot of satisfaction in being more self-sufficient, in relying less on supply companies to deliver my every need. And it saves a ton of money.
Food is a big one. I used to spend a ton of money on takeout, delivery, junk food. But here's the thing, basic cooking really isn't that hard. It doesn't have to take up a lot of time, especially if you meal prep. And the resulting food is both better in quality and better for you.
On that same thread, the grocery store is not always your friend. Especially if it's one of the big national chains. You will find much better quality produce at your local farmer's market, and it's often cheaper too. Certainly way more flavorful, the vegetable that was in the dirt yesterday tastes way better than the one that's been in a warehouse for a month. Happier chickens lay tastier eggs. Etc.
And there's a lot of stuff you can do yourself. A vegetable garden is a great place to start, if you have even a tiny backyard. Think folding table size. Plant yourself some tomatoes and put up a net frame so animals don't eat them, they will be the best tomatoes you've ever had. But planting and growing stuff is one of the most efficient ways to get food- Stick it in the dirt and water it and you get food for free!
Then think about all the shit we buy. How much of it do we really need? How much of it ends up in the landfill in a year or two? When purchasing things, think about the product entire life cycle and how each step will affect you. IE, Don't just think about the dopamine rush you'll get from unboxing your shiny new toy, or the novelty of using it the first couple times, ask yourself is it going to enhance your life owning it over the long term, and is that amount of enhancement worth its purchase price and the space it consumes?
Then think about all the shit we buy. How much of it do we really need? How much of it ends up in the landfill in a year or two?
I worked in logistics for a few years running trucks out of the DRC mainly moving copper cathode and cobalt. When visiting those mines the conditions were horrific from a human and environmental perspective. It really changed how I consume.
Not to mention anything using tantalum capacitors are effectively funding war crimes currently being perpetrated in the DRC.
All of that human life, and the destruction of our plant just to fill a landfill.
This, as much as possible and in as many areas as possible. Keep everything local as much as possible and minimize consumption. I've found that satisfaction arises much more readily from minimum consumption than maximum consumption, which might be why the advertising industry spends billions per year to convince us that backward is forward.
Totally agree with participation at grassroot level though. Run for office because you can count on the ghouls sending a candidate.
as much as possible and in as many areas as possible.
I do want to just take a second to highlight this. The idea of buying local and buying from people who make things instead of corporations can be hard. It's expensive. And obviously the point is that we are all struggling. So looking at all the stuff I buy I thinking I need to spend so much more on all of that is daunting.
We all live under the same shitty capitalistic hellscape. We can't get out of it. We can only do what we can. Need a new dresser? A locally made one will cost you a lot. Don't stress about not being able to afford it. If you need to, get a cheaper one.
But for a lot of things, you can get it for just as cheap looking around on Etsy. If they have their own website where you can order it so they don't have to pay Etsy money, even better. My boyfriend is in his last semester of nursing school, so I'm getting him a gift, and it's custom made. It's expensive, but most things I would get him are probably made with cheap labor in another country, and would just help prop up a large corporation.
Does this mean everything I buy is custome made? That it's made locally? No. I can't afford that. But I stopped using Amazon for just about everything, have started buying from people when I can, and it's honestly kind of nice. I got to help someone make a living doing what they want to do, instead of just working a job. So even though we can't afford it all the time, it's great to do it when you can, and not let the idea of it needing to be everything make us feel defeated and then never doing it.
My wife and I tried to plant a vegetable garden last year, it was our second try after learning some things the previous year. We got a lot of veggies out of it and had a lot of fun. We weren't so interested in saving money, we were more worried about bare shelves at the grocery store. We also have a few chickens.
We are going to make it even better this year.
My new year's resolution this year is to figure out how to build a generator capable of putting out at least 200w. The trick is, I want something that doesn't require a manufactured fuel to run. Solar or wind are obvious options, but I have also considered a steam engine or wood gas engine.
Depending on how complicated you want to make it you can build a pyrolysis plant this produces various forms of fuel and can be run of a solar panel. The feedstock to this plant is plastics waste be careful of the plastics though as certain plastics produce chlorine gas.
I.t.o farming I highly suggest into looking at aeroponics and aquaponics. Both have disadvantages and advantages. You can construct systems using off the shelf materials. Stay away from turn key solutions. Aeroponics is really interesting and we've been playing around with it for a number of years.
Start talking about politics again. If it's impolite to talk about politics, only the impolite will be the one's talking. Discuss, respectfully, what your thoughts an opinions are. Challenge ridiculous ideas. Don't just roll your eyes and walk away. Engage (as much as is reasonable, don't start fights)and be prepared with facts.
It's not easy. I don't follow this advice all the time. Pick your battles when it won't affect your career. But be prepared to have the conversation when it comes up.
While it isn't magic, there is a newfound pressure on the Democratic party to finally break some meaningful ground.
Unfortunately one of the biggest obstacles had been the radically conservative Supreme Court.
Simple arithmetic tells us that if just two Supreme Court Justices were to suddenly disappear from our reality, and re-emerge in another, the court would lean more progressive to allow debt relief, bodily autonomy, and hopefully more.
While there are many ways to suddenly remove people from our plane of existence, there's no proven way to have them re-emerge in another. Obviously it would be illegal and deeply unethical to suggest such removal without the safe relocation to another plane.
America needs to nuke the entire structure, not just one party. Its two wings of the same bird. Dems are only "progtessive" and "trying to make meaningful change" because they have an excuse not to. Otherwise that stuff would have been implemented or secured years ago.
As long as first-past-the-post elections are the norm, any political scheme will distill to two opposing factions, because that's the only way to effectively compete. We must push for ranked choice voting.
We have a long history of making progress through incremental change within our two party political system. It’s not perfect, no political system is. But even if we had a parliamentary system, you’d still have to form coalition governments with democrats and face the same perceived issues.
Progress can be made within our current system, even if your vote goes to the “least bad” at first. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good.
You may not like the answer but you need to continue working the political process further upstream and more deeply. It’s easy to just vote for the president every 4 years and then think the system doesn’t work. But it’s too late to have any kind of effect that late in the process. Find more progressive candidates to support and vote in your primaries to support them. Volunteer and help them get out the vote. And do this even if the candidate you like is across the country somewhere, because having more progressive candidates overall helps move the Overton window and shift the party over time. And when you’ve lost the primary and don’t have a progressive choice, do the least bad thing and keep the regressive candidate from winning. You may spend all your life doing all this only for some limited victories and a small net shift if any, but that’s the lot of one person among 300 million. It’s a hell of a lot more impact than the vast majority of people will have. And it’s just the beginning of what you can do. Join a union or run for office yourself and make a more direct impact.
Of course we all live with limitations but few of us are doing as much as we could actually do. I know this well because I have some blue collar friends busy with jobs and kids who still do about 400x more than I do.
That's the correct long term answer. But you might also add that there are forces that actively fight against this kind of prpgress, so in addition to what you've written, I'll add educate yourself and others, and don't fall to the cultural war paradigm the're creating to distract us.
Don't be stupid about it, don't get greedy. Just give yourself a little discount to offset some of the recent bullshit price inflation and portion shrinkage.
"Fucking corpos choom, they are raising prices, flatlining the poor, and made us a mad murderer who's only satisfied with fake orgies on BDs. Fucking preem."
I think food riots are just a few years off, really. Maybe when enough stock is stolen and enough stores trashed they will learn, but I expect they will try to be heavy handed, sending in the local WalMart Defense Team (a.k.a. the police force closest to a given walmart) to handle it, but there are definitely going to be problems with that considering some people go to walmart armed.
The location has been closed for nearly a year after officials say shoplifters set fires in the store to distract from their thieving
And I have zero fucking sympathy for Wal Mart, their entire business model is based on exploitation both of the surrounding community, the government and of their own workers. Burn the police station down with it next time, so long as you get what ya need.
Member the time a guy stole underwater from Walmart and then ran into a random house to escape the police (I think in Colorado). The police destroyed the house to get him. Then the home owners tried to sue for the value of their house and the police found not liable.
If you want to live through 80's dystopian books on this subject, we all need to start learning how to hack; compromise these company's networks, take down their supply chain. In the end, we're enabling them. We can either give up because there are too many of them, or educate ourselves on their weaknesses.
No. Purchase ingredients instead of products. Stop buying the highly processed, ready to consume, expensive but easy options. It's hard. It is, but it works. I could never afford to feed my family on TV dinners and frozen pizza, but we eat well because rice is cheap and veggies are filling and meat can be stretched. Herbs and spices are a bit of an initial investment, but they go a long way. And believe it or not, eating till you feel full every time is not good for you. And the more you do it the more it takes next time. And commercial food is made to make you try, but also formulated to make it harder to reach that feeling.
I'd like to add that not everything is inflating at the same rate, so you can certainly consume less of the crazy priced stuff. If you're forced to buy it, like auto insurance, then start getting quotes from competitors.
Not buying things is probably the most accessible course of action. I haven't bought a carton of eggs in probably over a year now. Yes, I heard prices went back down. But you know what? Fuck 'em. Companies can't just price-gouge and then pretend everything's cool.
Honestly, learning how to make/grow things yourself and forming a community of others who do the same thing for different items is the most revolutionary act you could do in this world.
Exactly. The christo-fascists love to promote the whole "prepper" thing of being self-reliant and ready for social collapse when the "Communist takeover" happens, but honestly we need to be doing that for the upcoming fascist theocratic dictatorship rn...
Tbh, in the digital world Lemmy is actually a nice step imo. But more steps can always be taken (as long they're reasonable). Whether its physical or digital.
Voting with your wallet is literally plutocracy -- those with more dollars get more votes.
Not only is our theoretically bad, but it's practically bad: the impact of a boycott is negligible, but the impact on the people doing the boycott is huge: not having access to the conveniences everyone else has puts us at a significant disadvantage compared to our peers.
And finally, it's not just practically bad, it's actually contraindicated. The executives of a corporation are legally required to maximize immediate returns to their investors. It's literally illegal for a CEO to move a company in the direction of civic responsibility over profit. And it's not just "profit" -- it has to be increasing profit. Line has to go up; they can't just keep it flat, even if "flat" is hugely profitable. To withdraw our financial support will just cause them to squeeze harder on everyone else.
(There's an argument that there might be more profit in social responsibility, but unless you have numbers to back that up, and it demonstrates immediate returns in addition to long term benefits, then it's just a guess, and a guess is never going to be more convincing to shareholders than facts.)
The only way to change this is with regulation, and a cultural shift away from "line goes up" mentality. And you can't effect political change when you're spend 3x as long making dinner because you're boycotting processed food.
Suggesting that we just give up all the conveniences that our labor, our creativity, and our cultural contributions have enabled, for the sake of convincing a CEO to be nicer is just ineffectual.
I’m so distanced from all regulatory processes that they seem literally as impossible as your vision of boycotts. And yet, I now see how pressuring regulatory bodies for the change we want is a very effective tactic.
But it look how long legalized marijuana has taken — that process started in the 70s.
Look how fast Musk was able to turn Twitter into the mouthpiece of fascism. Weeks.
This is what we are dealing with.
I want to push back on your sense of “convenience.”
I am not covetous of streaming. I have abandoned it.
I’m in charge of my media libraries.
What I’m saying is that we can do both: apply pressure on regulatory bodies WHILE abandoning crushing predatory capitalism.
I eat healthily. It does not hurt ME that I refuse to eat corporate bile.
I choose my media. It does not hurt ME that I never see ads.
Anyway — hoping that you can appreciate you have made me value the regulatory pressure argument while I still believe we are powerful.
The executives of a corporation are legally required to maximize immediate returns to their investors. It’s literally illegal for a CEO to move a company in the direction of civic responsibility over profit. And it’s not just “profit” – it has to be increasing profit. Line has to go up; they can’t just keep it flat, even if “flat” is hugely profitable.
Seek out the competitors to near monopolies? I heard somewhere that all glasses are built and sold by one company (that then sells them to a bunch of different companies so it looks like there is competition), and they can charge incredible markups. There probably are very small companies that make and sell glasses that don't have the economies of scale or ad budgets to get the word out. If enough people bought from them, the monopoly would have to lower prices to their "kill competitors" level to steal back the market-share (or just buyout the little guy). Once dead or absorbed, they can go back to incredible mark-ups, which means we can start the cycle over again and find a new little guy to support.
That or support the maker movements so that anything we need we can just make ourselves (3D printing, bio-hacking, hydroponics and seed banks, general lathe and mill loner libraries, open source software, etc...)
the "vote with your wallet" stuff is bullshit, and it always was. there are very real limitations on what some small company can do in a near monopoly, that's why we had antitrust in the first place.
I guarantee if everyone switched purchase orders from a major company to a small company overnight, that company would not be a small company.
Vote with your wallet isn't bullshit, it just takes enough people actually doing it and it takes work to find the small businesses you want to buy from. It's much easier to just rollover, buy the product you know sitting on the shelf, and then go complain on the Internet.
General strike/protest? Get enough people making noise on the street and people will have to listen. With a presidential election coming up, Dems won't be able to fully ignore it either.
You will never get enough people to join in, for various reasons, but I think a big reason is the big money won with media propaganda and influence, and misinformation is just going to get worse.
Look how well occupy wall street went, BLM protests went, look at the current state of anti-Isreal genocide protests are going (people literally cheering for the genocide of kids, and they don't wanna hear anything about it).
One thing I've noticed is that people I know have 2 problems.
they might not know what things should cost. If the prices rises, I notices it right away. I shop at the same grocer and know the standard price of everything I buy. I notice a price increase when I pull it off the shelf. Most my friends don't notice a price increase until they check out.
My friends that do notice a price increase never substitute or change their meals. They will still buy the same meals. Even if the stuff they need go on sale every other week. I've found that usually most my stuff I can still buy on sale at least 1 or 2 times per month.
These two problems mean that our generation doesn't really put much pressure on stores to keep prices low.
Rent:
Housing costs in America are entire caused by a supply shortage due to limitations on supply. We can literally build as much housing as we want and set the market rate at anything, but since the 60s America hasn't built much and the little we have built has been expensive single family homes. This is a choice voters have made for 60 years, but voters can also make other choices.
I work for a huge bank that's investing a non-trivial amount of money (billions) in single family homes. They don't plan to rent them out. They just want to own them.
Now why would a huge, rich bank invest in something like that? Because they're pretty sure they're going beat inflation when they resell those properties later. It's a very safe (if spread across the entire US and Canada) place to park money.
It's not a big deal if one or two banks do this or even a handful of private equity firms. However, when all of them do it at once (like they are now) it can have a major impact on the prices of single family homes. It also creates something called a, "systemic risk" but that's a very large topic that I'm not going to cover here.
The point is that yes: The big banks and big private equity firms (and 401ks!) all own way too much non-commercial real estate in general right now and their expansion into single family homes is a great big societal problem.
...but why now‽ Why haven't they been investing in huge swaths of single family homes since forever? I mean, they've been appreciating faster than inflation since forever with only a few minor hiccups (e.g. 2008). The answer is: It used to be much more expensive to maintain homes that don't have anyone living in them.
Back in the day most homes were unique. In any given neighborhood some homes might have gas heat while others had electric and some others used oil or coal! There were also more fire and flood hazards with more flammable furnishings/building materials and things like washing machine hoses would often just break after a certain amount of time (the seals were only good for like ten years).
These days you have endless amounts of cookie cutter homes in enormous neighborhoods all over the damned place. They're also built to vastly superior building standards and come with appliances and AC that are orders of magnitude more efficient than in decades past.
This means a big bank or private equity firm can buy hundreds of houses in a region and (cheaply) hire a 3rd party to look after them. They just don't need as much maintenance as they used to. They're so much cheaper to maintain en mass.
So how do we fix this problem? There's all sorts of things you can do but some quick and perhaps unexpected things are:
Raise minimum wage and crack down on businesses hiring illegal workers doing house maintenance work (let them do construction 👍).
Raise property taxes in general. You could try to raise them for homes without people living in them but then you just end up creating other unintended consequences/problems (which I won't get into to stay brief)
Force upgrades on unoccupied homes. Air conditioning system is 10 years old? You have to get a new one with improved efficiency. House has gas stoves? You have to replace those.
Force inspections of unoccupied homes and come down hard in regards to code enforcement (every unoccupied home poses a nonzero fire risk to every neighborhood).
Basically, you have to turn unoccupied homes into expenses again. When that happens the banks and private equity will get the hell out.
There's lots of private equity that will just convert to being slumlords but the big banks do not want to be renting out anything. It's a huge risk for them and looks real bad on their balance sheets from a banking perspective. Also, if a bank is big enough they're straight up forbidden (by law) from renting out properties (though there's various loopholes which I won't get into).
I have always thought the best method to deal with it is to tax all properties owned beyond the first, or uninhabited homes. So the single family home owned by a family who lives there doesn't see much property tax increase but anyone owning 2 or more homes does. Based on your experience would this be a viable solution? Or am I missing something obvious here?
You only have to look into this very thread to see even people screwed over by the housing market also don't want there to be more housing.
It's clear preventing housing from being built has become entrenched in Americans on the left and the right.
Again, there isn't some magical limit to the amount of housing we can build. If a big bank wants to keep lots of
Units empty and drive up the price.... a high price is a market signal to produce more housing.
On the housing thing - there's been a major intrusion of private equity firms into the regular house market. A report came out recently claiming as much as 40% of all single family homes sold in 2023 went to private equity firms to turn into rental properties (iirc). On mobile, otherwise would try to actually give you the source.
I can't speak to the food price increases. My only thought is that most people are creatures of habit and always have been, so I doubt that individual shoppers 'not putting pressure on the stores' would explain a historic rise in costs. That said, if we did find evidence that shoppers are less savvy or willing to change habits, my first guess as to why would be people overall being more overworked and stressed. But until the data comes in, who knows.
Buying clubs, when you and all your neighbors and friends buy directly from producers can cut out a lot of the graft. This lowers prices, connects you to your neighbors, and lowers the divide between the rural and urban. There may already be buyers cooperatives local to you. Some even give food based on volunteering.
My favourite theory of revolution is where these clubs start to encroach into housing and medicine. Eventually you have an economy based on mutual dependence and responsibility.
If you can't afford food, heat, rent, etc., apply for assistance from things like SNAP and other programs (local, state and federal). Call 211 for information on available resources in your area.
Start being an actual adult and start making your own shit.
The only way to free yourself from the slave racket is to stop being dependent on it to survive.
Easy mode: Learn how to cook, and cook clean whole foods. Stop buying processed junk garbage.
Hard mode: Get tools and equipment and learn how to build and fix your own shit. Difficult and will take time, but 100% worthwhile.
Both methods allow you to produce goods and offer services you can sell to other people, too. That way, those that actually can't make or do for themselves can turn to you and not shitty corporations for survival.
I actively enjoy cooking, but it's shocking and shameful how little a classic education does for one of the most fundamental aspects of living your life. Nearly every relationship I've been in I have the been the primary chef for, purely because I know the basics. Home Ecc should be a mandatory class because every single one of us needs to eat and should be able to provide a solid meal for ourselves (and it should also include finance education but that's a whole other thing). I don't put the fault on any individual person for not knowing, but it is a skill that EVERYONE should foster.
Check in to the American test kitchen YouTube for all sorts of advice, or go to the library and check out their extensive catalog. You'd be suprised how easily obtainable restaurant quality food is from your own kitchen.
I agree with you, but you can't do it for everything.
I see so many people just throwing money away it's crazy.
Like you said, cooking for yourself and your family. Don't eat out. Bring packed lunches to work. My family might get fast food once or twice a month max, the rest is all from the grocery store. Eating out is stupid expensive now.
When it comes to your cars. Learn to change your own oil, battery, and air filter. Dealers and repair shops charge stupid prices for this stuff and it's easy enough to do that you can do it in 15-30 minutes yourself. Remember to properly dispose of your fluids.
Learn to fix your own tech, tech jobs pay a lot which means that you as the customer will pay a lot to get your shit fixed.
Learn how to fix simple plumbing in your house, repair drywall, install/repair simple electrical stuff. When I see people in my local area paying handymen $500 to install a ceiling fan (not the electrical part like running wires, just hanging the damn thing), I about lose it.
Here it is illegal for anyone who isn't a licensed electrician to install anything permanent and electrical, such as a ceiling fan
My father was a freakin electrician and I helped him with many jobs over the years, but I'm not allowed to install a ceiling fan, even if there's existing wiring...
The point is that quality of life and real income are in strong decline, and it doesn't seem like it will get better in any observable future, should policymakers stay the same.
Sure, there are easy methods to cut expenses or even make some beer money, but a)many have already implemented it, and b)everyone already could.
The question can be formulated as "how can we improve the living situation for everybody?". So that you wouldn't need to figure out how to live cheaper or get some side hustle as you see your income shrinks.
Yeah, lots of people in here saying "stop supporting corporations" as if it is not only easy, but simple to do.
Wanna cook whole foods? You growing your own or buying them from the Amish?
Wanna fix your own house (something I am currently doing), good luck finding a hardware/lumber supply that isn't owned by one.
Want to use the internet?
It isn't so simple. I think doing what you can with what you have is all anyone in the working class can really do. For some people it's more, others less.
In the end, it seems like human history is a series of people with wealth and resources screwing over others, with brief bursts of progress.
Honestly, if we all grew and shared our own food, that alone would be enough to turn the tide and improve our lives.
We could use the money we save from groceries and use it to buy land, and with that land take back economic power from corporations, politicians and the ruling class.
We could organize and pick representatives amongst us that aren't part of either party to take local offices and use their powers to change zoning laws to enable more housing to be built, and to allocate funding for such, and to pass laws banning anyone other than primary residents from buying the properties.
Assuming you want to do it legally. Arguably one individual could accomplish a lot more with the proper use of a .50 cal.
Not American, but I try to buy most of my daily stuff from independent places instead of supermarkets. The social contacts at my local butcher, bakery, vegetable shop, fish shop, ... is also much more enjoyable than stressing in the Colruyt or whatever. And the produce is way better.
Once they get to know you, they often give freebies too, like offcuts to make bouillon. And you get free cooking tips as well!
O, I see. I guess that makes it even more important to support your local baker/butcher/..., if you've still got one. But yeah, that's a shitty situation.
There's usually still farmers markets within driving distance. Granted they're not a replacement for a grocery store, but they have a lot of the essentials. There's no middle man getting a cut when buying from them. But also it's important to go because otherwise the local markets won't get any bigger.
Not sure of your means, but we can boycott. Organizations like Trader Joe's and Aldi are a bit cheaper than their competitors while offering also using different sources. Likewise organizations like H Mart or your local farmers market source locally, giving the middle finger to Tyson (who claims inflation and profits) and Kellogs (who uses shrinkflation to claim profits). Obviously this doesn't work for everyone, but I think the majority of city dwellers can make these moves. This also is a fuck you to any local grocery stores trying to do the same bullshit (Walmart).
In the same vein, and what I've done, alternative meal companies have come A LONG way. The company Huel has a instant noodles, pasta, and candy bars that are macro balanced with vitamins and nutrients all for about $5/meal. I know most people will skip this, but they're actually really good. Mac N Cheese, pasta Bolognese and Cajun pasta have actually gotten me to go mostly vegan. There's another one called Outstanding Foods that has cheese puffs, cookies and pork rinds that are macro balanced and delicious as well. My daily meals are often some pasta like Mac N Cheese, one of the Huel shakes (I have a ninja creami so this is ice cream in the summer), and coffee mocha cookies, and another shake. That's 1800 calories with balanced macros and vegan that I didn't have the really cook or think about. If I'm working out, I swap the last shake for a protein shake.
For cheap food, rice and bulk Indian lentil packets can be around $2.50/meal for good sized portions, $1.50 - $2 for smaller portions and 3 meals/day. See also: ramen, potatoes, off-brand soy sauce, bulk dried seaweed (very healthy and cheap). use an app to track macros yourself and you can save a lot of money. This is assuming you have what you need to boil water, but even a hotplate can do ramen and rice, and potatoes microwave well. Bulk frozen chicken breasts can work for meat if you have a little more money.
Organize locally and stop being so dependent on corporations. Try to start a garden if you can, live more sustainably, and reject as many "fees" as you can. Cut cords, go for FOSS software if you can, try to use publicly funded entertainment like parks, and try to cook for yourself, rather than eating out.
If you're already doing all of that, I'm afraid there isn't much more you can do.
this, but zoom out. network with your friends and neighbors to share resources. do your best to trade services in kind rather than money. every time you get what you need without resorting to the market, you've cut out governments and corporations that don't actually do anything for you. Maybe you need clothes and you can't sew, but you can grow and can food. The guy down the street can't work in a garden because his back's fucked up, but he can sew. Maybe you have to buy the fabric from a real store, but then you take the fabric and some jarred tomato sauce to him, and he gives you back something you can wear. He also gives you the jars back when he's done with them, so you can fill them again without having to buy more from the market. Bit of an injury? The other neighbor lady is an RN. She can't save you if you're having a heart attack but she can put in and take out stitches, help relocate a dislocated joint and all sorts of other stuff. She needs her driveway shoveled though, and you can't do it because you're injured but you can make bread, so you give some dope ass cheese bread to the kids that live across the way and they do it. The key here is small groups where people actually know one another with repeated interactions. Capitalism thrives when both sides of the equation have to balance out immediately, because the person you're dealing with is a stranger and is likely to disappear as soon as the deal is done. If you float him when he's short he'll never come back around to make it right. A community economy thrives when everyone in it knows that they're going to see the same people regularly, because that means Pete doesn't have to pay me for this food today. He's Pete. He has lived right down the street for years and he's gonna keep living right down the street for years, and he'll make things right eventually. He'll also float me when I'm the one short, and trust me to make things right eventually. This is how humans interacted economically for a very, very long time. Favors and even giveaways were their own sort of currency.
This is extra tough nowadays, because participating in the capitalist economy is not optional. We can provide some things for one another, but the alternative power structure isn't mature enough that we can realistically feed, house and clothe one another without resorting to the market. So you avoid the market when you can. Trade with your neighbors, do them favors, encourage them to do you favors. When you do have to participate in capitalism, buy unrefined, raw goods where you can and refine them yourself. Each step of refinement that a product goes through has to be profitable for the refiner, so the more refinement a product has gone through the more cost in excess of value is tacked on. Simply put: under capitalism a loaf of bread has to cost more than the ingredients and time it takes to make it or no one would bother to make and sell bread. But we can't all be wheat farmers. So you buy flour, and you deny them the profit of refinement. You buy fabric from the capitalists and put your own time and effort into making that fabric into clothes. You buy a tomato seedling for a couple bucks and you use the only thing that's 100% yours, the sweat of your brow, to turn that seedling into tomatoes. You get real simple and real friendly with the people around you, and you figure out every way you're capable of to avoid the power structure they've built around you and instead to use the power structure that you've built with a small group of people that actually give a fuck about one another. Limit your interfacing with the dominant power structure to strict necessity. And steal from walmart.
I hope urban community gardens were a thing in my country. It would provide fresh and cheap vegetables and I wouldn't mind working at it a few hours per month.
Same. Mixed-use urban infrastructure with community gardens, public transit, and more would be wonderful. Building it yourself is the only option for many.
While it's great to have a union or a inflation based raise, you still need to ask for a raise.
Take a good look at your contract. Are you doing more than it describes and still getting paid what it does describe? Then it's time for a new contract. Remember, you can have a new contract done at your current job or you can have a new contract done at a new job. If your current manager does not want to review it, then you can do it elsewhere and he will still have to make a new contract for whoever takes your job after you quit. Because of this, it should be in everyones interest that your contract is reviewed.
What we should do is collectively stop paying what the corporations are asking and start negotiating the price of absolutely everything.
For example when we're at the car dealership instead of saying "oh my God I want that car so bad I'll pay anything you want" you say " I'll give you $10,000 less than you're asking for or I'm not going to buy anything from you"
Somehow the corporate elite of not just America but of all other major countries in the world have convinced the populace that you must pay what they're asking when you actually don't have to.
As the consumer you hold all the power you are not required to buy anything you are doing a favor by purchasing products from these corporations.
oh my God I want that car so bad I’ll pay anything you want” you say " I’ll give you $10,000 less than you’re asking for or I’m not going to buy anything from you"
That's only works if there is a surplus. Manufacturers have gotten really good at only producing exactly what is needed and no more to keep their products in demand.
At some point you will need a new car. My 15 year old Sienna was having more and more expensive problems. Technically I could have kept going but I wanted a car I could trust to make long trips with my family. If it was just me, being stranded for a day wouldn't be a problem.
So I waited 2years for the supply chain to get better before giving up and buying a new Sienna. It was the only one on the lot. I could pay full price or not buy it at all. The dealer didn't have to negotiate because someone else would buy it immediately.
To an extent, this is already happening. I work in manufacturing, and the last couple of years there was more demand for our product than our factories were physically capable of producing, and prices were raised to weed out the number of customer orders to what we could handle. Projections for this year are for softened demand, and sales expects to have to offer significant price cuts to keep enough orders for our manufacturing lines to stay busy.
Collective "we have enough stuff and will buy less" at work.
I want to move to one of the EU countries maybe even Australia, New Zealand, or Canada. But I have no skills to offer these countries. Can I still move?
Yes please! Please please not from locally owned businesses. It's fucking hard rn!! When you have the ability to, please consider small over big businesses. Treat yourself to that local butcher's bacon one month...or take a class at a local studio. Just anything helps. I can tell you, from a group of us small lil guys, we are trying so hard to NOT pass the buck on to you. We are doing anything we can to keep shit affordable, slowly increasing prices (because we literally have to). Omg I fucking hate it!! My goal was to start paying myself this year...I can't. It's complicated, but what I'm doing is so important to me, I will sacrifice until I can't. Do I have a roof? Food? My meds, am I living safely...yes. Am I thriving? No.
Our community is struggling with Gen Z/Alpha Gen being the biggest culprit of thieft. Might be different else where. But please teach your kids to be respectful of AT LEAST small businesses. Fuck big corps!!! Set them loose at a Walmart, team up with them to raid an Amazon Warehouse...I saw nothing. But not us.
Ps: if someone wealthy out there wants to take pitty on me and my situation...will send feet pics for $$$. (+_+)
Don't do this. I used to work at a magistrate and the local Walmart manager walked in with a stack of theft reports every Friday. We sent out court summons to every one of them, and most of them ended up with a criminal record of theft and a hefty fine. It's not worth it.
Ask for a raise, get a better job. If the balance sheet is up then that means they have more money to pay workers. They only get to keep it if the workers do nothing. If workers rise up together then they will take back the gains.
Apathy and hopelessness is what they want you to feel when you should feel empowered instead.
My company gave a temporary 2% raise to everyone last year due to inflation. This year they said inflation was not up, so they took away the raise. The audacity!
Bad business leadership. It costs more than 2% to replace workers leaving en-masse because of salary.
I sure hope take away doesn't mean they literally decreased salaries back to the level they were at 2 years ago. Thats a literal pay decrease when raises below inflation are already functional pay decreases.
You have to take action and I don't mean wear an arm band and commit violence. The people in the driver's seat are still people for now. Human beings with families and feelings. Call their companies, say their crimes to their frontline people, ask how they sleep at night. Call the executive offices. Do the same. Keep making noise. Keep protesting. Do not be silent, ever. Keep doing it in en masse until these greedy pigs realize they're killing their own kind through apathy and greed.
Sit ins, phone line jamming, and socially ostracizing. Hold them to task any way you're comfortable. Companies were freaking out over Twitter users and they only represented 3% of the internet at its peak. You have more power than you think.
MAXIMIZE INCOME. I just got a much overdue promotion. More income helps. I'm going to try for a second one soon. This can be difficult because if your skills are not very marketable it may mean giving up more of your time...which sucks. Move up where you are and when you can't do that any more move over to somewhere else with more headroom.
BE WISE. Be fiscally conservative. I think you need a decent income for this, if you're barely scraping by then you don't have this luxury. Have the recommended months of savings, avoid unnecessary expenses, save for retirement, buy instead of rent, avoid borrowing, etc. All that stuff financial advisors and personal finance classes teach.
MINIMIZE EXPENSES. Do you need a brand new car or can you get by on a 5 year old car? My vehicle is about 15 years old. Vehicles are almost always a liability. Can you take public transportation instead of owning a vehicle? Buying groceries at Whole Foods? Stop that, go to Aldi and Costco. Burning incandescent bulbs? Get LEDs. Can you live with a roommate? Etc.
Some things I'm considering:
BITCH ABOUT IT. Write your representatives and tell them to get off their FUCKING ASSES and DO SOMETHING.
Downsize my living situation.
Rent my current house and buy a duplex. Let someone else pay for the duplex with the other half's rent.
I'm in an extremely overtaxed state in the central US. I'm currently renting from a very cool landlord for almost a decade. The owner respects the environment and is in full support of my proposed additions, I reside in an unincorporated area so there aren't any HOAs or policing bodies to bother with.
Wow, some terrible answers in here. Look, dumb answers like steal, riot or "eat the rich" don't do anything. You all sitting there acting like internet keyboard warriors literally does nothing to solve this issue so wake up and get a grip.
To answer op's question, the only thing one can do is not engage with it. Price increases or not it's still a free market and you do have choices on what you buy. You don't need a new truck, or phones or organic eggs or whatever they want to sell you. Take care of yourself, learn to be budget conscious, work on your career and your own journey and ignore the rest, it's noise. Truly if you're underwater and can't afford to live where you are, move. There are places in every state that remain cheap. Food should not be a problem in this country. Everyone can afford $50-100 a week for food and you can stay in that budget if you learn what to buy and what to make with it. If everyone did that it'd be far more effective than rioting or stealing or any other dumb response.
"if you don't have any money - spend the money you don't have and move"
Might be the dumbest thing I've read ment as good advice.
Moving won't help the whole country is in the same sinking boat.
Fleeing the country costs even more money and time.
I'd wager more the 70% of people are stuck where they are. Whether they own a home or are renting.
Move. To where? Cuba? Most places don't want the average dumbed down north America.
Moving also men's leaving all your support groups, friends and family. You have any idea how hard and expensive it is to pack up and move someplace where you don't know anyone?
I mostly agree with you, but I think it’s naive to suggest people under financial hardship can just up and move. Moving is a huge burden in both time and money. It also doesn’t consider finding new job(s), uprooting a family, and that while moving to a cheaper area lowers cost, it generally also lowers wages.
It’s also naive to suggest everyone has $50-$100 a week they can spend on food. There are lots of people who don’t have $50-$100 a month to spend on food.
The people who are suffering most under these economic conditions are the people who have the least ability to take themselves or their money elsewhere.
If someone doesn't have that little money for food then they have real budget issues to work out. I'm not saying it doesn't happen but finding a solution to that for them is far better than turning to thieving or rioting
Moving is different for everyone but obviously it can be done. Look at the people trying to come here from South America with nothing but the clothes on their back. They're not angry thieves or rioters, they're not mad at corporations or rich people or anything else, they just want an opportunity to work and live a modest life and they're leaving everything behind for the chance at it
Here in America you probably have a car already, some basic essentials and maybe some money to your name. That's more than those migrants have so I know it's possible. My grandparents immigrated to Canada from Austria to flee the war, built their own farm by hand and scratched out a living. My parents moved us every few years for work to make sure we were fine. I moved myself from East Coast to West Coast to escape a bad social life and restarted completely with an unpaid internship, working my way back up. None of it is easy, of course not, I can't give an answer on where to go or what to do for work but at least try because all this other nonsense people are saying is just not helpful and at worst will land people in trouble
Bend over and take it. We can vote corrupt people out, but they generally just get replaced by the same people that can be swayed by lobbyists.
I'm sick right now and went to buy cold medicine... It's fucking TWENTY DOLLARS for a 12 ounce bottle of Vick's Cold and Flu medicine here in Miami. Pretty much every other brand was between $15-25. There was a pack of DayQuil that was $6... It had like 5 doses in it and you're supposed to take it every 4 hours, so like a day's worth... For $6.
A few weeks ago I had to buy laxatives and it was the same thing, everything was $17-$40! I almost shit myself when looking at the prices 🤣
I’m sick right now and went to buy cold medicine… It’s fucking TWENTY DOLLARS for a 12 ounce bottle of Vick’s Cold and Flu medicine here in Miami.
You realize that it doesn't help you survive, right? You don't need cold medicine. It's just a luxury item because you don't want to have to deal with a little uncomfortable for a short period of time. You're not "supposed to" take it at all. They just sold you on it, and you bought it.
Prices aren't coming down. Our financial systems are built around inflation and drastic measures will be taken to fight deflation.
You can only reduce expenses so far. As purchasing power fell, steak was replaced with ground beef, and ground beef is getting replaced with beans and rice. What can replace beans and rice? Already, too many people are having sleep for dinner.
The answer is both simple and difficult: we need to get paid more.
The answer is "vote" but not just once. Not just for federal elections. Every election, you should be there. Show up to candidate forums and bother your current electeds.
Every government is like a ship of various size, it takes a while to see the turn even start, let alone have the course actually get corrected. The bigger the government, the harder it can be to get long lasting positive change accomplished. (This isn't a "small government is better" thing either, it's just how large organizations work.)
If you can, run for office. If you can't, find someone you trust who can and support them. Not just Congress or president or governor. City council, county government, school board, on and on...
What is an average person living in the US supposed to do about corporations raising prices?
Ask their boss for a raise.
Switch jobs if they don't get the raise.
If they can't switch jobs, go to school and get an education in a different career path, then go back to step one.
(On a side note, never stay at the same place more than a couple of years, always be changing and working on your career. It's the best way to gain more wealth, so you can handle companies raising prices better.)
And before you hate on me for expressing the above, just realize I'm stating what the realities are, I'm not the one who created Capitalism.
I personally believe in regulations, including the regulation of wealth, but unfortunately we as citizens don't seem to be able to elect people to office to pass those kind of laws.
I honestly wonder if FDR would be able to pass the 'New Deal' in today's environment.
For me personally? What's worked is being frugal in my spending, rewarding good companies with my monies.
It's allowed me to accumulate some amount of wealth over the years, and I'm doing my small part to help foster a better society.
No one person can make the change, but we all together can make the change.
It's not enough for YOU to vote. We ALL need to vote. And not just in the Presidential election. In all elections, including local, state, and most importantly PRIMARIES. We have an FPTP Voting System, which trends us towards a 2 Party system.
In such a voting system, the only way to meaningfully change the position of the parties is to make sure the party is compromised of and is led by people who share your positions and who will actually represent your interests effectively.
1 person voting in a general election that's already narrowed down to a few swing states isn't going to do it. Get everyone you know to get off their asses and vote in primaries, in general elections, and any other local elections you can manage.
If you only have time to vote in one election? Make it the primary for your party.
Voting is the lowest hanging fruit. It will cause the biggest impact for the least amount of effort. If we cannot get our asses to polls we aren't going to get our asses up to do anything harder than voting. Not until people get much more desperate, much hungrier, and much more miserable. I think our voter turnout for primary elections is around 20%. We should be ashamed of ourselves.
Imagine a world where the shittiest candidates were all weeded out months before the general election. That's what the Primaries are for.
Do everything you can to buy a house? Don't you suspect the housing market is going to take a dramatic fall within the next few years? That seems like asking people to catch a falling knife.
Tax the wealthy more for sure, but I guess I would suggest keeping powder dry and punching in at some point during the housing market deflation. Else you risk watching your equity dissolve and be worse off for the effort.
The video responds much better than I could. But in short, Gary doesn't believe the housing prices to fall until the rich are taxed more. So get in soon if you can, it's only going to get worse.
Might be wrong, who knows. I'm not able to buy a house currently anyways so I'd have to wait either way.
The term wage slave is a thing. Capitalism is the same as slavery except it's seen as acceptable because we're mislead to believe we have power to change. The system itself is stepping on the lower wage people and using their work for the corporations at and owner's profits, not just lower local wages but abusing labor and resources from even lower wage countries.
If companies were just greedy they could have raised prices at any time before. They didn't because they're trying to find the optimal point between supply and demand to make the most profit (as we all do -- are you willing to take a pay cut or eschew a raise you can probably get?)
All the money pumped into the economy is why they could raise prices -- not just in 2020, but pretty consistently for the past 20 years. Lots of normal people are getting screwed but it's fine for these companies because guess who gets much of the money being printed? Hint: donors.
Make more money. Your income should be going up over time in line with inflation. This is easier if you don't work a dead-end job and are willing to change jobs every once in a while.
Basically if you work in a retail or food service job, your main priority in life should be to get out of that industry and into something else. Even something as simple as working in a warehouse or construction will get you a lot more $$$ with much more leverage for raises and forward-moving promotions.
Me and my girlfriend both work full time and we are able to more or less easily afford rent and food. It helps to have two incomes. Although I will say, it's sad that she got pregnant with twins and we ultimately decided we couldn't keep them because of the financial situation. I wanted them but she didn't feel like we were financially stable enough.
So yeah, people gotta learn to live like it's a third world country. It's not the 1950s anymore where everyone can work whatever job and make ends meet.
Or stop promoting a system where the only way forward is always "more", designed to leave a majority in the dust. Inflation is artificial, people getting more miserable by just not wanting to abide to that system is also artificial.
i don't think the system is fair or ethical. if it were up to me, it would be different.
but the system isn't fair or ethical and i am forced to live in it, so i'm going to live in it in such a way that puts me in a better position.
yes, the majority of the population gets fucked. if you are asking for my advice though, i'd say position yourself in a way where you are not that majority
if you have a politician i could vote for that would actually change things or some sort of organization i could support then i would support them
if your solution involves not having a family because you can't afford them it's not really a solution. I'm not here to shame yall's decision not to complete the pregnancy, I'm here to shame the people who put you in a position where you're both working full time and still had to make that decision.
I think it's an interesting thing. My parents had me at a much younger age, with much less money, in a country with a much more chaotic economic situation.
We had a peak of 10% inflation in my state (Florida) in the last couple of years. The year I was born, my country was going through 2,000% inflation.
Yet my parents provided regardless and here I am, just fine with my little brother doing just fine as well.
So I think ultimately if me and my girlfriend really went for it, we would make it work. But she wants to have a mortgage, be able to pay for nannies and daycare and whatnot. We're just not there yet.
I agree with you that the economic situation needs to improve. It's like the powers that be are actively trying to suppress the population growth.
Move. Why stay somewhere that is taking advantage of you?
If you aren't receiving benefits for the taxes you're paying or representation for your votes, you can run for office or move and find immediate relief in less expensive countries, which is almost every country.
Inflation means money is worth less than before and inflation is actually money creation. Higher supply means lower demand. Record profits are only records because the nominal value is higher, but the real value isn't.
Companies operate on gross margin, so 30% margin is always 30% of the total price. The actual value is irrelevant.
You're not wrong that it's the profit margin that tells the story, and you can't tell just from the nominal amount alone.
But average profit margins in the United States have reached a record high percentile not seen since the 1950's. So it's not just the dollar amount that's gone up for corporations, it's the margin percent that's gone up too.
Of course, if you're not getting an actual pay rise. Then you strike until you get a better deal or start making money without exchanging it for units of time.
What?? The inflation problems literally STARTED under Trump. He's not to blame for the covid supply chain issues, sure, but "didn't have this problem under Trump" is an easily fact checked lie.
People started complaining about inflation when Trump was still president, after people started hoarding toilet paper, then at a larger scale after the first stimulus cheques. I'm not blaming him personally for that specifically, COVID was hard for all countries on Earth, but facts are facts.
Bullcrap. Nice revisionist history. Inflation was non-existent under Trump. This is all on Biden and his doing everything his feeble mind is able to tank the economy.
No one loses because of the ranting of fools. I take the down votes here for what they are, the desperate clinging of a false narrative by people that refuse to see reality and instead of thinking for themselves rely on others to do it for them.
It's always in the term after mismanagement that the effects are felt, eg. in the UK how the tories are raising funding sky high for everything, then will inevitably blame Labour for both underspending and making cuts when they get in later this year