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   geekysteven (geekysteven@beige.party)'s status on Monday, 11-Dec-2023 23:39:10 JST geekysteven

   I don't understand why everyone hates the rich. Without them who would...*checks notes*...trash the economy repeatedly with no consequences?

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     🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱 (freemo@qoto.org)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Dec-2023 00:43:24 JST 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

     in reply to

     @geekysteven

     Tell me you dont understand how economies work without telling me you dont understand.

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     realcaseyrollins ✝️ (realcaseyrollins@social.teci.world)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Dec-2023 01:05:06 JST realcaseyrollins ✝️

     in reply to

     • 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

     @freemo @geekysteven The common leftie line is that companies are unnecessarily inflating prices so that they can make record profits. I can’t deny that they are making record profits but I suspect that this isn’t the only reason why they’re raising their prices.

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     🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱 (freemo@qoto.org)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Dec-2023 01:05:06 JST 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

     in reply to

     • realcaseyrollins ✝️

     @realcaseyrollins

     Well they say a lot of things that dont understand.

     @geekysteven

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     🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱 (freemo@qoto.org)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Dec-2023 01:16:53 JST 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

     in reply to

     • realcaseyrollins ✝️

     @realcaseyrollins

     Mostly wrong. Inflation isnt caused by a desire for profits and cant cause that in and of itself. Where they show a hint of truth is it **can** cause inflation in the scenario you have a monopoly. I have mentioned before we need strong monopoly enforcement.

     In fact I already mentioned the inflation was about to happen right before it happened. Anyone who understands economic models knew this was coming and we knew exactly why, and it isnt the large companies.

     We had the entire economy shut down, we were about to have an economic crash. We traded an economic crash for inflation by engaging in Quantitative Easing. Anything other than QE as an excuse for why it is happening is severely disconnected with the reality.

     @geekysteven

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     realcaseyrollins ✝️ (realcaseyrollins@social.teci.world)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Dec-2023 01:16:54 JST realcaseyrollins ✝️

     in reply to

     • 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

     @freemo @geekysteven Are they entirely wrong? All I know is that while companies are making record profits, gas prices have been rising for most of #JoeBiden’s presidency, so that makes it more expensive to transport goods, and therefore raises the prices for those goods. I would presume.

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     🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱 (freemo@qoto.org)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Dec-2023 03:12:11 JST 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

     in reply to

     • realcaseyrollins ✝️

     @realcaseyrollins

     Depends, are we talking inflation adjusted profits, or non-inflation adjusted?

     @geekysteven

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     realcaseyrollins ✝️ (realcaseyrollins@social.teci.world)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Dec-2023 03:12:13 JST realcaseyrollins ✝️

     in reply to

     • 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

     @freemo @geekysteven So are record profits a side effect of inflation?

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     realcaseyrollins ✝️ (realcaseyrollins@social.teci.world)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Dec-2023 03:34:23 JST realcaseyrollins ✝️

     in reply to

     • мрман (Колорадо) придурок
     • 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

     @mrman @geekysteven @freemo I had assumed so, if companies want to have the same margins as a percentage of costs, but I didn’t have all the facts to back up that theory

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     🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱 (freemo@qoto.org)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Dec-2023 03:34:23 JST 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

     in reply to

     • realcaseyrollins ✝️
     • мрман (Колорадо) придурок

     @realcaseyrollins

     With inflation, if there are no other factors or economic issues, then wage/salary increases along with cost of things. The end resultis that companies make more in dollars and cents, and charge more, but people make more income by an equal portion.

     If you make x2 the amount but everything costs x2 the amount are you really making record profits? We usually adjust for inflation for exactly this reason.

     @geekysteven @mrman

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     мрман (Колорадо) придурок (mrman@noagendasocial.com)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Dec-2023 03:34:24 JST мрман (Колорадо) придурок

     in reply to

     • realcaseyrollins ✝️
     • 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

     @realcaseyrollins
     Correct
     @geekysteven @freemo

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     🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱 (freemo@qoto.org)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Dec-2023 03:37:26 JST 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

     in reply to

     • realcaseyrollins ✝️

     @realcaseyrollins

     If they are at record profits after adjusting for inflation then that is an indication of a healthy economy despite inflation.

     You have to remember inflation is **not** an indication of an unhealthy economy in the present, though if it is excessively high it will produce an unhealthy economy in the future of course.

     You can have inflation and still have a thriving economy, making inflation adjusted profits is largely unrelated to any inflation.

     @geekysteven

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     realcaseyrollins ✝️ (realcaseyrollins@social.teci.world)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Dec-2023 03:37:27 JST realcaseyrollins ✝️

     in reply to

     • 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

     @freemo @geekysteven I think the claim is that adjusted for inflation, the big companies are at record profits

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     🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱 (freemo@qoto.org)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Dec-2023 03:43:18 JST 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

     in reply to

     • realcaseyrollins ✝️

     @realcaseyrollins

     By the way here you can see a chart showing the relationship bertween corporate profits and inflation. You can see in the past there is very little relationship between them: https://randomterrabytes.net/2022/05/22/inflation-and-corporate-profits/

     Now the real question is why did we have those huge corporate profits seemingly out of nowhere during a downturn in the economy... I answered this already, it was QE.

     So again it is **not** the profits thats is to blame, it is something totally unrelated (QE) that happened to have the side effect of **artificially** increasing corporate profits. This injection of free money caused inflation, not the profits themselves.

     @geekysteven

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     🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱 (freemo@qoto.org)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Dec-2023 03:48:13 JST 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

     in reply to

     • realcaseyrollins ✝️

     @realcaseyrollins

     Now for comparison check out this article showing the relationship of QE and inflation. Not only does QE very closely match the inflation rate but youll notice this continued inflation spike was well predicted and expected before it even took off 3 years ago. No corporate profits needed nor matters:

     https://www.cfr.org/blog/why-fed-bond-binge-will-boost-inflation-1

     @geekysteven

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     🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱 (freemo@qoto.org)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Dec-2023 13:42:17 JST 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

     in reply to

     • realcaseyrollins ✝️
     • midway

     @realcaseyrollins

     I’ve heard it said once that corporations behave more ethically under stable economics than in unstable economies, and it makes sense.

     Yes it does but not just companies… everyone of every class behaves more poorly during economic turmoil (or any turmoil) than economic stability.

     Even if the leftist line was correct, it’s possible that these CEOs are storing their acorns for the winter so to speak, not inflating prices out of mere greed.

     SSaving money isnt unethical, so if this were true its moot to your point. But its actually quite the opposite. Inflation encourages people dont hoard their money. Hoarding it would devalue too fast under inflation so people need to invest their money to secure it. Remember its important not to think of inflation as equivelant to unstable or bad economy, within reasonable levels it is desired as it encourages investment and a healthy economy. Inflation is bad when it is too high or too low. When it is too high causing hyperinflation only then can it result in instability (and yes right now its too high).

     If a financial disaster is impeding, as I suspect it is, there’s no such thing as a company having too much money.

     Actually that is exactly a problem. If they have too much money (instead of spending it on assets) then their value will crash along with the money. But when they invest in assets then their assets skyrocket in face value as money devalues.

     @geekysteven @midway

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     realcaseyrollins ✝️ (realcaseyrollins@social.teci.world)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Dec-2023 13:42:18 JST realcaseyrollins ✝️

     in reply to

     • midway
     • 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

     @midway @geekysteven @freemo That’s a good point.

     I’ve heard it said once that corporations behave more ethically under stable economics than in unstable economies, and it makes sense. Even if the leftist line was correct, it’s possible that these CEOs are storing their acorns for the winter so to speak, not inflating prices out of mere greed.

     If a financial disaster is impeding, as I suspect it is, there’s no such thing as a company having too much money.

   • Embed this notice
     midway (midway@soapbox.midwaytrades.com)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Dec-2023 13:42:20 JST midway

     in reply to

     • realcaseyrollins ✝️
     • 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱
     Even if they were raising prices to make more money, who is to say it’s “unnecessary”? There isn’t a standardized acceptable price for anything.
     
     People making such claims have very likely never signed the front of a paycheck.
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     🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱 (freemo@qoto.org)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Dec-2023 13:57:38 JST 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

     in reply to

     • realcaseyrollins ✝️
     • midway

     @realcaseyrollins

     Price gouging is illegal by anti-trust laws. You can not manipulate the supply and demand by controlling a vertical/horizontal segment of the industry.

     For example if companies intentionally coordinated to increase prices artificially by all agreeing not to compete this would be illegal on any scale, even between just two companies.

     @geekysteven @midway

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     realcaseyrollins ✝️ (realcaseyrollins@social.teci.world)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Dec-2023 13:57:40 JST realcaseyrollins ✝️

     in reply to

     • midway
     • 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

     @midway @geekysteven @freemo I largely agree although price gouging for, say, drinking water would certainly be unethical.

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     midway (midway@soapbox.midwaytrades.com)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Dec-2023 13:57:41 JST midway

     in reply to

     • realcaseyrollins ✝️
     • 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱
     @freemo @geekysteven @realcaseyrollins
     Even if it’s just to make more money, that’s not illegitimate. Businesses exist to make money by serving people. Their goal is to charge as much as they can while maintaining sales. If they charge too much, they will eventually lose market share. But raising prices to increase profits and profit margins is not a crime or even immoral. It’s a normal business practice. There is no “right” price except for what people are willing to accept.
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     🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱 (freemo@qoto.org)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Dec-2023 14:12:15 JST 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

     in reply to

     • realcaseyrollins ✝️
     • midway

     @realcaseyrollins

     I'd also argue that prioviding water should be a duty of governments not private companies... A priovate company should be welcome to price gouge on water because they are providing water where there is a market, which implies filling a gap that the government should have already supplied. It is unethical the government didnt provide the water, not for the company charging for it.

     @geekysteven @midway

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     GNU Too (gnu2@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Dec-2023 16:10:37 JST GNU Too

     in reply to

     • realcaseyrollins ✝️
     • midway
     • 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱
     @freemo @realcaseyrollins @midway @geekysteven all value is subjective. Price gauging is a normal part of response to increased demand. It's not really possible this close to the events to determine how much inflation of the money supply is responsible for record profits and how much is increased demand, or something else we can't see yet. Regardless, I suspect that the only way companies are able to control the supply side in such a way to increase the price necessary to meet demand is their protection in the capitalist economy. We must Rembert that corporations are an artificial entity that does not exist in nature. Governments have created them allowing their liability to be limited so that owners can take significantly more financial risks than the workers can. This gives them much more power to exploit further driving down supply thereby raising prizes to meet demand.