Legitimately, how do they fix this? Like what options are there?
Regulate on corporate price gouging and collusion, break up monopolies, tax the rich, use the money to bolster social safety nets and build new ones.
Was gonna ask, is this greed driven again?
It always has been fity the past 20 years.
20000 years. Greed was always the problem
Companies are inherently greed driven and that’s not necessarily a bad thing when they function as a component in a properly balanced, regulated system. The issue now is that most governments are too weak and co-mingled with corporations to be able to effectively regulate.
And duopolies or tri-opolies. Most American industries are dominated by 2-3 players that own the majority of their respective markets, acquire or crush anyone who dares challenge them and use their media and lobbying arms to maintain the status quo. Land of the unfree, home of the bootlickers.
That makes total sense. I disagree maybe that being greed driven isn’t always bad, but our system is set up for that and any corporation that doesn’t focus on wealth at all costs is likely going to lose market share to one that is.
Overturn capitalism when?
So nothing can be done is what you’re saying
Pass laws that increase the national minimum wage by 110% of the inflation rate on a quarterly basis.
Haha I love that. Curious if it would actually work
This would never get passed, but if it did, it would encourage behavior to keep costs down to avoid paying out.
It’s gas and mortgage prices. Ban corporate ownership of single family detached homes. Electrify transportation and industrial machines to use alternative power sources.
States could also take a lot of actions, but it would mean people that own assets would get angry. Which also means the people who actually put politicians in power would be sad. So we’re not going to fix that problem, until their wealth crumbles, or everyone dies.
Legitimately, how do they fix this? Like what options are there?
When it’s a feature and not a bug, you don’t “fix” it, it is working exactly as planned.
In the first paragraph the article all but prompts the Fed to jack up interest rates, which makes borrowing money more expensive and when employers don’t borrow or spend on payroll, the result is more people lose jobs and when fewer people have money, in theory that should reduce upward demand pressure on consumer goods prices. In short, jacking up interest rates is the Fed’s way of prompting layoffs and wage cuts- by making working people poorer. They’ve been doing this very effectively to keep wages under control, so much so that even when ‘inflation’ like this is just price gouging it’s the first thing Wall Street wants to hear.
Of course, this ‘interest rates fight inflation’ mantra assumes that the inflation is really caused by too much money out there competing to buy too few goods and services, but when it’s the result of price collusion or just price gouging, it means prices for things went up and wages just went down. (and that in turn makes Wall Street fat and happy)
In the case of real estate, it’s been established that real estate commissions (and prices) have been inflated due to price collusion among realtor groups- in the case of rents, there is a lawsuit over price collusion driving rents up.
When it comes to gas prices, that’s less likely to be price gouging but it is very likely to be the consequence of supply/production decisions made with politics in mind, by people that probably stand to gain politically if voters vote against the incumbent.
