They keep raising prices, stating that it’s due to inflation, but then they keep having record profits.
Meanwhile, the average American can barely afford rent or food nowadays.
What are we to do? Vote? I have been but that doesn’t seem to do much since I’m just voting for a representative that makes the actual decisions.
Eat the rich. Bring back the guillotine.
What a horrible take, encouraging violence against people. For shame.
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And see the progress that has made!
Don’t sling insults. By doing so it demonstrates that you have no argument worth making.
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Just gonna add onto here:
DO NOT FEED THE ANTI-DISESTABLISMENT TROLLS
THEY’RE EXPLOITING NON-VIOLENCE TO STOP YOU RISING UP TO PROTECT THEIR MASTERS
DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM OR ENGAGE WITH THEM AT ALL. NOT A FUCKING WORD. DOWNVOTE THEM AND MOVE ON
Radical change almost never comes without bloodshed but you can arrive at the same endpoint through the voting booth, it just takes longer.
There’s surely appetite building around the world for this. Who will throw the first stone that starts the landslide?
France
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.
Buy stock in the companies posting record profits.
Delete this
why? honest question. if they are making record profits and their stock is going up why would you not buy their stock?
Because you’ll be investing in, and therefore helping that company. Only a small fraction of the company’s profit is going to reach you. You’ll be part of the problem with capitalism.
When you buy a stock that’s already ipo’d you’re not giving any money to the company.
That’s not really true.
If it were, why would a company care about their share price, post-IPO?
Although people generally conceptualize shares as an ownership of the company, there are a ton of mechanisms at play that make that notion essentially a farce.
It’s better to think of shares as a currency for which the company owns the printer. The reason companies want to keep their stock value high is that they can at-will conjure more shares from the ether and sell them. It’s not JUST during an IPO.
So, in a fractionally insignificant way, as a retail investor, every purchase adds buy pressure and shifts the order book towards a higher market price. The higher the market price, the more money the company can raise by issuing new shares while minimizing the dilution effect of the issuing of new shares.
Only in fantasy land can we think capitalism will go away. Might as well put my money where it will gain value for me. Not like they’ll suddenly go out of business if I don’t invest in them. Buy let it gain 5-6% then sell it.
Sure, we cant afford food or rent, but there’s always stock money sitting around.
Are you just here to tell people there’s nothing they can do?
What’s your suggestion?
Pay more. Be good little consumer drones. Not be so selfish when a corporation thinks they should have all your money instead of you.
Die in a ditch?
One thing I’ve noticed is that people I know have 2 problems.
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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.
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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.
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if you see someone stealing food…
…no, you didn’t!
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.
What are we to do?
Pay. AFAIK you don’t have any other rights.
Vote?
Yes. Never vote for a rich person anymore :-)
Short answer: get paid more
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 wont do shit unless they also stop supporting capitalist owned politicians thats keeping them down
Unions did shit when the corporations and government could literally shoot them, stop being a larper and get to work
Long answer: direct action
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.
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.
Not to promote violence, but I’m afraid nothing is likely to change until people are pushed far enough to do more than hope.
It’s okay, this is Lemmy, not reddit.
Violence is skipping a step. A national strike would do more damage to this country in a day than isolated riots in every major city.
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.
That’s why the media pushes every news about shootings to the top of the front page, they want you to be scared of guns, so they can trick you into giving up your gun rights.
Never give up any rights, period. Rights are not something we get handed out on a frequent basis.
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.
Steal.
And if you have wooden shoes, throw them into the workings of the capitalist machinery.
What is an average person living in the US supposed to do about corporations raising prices?
In a healthy economy, they are supposed to provide more value to society in order to receive more money
This isn’t super viable right now, but it’s true.
If you want to do something about it: start a company, and be reasonable. There will be a lot of pressure to do otherwise, though.
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 🤣
