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This isn't the gotcha that you think it is. Inflation is kept at a positive number on purpose. Deflation causes a self-reinforcing spiral that brings everyone's wealth down. If inflation is too high that's a problem too, but it's less of a problem than deflation.
... With that said, the huge amount that prices have gone up recently is caused by corporate profiteering, which is a serious issue that needs to be addressed.
A sane economic take on lemmy?! Blasphemy.
I'll add this; Stop buying shit. I'm not talking rent and food. I'm talking "consumer confidence" stuff. If you don't need it to live, stop.
Example; Ammo got wildly overpriced. So we stopped buying. Like magic, prices tanked! Ain't that crazy?
Of course that's stupid oversimplified, but the basic idea is sound.
Locally, people were bitching about Taco Bell's quality. OK. Stop buying Taco Bell. They'll either crash (that store) or correct. Win-win.
I would love a legislative way to stop corporations from wildly profiteering off our asses, but I don't know what that looks like.
The corporations are absolutely aware that people have stopped being price conscious.
I understand everyone who can afford a $6 case of coca cola can also afford a $12 case. At some point you have to just choose not to buy it, or the price will just keep rising.
You spelled "corporate market manipulation" wrong.
I mean, you are the one making the logical fallacy of assuming they are defending the exact opposite... They're basically just saying, "inflation bad", and you come in and say, "deflation bad, too!".
OK? They weren't defending deflation? You even admit inflation has been out of hand lately...
Why does deflation bring your wealth down? If I saved miney in a deflationary period my purchasing power would go up. Deflation means the amount of goods you can buy with the same currency increases over time, inflation means the amount of goods you can buy over time goes down. So actually deflation makes your wealth go up it seems to me.
If you already have money, deflation is good for your net financial position, sure. If you work for your money, deflation could mean your boss has to either cut your wages, or fire you. Even if that money can buy more, people are very unwilling to take a pay cut.
That means if there's a sudden (but small) drop in productivity in an industry, inflation can paper over it, and deflation amplifies it, and potentially means the industry collapses.
It's good for you in the very short term, but bad quickly after that. It makes everyone want to hold onto their cash because your cash becomes more and more valuable the longer you hold on to it. So people start buying way less, and businesses bring in less and less money, so they lower prices more to try to entice you to buy, but the dropping prices only make you want to wait to buy even longer, this keeps spiraling downward and businesses keep bringing in less and less money, and so very soon they have to start firing people, and then more and more companies wind up out of business, causing more and more unemployment, and on and on and on, for everyone involved it all goes very bad.
Efficient at extracting wealth from humans
And giving all of that yummy wealth to a small handful of scummy humans.
This doesn’t seem like a correct use of this meme. I’d even allow for something other than the standard “Aliens” if it was something equally ridiculous or nonsensical compared to the first statement, but this isn’t even following the format.
Because it's efficient at transferring wealth upwards.
Normally a strong democracy with multiple parties, checks and balances would help stop this. But the new META in economics is to just buy politicians to do your bidding for you. Kinda hoping the Supreme Court will patch that at some point, but it's not looking likely.
Definitely harder to patch out features then bugs.
I would be a social democrat for just that reason. But with climate change looming, my options have narrowed.
It is efficient, in increasing the wealth of the wealthy.
I am not even saying that capitalism is remotely acceptable but prices going up doesn't imply inefficient of the system. Inflation could be a reason and inflation says nothing about efficiency.
Shit on capitalism. Be my guest. Just don't make bad arguments.
I thought they were coming at it from a supply & demand angle.
Inelastic demand on food and housing yet prices still go up.
That might be the case but generalized statement that are wrong, are wrong.
Don't generalize to the point of failure of your point. Especially in public, the in-group might understand you but the out-group will misunderstand and judge you and your ideology based on their misunderstanding.
On the contrary, this is the proof that it is efficient. The right question to make is: Efficient for whom?
Efficient at producing profit, is essentially what it means. The definitions are utterly twisted.
The system is working as intended.
The rich get richer
.... The system is working as intended.
I realize this isn't really the place for this discussion but capitalism doesn't know what the word "efficient" means. Is it efficient to have to buy the same thing twice? Is it efficient to only make cheap shitty and yet still overpriced versions of everything for the consuming public, shit that is designed to fail? Is pollution efficient? Is ruining everyone's lives efficient? Pointless jobs? Rich people? These things are efficient the way fucking for virginity is efficient. The way Elon's Twitter has been efficient. The way shitting the bed is efficient. Which is to say, it's really fucking not.
Capitalism is the most efficient way of extracting as much value from one’s employees, and sales from one’s customers as possible.
Efficiency isn’t always a good thing, such as in this case.
It's broader that that: it's the most efficient way of extracting money from everything else in general.
Hence just how common it is to see large companies getting massive subsidies or having laws written to benefit them (notice, for example, the Disney Corporation rigging the system to extract more value from the broader society by getting the Copyright terms extended ahain and again), none of which is sales or employment related.
Capitalism doesn't limit itself to things of a trading nature (which includes employment, which is basically people selling their work to others) and that's the core of the problem with it: it naturally corrupts anything around it which can help provide not just trade advantages but even force the rest of society to give larger entities "free" money even outside trade (subsidies, bailouts) or forcing into being paid for that which would be naturally free (i.e. copyright, water rights, even land).
Some people think Crony Capitalism is not real Capitalism, but is actually real Capitalism in it's purest form: the best ROI in this game of who makes the most money comes from buying the referees and those who make the rules.
The free market is an illusion at this point. The monopolies killed it.
I think you may be right.
The Legal Illegal monopolies.
It's efficient at exploitation
Capitalism isn't concerned with efficiency, merely the most direct route to monopoly.
Wish more understood this.
Companies that are structured to maximize short term shareholder value need to make extra profits at all costs.
Supply lines were strained during the pandemic, which led to drastic price increases. Supply lines stabilized and the pandemic subsidized. Prices didn’t go down? Why?
Because the companies that set prices need to make more money this quarter to make the shareholders happy. And they bribe the politicians and the judges and the regulators to control the system at every level.
These rich assholes doomed our world to destruction and our “leaders” were too greedy and small minded to stop them.
Enjoy the ride down
Because "number go up" is all the system cares about. Damn you living creatures for opposing it. The system shall prevail.
Guys I love you and support most of the changes you want to make regarding the way we govern ourselves.
But sometimes I see some posts that make me wonder. I want to help solve capitalism and it's problems. So I'm studying macroeconomics I'm studying economic theories in general.
Sorry,and with all due respect, sometimes there are some dumbass posts that show a complete lack of understanding of how things work in the world economy.
This is a meme, not meant to be taken seriously. (Although more people seem to be forgetting this)
As far as dumbasses... Welcome to the Internet
Nice shitpost lol
It's very efficient at extracting wealth from the lower classes.
Greed.