- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
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The economy isn’t strong, for one. Rich people getting richer isn’t indicative of a healthy economy. The entire working class can barely afford their god damned groceries, 40 hours a week isn’t even enough to live on for most people.
The economy is dogshit right now. Fuck these corpo ghouls.
The economy is dogshit right now.
It’s not so much the economy that’s dog shit as it is the policies regulating the economy that are dog shit. Better redistribution of wealth would go a long way to alleviate the economic inequality of the US economy.
Of course, that would require implementing policies that many, especially conservatives, are not willing to implement.
It’s incredible to me that people need over $2k a month for food. I go to Sam’s once a week to replenish supplies and feed a house of six, two adults and four boys between 10-14, on $800-$1000 a month. That includes a ribeye or new york strip dinner every Saturday so theirs still plenty that could be cut. What the hell are people eating?
There are some economies of scale with a bigger family, though. I pay more per person now with household of 4, than when we had more kids. Getting stuff in bulk works best with a large household.
And yes cooking saves money too. Ingredients don’t cost as much as prepared foods. You pay in time or you pay in money.
Here’s a thought. Maybe. Just. Maybe. There are people that live in the United States that don’t own a car to fill to the brim with that amount of supplies. It’s difficult to carry that amount of groceries on a crowded and late bus back to your apartment. Delivery you say? Well. That’s extra isn’t it? Remember to tip or else. See. Not everyone lives like you. In fact. Less and less people live like you everyday. When the tipping point eventually comes. What will you say then?
I sound like you, but I bet your answer is that we’re buying groceries and preparing a lot of those meals.
Single parents or busy ones that can’t do that have to buy ready food.
A classic tale of “it’s expensive to be poor”.
So I started looking at prices since my comment and I think you hit the nail on the head. It’s astounding to me what the difference in cost is for premade or hell even just not bulk. I had no idea how much I was saving with a vacuum sealer and apparent luxury of having a large pantry and large standup freezer to go with the kitchen fridge/freezer. I don’t think I could make it through more than a couple days using a top of fridge freezer if that’s all I had. So bulk buying wouldn’t even really be possible as a typical renter. Just the wasted time having to shop multiple times a week (not just grabbing something but legit grocery shopping) sounds miserable and the expense from extra trips doesn’t help any.
With only a few people, you can maybe go a week with a normal freezer. But you will be eating everything you have. With 6 people? You would need to go shopping every 2 or 3 days. You will not buy frozen things in bulk unless you want to only eat a few items for 2 days.
And the costs are beyond just dollars. My wife and I recently started cooking at home (and even growing some food) and I lost 20 pounds. My wife lost 50 pounds. We aren’t cooking the healthiest things ever, but we make it at home.
Nobody has to buy pre-made food. That’s just inherent lazy bullshit. Not to say the economy isn’t fucked left right and center, and recent inflation is completely fabricated bullshit. But to say you have to buy ready-made tells me you’re too stupid to cook, or stupid with your time.
Bro , some people work multiple jobs and literally have time to sleep when they are home. They don’t have time to cook. It happens, and those people aren’t lazy.
I’d love to see how many manage to find downtime for their phones, etc. Takes 20 minutes tops to make a healthy meal.
Odd that you found time to post, you should really be working harder.
I’m not struggling since I understand how to take care of myself.
Do you have to take care of a family? One where your domestic partner can’t work because they have to look after the kid(s)?
in my city, there are numerous “food deserts” where fresh food generally isn’t available, and people go to pricey convenience stores which sell, guess what, premade food, junk. When you are raised that way, and everyone around you does the same, it comes naturally. And who is educating them otherwise, or making useful changes?
My mom grew up not knowing how to cook, bc they almost never had real food in their house (actually the “projects”, single mom with schizoaffective disorder, four kids). She was working at like 12, 13, and if she were still alive, I’d love for you to try telling her they were lazy lmao
I’d be happy to call her lazy as your anecdote is just that. Books exist, as do library’s, all full of knowledge on how to make shit to eat.
Probably people buying a ton of pre-made meals and whole foods. A lot of people just put stuff in their carts without considering prices.
That’s definitely not what happens to most people, a lot of them don’t have time to cook or have never been taught how to buy proper food because of the failed education system.
You’re a tone deaf wanker
Strong economy == corporate price gouging while everyone else’s wages stagnate.
It’s a great economy if you’re already rich.
Since all elected officials are either rich or grabbing everything they can to become so, they can’t understand what it’s like for people on minimum wage or a fixed income.
We need more attention on stats like “what percentage of people have zero savings”, “what percentage of the median worker’s income is consumed by basic expenses”, “how many people didn’t eat yesterday”…
deleted by creator
Do you not have access to filters?
We were over at my mother’s yesterday and we were talking about grocery prices and my mother asked my wife how much we paid for milk and my wife says she doesn’t look, because it doesn’t matter when we need milk regardless. I don’t look either. It’s the same with gas prices. I hear they’ve gone way down, but I’ve honestly stopped looking. What difference does it make what a gallon of gas costs when I need that gallon no matter what it costs?
You don’t need milk. You do need gas though.
There are plenty of people for whom this is not a true statement.
Like?
Everyone who doesn’t own a gas powered car.
There are more people who need gas for their cars than electricity. If you want to be the “akchually☝️🤓” guy then sure you’re right. But you know what I meant and you’re just being annoying.
We don’t “need” milk in the sense that it is not necessary for our survival. We need milk in order to keep eating and drinking the things we enjoy eating and drinking. And I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect milk in your tea and your cereal.
No, you do need milk. Don’t let the capitalist propaganda engine tell you that comfort and contentment are not necessary for life. To even insinuate that having milk to put on cereal or in tea is some sort of luxury or indulgence that you should be able to cut out is lunacy. Human beings need comfort as much as we need socialization for emotional and mental maintenance. We need fun and enjoyment. That is why even in modern hunter-gatherer tribes the workload is less than half of ours and they all have full bellies and spend the rest of their time pursuing leisure activities and spending time with their family/community.
(not accusing the person you are replying to, they are a victim too)
Capitalist propaganda engine? Do you hear yourself? Say those words out loud and tell me your not a looney conspiracy theorist. What propaganda? XD
Is it propaganda to say most mammals do not keep drinking milk after they’re babies? Is it also propaganda to say things like broccoli, kale, nuts and seeds are calcium alternatives? Is it propaganda that the vitamin D can be obtained from fish, sunlight, and liver? Explain what this propaganda machine is. 🤡
Capitalist propaganda tells us that we don’t “need” anything and that all of those things you’re talking about are luxuries. Food? That’s a luxury. Clothes? That’s a luxury too. Water? You better believe you don’t need that, you selfish little piggie!
(also, tbh they didn’t specify the milk has to come from an animal. plant milk is milk!)
I wish we were on Reddit so I could /r/woosh you. Did you even read the comment? The comment has literally nothing to do with the milk. I also acknowledged that you weren’t some asshat shill, but perhaps I was too forgiving.
You talked about milk for most of the comment. Also, people on Lemmy unironically talk like you did so I assumed you were one of those “capitalism is the reason for every bad thing” kind of people.
I indicated that the idea that something trivial being considered a luxury or indulgence that could be eliminated was asinine, milk happened to be the pertinent example in the discussion. Everyone else seemed to get that.
Also, most people seem to understand what about our world is propaganda. Just out of curiosity, how old are you? I’m making no judgements, just wondering.
Not every bad thing. Capitalism has its place, but the extent to which most of the populace idolizes it is unreasonable. My economic philosophy is what is known as Moral Capitalism. Essentially, make money, but don’t do it at the expense or detriment of people or the environment. Don’t abuse employees, don’t abuse customers, don’t abuse the community, don’t abuse the planet. And I am using the dictionary definition of abuse here: to treat in a harmful, injurious, or offensive way. We the public are offended by the number of ads we have shoved down our throats every day. We the employees are harmed by the stress that unrealistic deadlines and low wages cause. We the community are injured by the manipulation of legislation such that we are not allowed to protect ourselves from predatory and aggressive contracts that we are forced to sign every day that we have no choice in if we want to continue functioning in society.
And there is 100% a propaganda machine operating in the foreground of our world that is acting on behalf if the amoral capitalist institutions that are in control of everything. Republicans, marketing, PR. Articles being posted telling poor people that if they are struggling to make ends meet they can just start skipping meals instead of demanding fair pay. The whole Avacado Toast misdirect. Anytime you see the working poor being blamed for their existence instead of outrage at employers who siphon off 33-50% of the irreplaceable hours of their employee’s day and don’t pay enough for those hours that said employee is not destitute, that is the Capitalist Propaganda Engine. Everyone who works full time should be making enough that they can survive easily. Not lead a life of luxury, but not have to worry about the next 3 months rent, save for a vacation next year, not have to use food stamps to eat, and not have to skip meals so their child can eat. Period. End of discussion. If an employer can’t pay their employees at least that much, then they should not be in business. This is the floor, the bare minimum. Just because you started a business does not automatically mean it should succeed. The same is not true to be a worker. Just because you work full-time, you should be able to survive with minimal financial stress. If you have additional training, certifications, specialized skills, etc. you can claim you deserve the lap of luxury.
It’s not about comfort. Humans need calcium, lactose, various bacteria to not, eh, have reduced mobility conditioned by the toilet always being nearby, and so on.
I don’t disagree with you at all. I was sort of trying to say that myself but you put it much better than I did. I can live without any comfort if it means that or death, but it sure would take a toll on me. That’s why solitary confinement is such torture.
I guess my sleep-deprived ass is just lurking lemme looking for good lessons to which to attach a little eloquence.
You don’t “need” it to keep eating and drinking. I don’t know what you mean.
You can still afford to eat cereal?
For now. We’ll see. We’re down to a single income, but we’re going to keep putting milk in our tea as long as we can. Because I’ve been drinking tea with milk almost as long as I have been alive thanks to an English father and grandmother. It’s like heroin for me except with milk and just a little something to sweeten it a bit. I don’t want to go through tea withdrawal.
And don’t tell me I can just drink tea without milk. That’s like non-alcoholic beer. You have to be desperate. I’d rather get the tea shakes.
This is so wholesomely human.
I cut my sugar in half by adding cinnamon and nutmeg. Works for coffee as well.
We use stevia extract instead of sugar. It works very well for tea.
I’ve tried stevia before. Can’t get over the cotton-candy flavor. I do make sure to use brown sugar, though. Sitting by the back window as I log in for work, contemplating if Anericans have a final straw or if we’ll just keep growing more and more bitter without functionally snapping due to the socioeconomic pressure like steel bars balanced on a beam with steady pressure on both sides, warping and weakening us.
Then it’s time to start my shift.
I like to pay attention though so you can see firsthand how bad things are getting. I remember selling shoes to old people and all the employees would joke that they all had no sane grip on the fact that prices go up. They’d say at 80 years old, well when I was 30 that used to be $X thats way too high of a price! Its funny though because we will never experience that. We are used to it being this way year to year much less 30 or 40 years from now. So much so that some people dont even check the price anymore, we just know its higher than it used to be automatically. It’s sad.
That’s capitalism working exactly as expected.
The US doesn’t tax properly
Most first-world states don’t.
I must say, I was quite impressed during my visit to Budapest. I don’t blame my fellow countrymen for fleeing there.
Impressed? With Budapest? Outside of the nice touristy areas it’s a poverty-ridden cesspool
it was just a joke to make me sound like I thought the article was about Americans going to Hungary
Ah, I see. Sorry, irony in pure text form can be difficult to spot.
Americans are impressed by old stuff, and it’s not like they see outside the touristy areas. Fuck Viktor Orban by the way.
You speak from my heart brother, those fuckers are destroying Hungary’s future.
Where are you from?
Capitalism.
Corporate Slavery.
Because this isn’t a strong economy…
The rich are making money, but they’re just hoarding it
So amount of money in circulation keeps decreasing, and prices keep increasing because in capitalism if a company isnt increasing profit margins, the stock price isn’t going up. And they finally figured out calling corporate greed “inflation” means around 2/3s of the country will accept it
Either we drastically raise taxes soon, or shits about to get really really bad.
Very few people will just sit back and calmly starve to death
The 2/3 of the country can generally be fooled to believe anything.
However, just raising taxes in this case may have some similarity to extinguishing fire with a burnable substance.
You have to raise some taxes (say, on realty ownership, and some other possessions, and in general discourage possession of wealth without circulation) and lower some other taxes (say, anything taxing a transaction, I’m really not familiar with the way taxes work in USA, but in Russia plenty of taxes in hard numbers simply discourage economic activity). The goal should be increasing the actual inflation (not a good or bad thing per se). That’s if you are right about the cause, which I’m in doubt about TBF.
In the US income taxes are different at different income levels and corporate taxes are separate entirely. We can absolutely raise taxes without raising them on lower income people.
And yes several studies over the last couple decades have shown that US money is going up and not coming back down.
Differentiating income levels is another thing.
I’m talking about encouraging people to put in use as much as possible of what they own, which means that making interaction cheaper via lowering some taxes is important to do not only for the “lower income level” people, actually it’s most important for the “rich”. That’s the candy part of encouraging economic activity, and the boot part would be taxing properties (should be done carefully, or, say, large realty companies are going to be less affected than individual owners with only their apartment\house, which would be a complete failure).
That’s trickle down. You just described what we’ve been trying for the last 60 years. And in that time the only thing that’s happened is the wealthy take their tax breaks and hold on to it. They don’t create more jobs. They don’t pay their workers more. They store it in things like super yachts.
Lowering taxes does not create more economic activity unless they were burdensome to start with. Which is not a problem American rich people and Corporations have.
Either you are answering something else and clicked my post by error, or you haven’t paid attention to a single word except for the “lowering taxes” parts.
I’m talking about encouraging people to put in use as much as possible of what they own, which means that making interaction cheaper via lowering some taxes is important to do not only for the “lower income level” people, actually it’s most important for the “rich”. That’s the candy part of encouraging economic activity, and the boot part would be taxing properties (should be done carefully, or, say, large realty companies are going to be less affected than individual owners with only their apartment\house, which would be a complete failure).
This? This is the entirety of the comment, and it is the theory behind the massive tax breaks American politicians keep giving the wealthy. If you mean something else please let me know.
If you mean something else please let me know.
Yes, I meant what I wrote.
That you have to encourage circulation and discourage “hoarding”, which means that the former should be much more beneficial than the latter. For “the rich” as well.
“Tax breaks” are selective bullshit which shouldn’t ever happen.
deleted by creator
The number of people I know in this state (myself included) has only grown in the last year.
Yep. There’s a whole fucking lot of us.
Totally unrelated, but I’ve been teaching my friends to shoot and how to handle weapons. Also how to homestead your backyard. I pray those remain hobbies but I think im gonna live too long for that to remain true.
The amount of money in circulation isn’t decreasing though. Wages have increased more than inflation, almost every month in the last year. Especially for median wage/salaries.
When they say strong economy they are talking about spending, jobs etc.
The answer is in the first few sentences:
Housing crisis
The recent increase in wages isn’t even a patch on the vacuum the wealthy are using. If that was even remotely true then we wouldn’t be seeing this article.
If that was even remotely true then we wouldn’t be seeing this articlle
Did you read the article? Because it explains why
Short term holding - link
Long term holding - link
From the article - Food is up 25 percent along with rising rent and utilities.
I’m not sure you understand what economists mean by circulation. Money is going up and not coming back down. It has been doing this for decades. The more money that gets trapped at the top and put into the stock market means less money for the working class as a whole. While that sounds like some commie shit, it’s really not. Because the working class is the major demand generator in a capitalist economy. Economists want to see that money making the rounds through the entire economy because anyone left out of circulation will impact demand over the long term (and by the time it’s a short term problem you’re looking at a demand crisis which usually results in pitchforks).
Now we need to talk about rent in the economic way. That profit a monopoly extracts because the market is not competitive enough and it can charge more without providing more value. Land/house rent going up is the classic. That’s why the two words are the same. But other necessities are often seen in history as well, including food and utilities as also mentioned in the article. This is relevant because the world recently figured out that the inflation of the last couple years was actually greed and not cost push. They literally just figured out they could use it as an excuse to raise prices well beyond what was necessary. Of course that’s not a surprise to anyone who listened to CEOs publicly telling their stockholders they were doing it.
So when you assert that it’s not a problem with circulation because rent went up. I have questions about you understanding the economic meaning of those words. The primary means of rent seeking behavior have gone up and wages already were not keeping up. Nobody cares if wages beat inflation last month. We need them to beat decades worth of inflation and stagnant wages. We need 47 trillion dollars back from the wealthy leeches who did nothing more than raise prices and pay their workers less.
Now we need to talk about rent in the economic way. That profit a monopoly extracts because the market is not competitive enough and it can charge more without providing more value. Land/house rent going up is the classic.
Just an FYI, you’re using all of these terms incorrectly.
We need 47 trillion dollars back from the wealthy leeches
And your lack of understanding is why you say silly things like this.
Perhaps don’t go on at length as if you know about a topic when your only exposure to said topic is internet forums.
Lmao. No. Rent seeking behavior is economics 101.
Indeed. Actual rent-seeking is, for sure. That’s why it’s kind of weird you’re confused by it.
Utilities have also been on the rise, and this year Ortigoza isn’t planning on turning on the home’s heater, even with temperatures dipping into the 30s at night. Instead, she plans to wear extra clothes around the house and bundle her daughter in blankets.
I just want to say… Don’t do that.
If you want burst water pipes, then that is how you do it.
Instead, let your house drop to uncomfortably cold temperatures, but with still a buffer above freezing. The thermostat is only accurate for wherever it’s placed in the house. It’s not able to tell you what temperature your pipes are at the distant ends of the house.
If you’re going to turn the heat off at below freezing, then you need to empty your pipes first, and no one is going to do that.
But yeah… I felt I needed to get that out of the way first.
Anyway, wages and unemployment are getting ‘better’, but that means very little if it’s still not a living wage.
In a household of four with two full time incomes (both teachers, so take that with a grain of salt), we are at the point that the food budget is the only thing left to cut. We have canceled any subscriptions, cut all other spending, and often skip lunch/breakfast or eat Ramen noodles to save the bulk of our money for the kids and feed them better. I’m sick of beans and rice, BTW. Due to the nature of our jobs and the outside of school hours (which we are compensated for), side hustle is not an option. We would like to actually be present and part of our kids lives. I keep getting told “it gets better,” but the stress of making the bills and feeding the family is relentless, and that says a lot since we are way more fortunate than most. We need change.
There is often change. But it never gets better. It has never gotten better and it never will.
deleted by creator
factually inaccurate. look man, I’m a cynic, but saying the New Deal didn’t improve people’s lives is bullshit.
two full time incomes (both teachers, so take that with a grain of salt)
Sorry but they counts as one income tops. It’s shameful how little teachers are paid. I hope you and your family find a better situation somehow.
“It gets better” is just a bullshit comment to keep you complacent. It doesn’t get better unless we make it better.
deleted by creator
Nice ‘economy’ you got there. Be a shame if this Dewalt cordless drill with 40mm carbide holesaw happened to it.
Glad people are starting to wake up to this.
What I’m getting out of this is don’t have a family of fucking 7. That’s too many kids. She did this to herself.
Are the kids not people, too? Why should they pay for their mother’s mistakes?
Well yeah I guess that’s the answer. Go back in time and stop herself from having kids. I mean we all know that nothing ever changes or gets worse everything stays stagnant so if you make a decision 20 years ago it stays valid now. That’s clearly your point right? Or do you think she should just be able to kill one of the kids? What’s your solution here? I notice you just picked that one example out of like the six given. There was a there was one in there with three kids is that enough is that too many? What about the guy who was just caring for his disabled wife? Was the problem that he should never have married? What about the one who’s taking care of the the children of her deceased son? I guess she should have stopped him from dying right? That’s the answer for that one clearly isn’t it?
Good economy: Rich people get much richer. Poor people stay poor despite the good economy.
Bad economy: Poor people pay to keep rich people rich, despite the bad economy.
