Is this surprising given stagnant wages and drastic inflation for the last few years straight?
Don’t forget about the absolutely massive wealth transfer that happened: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/16/richest-1percent-amassed-almost-two-thirds-of-new-wealth-created-since-2020-oxfam.html
This isn’t inflation. This is greed. Record profits with soul crushing wages. Governments that allow this are complicit. We need heavy windfall taxes
Windfall taxes are reactive and bad policy in general.
What we need is a return to pre-Reagan tax policy. Higher upper tax brackets, corporate taxes, and the closing of loopholes that allow the rich to hide their wealth offshore.
saying “greed” in the context of capitalism makes no sense. the word doesn’t have meaning because the system is morally agnostic.
edit: its a headless system optimized for profit accumulation as its sole parameter. there’s no systemic incentive for anyone to behave otherwise.
What word do you prefer to use to describe people who hoard more wealth than they or their children can spend in a lifetime while the vast majority of workers are on the edge of financial ruin? Why can’t they be satisfied with just having one mega yacht? One giant mansion? If not “greed” what do you call it?
neo-feudalism?
Oh neo-feudalism! Absolutely charming. No greed involved.
the word doesn’t have meaning because the system is morally agnostic.
The people at the top of it swimming in their Scrooge McDuck piles of money while the rest of us struggle seem pretty fucking greedy to me.
The system isn’t morally agnostic dumbass, it literally is greed. It was created for the purpose of greed and it continues funnel all the wealth to the greedy. Loopholes are found around all the rate limiters and speed governors that get designed into the law and federal agencies. They’re trying “company store” tactics again. Fucking child labor is back.
“The system is morally agnostic” imagine the fucking Stockholm Syndrome (yes I’ve heard it’s not actually real stfu)
there is no such thing as a morally agnostic system, you either agree with or disagree with the outcome of the economic system, it is moral or immoral.
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True, a system whose only imperative is personal upside maximization with no consideration for anybody else is morally agnostic if you put aside the moral dimensions of having no consideration for anybody else whilst acting for personal upside maximization.
Same as murder being morally agnostic if you put aside the moral dimensions of killing another human being.
Consider the possibility that you’re confusing familiarity, common use in your environment and even normalization of something with it actually being devoid of a moral component: just because people around you got used to act in some way without questioning such way of acting doesn’t mean it’s morally agnostic: after all, slavery too used to be normal.
So many people seem to have mistaken what you said for a defense of capitalism.
I think a better way to say it is that greed isn’t a useful way to explain any particular thing that happens in a capitalist system, because everything that happens in capitalism is driven by greed. Saying one particular problem is caused by greed is like a doctor saying someone’s illness is a symptom of being alive; it’s true, but it explains nothing.
Those are here for the same reason…
People act like inflation is the invisible hand of the market, this is capitalism, companies will charge whatever they want to maximize profits, and that rarely results in a lower price.
Like, if you made thingamajigs, and if you made as many as you could (10 million) and sold as much as you could to saturate the market and end up making 10 million, that’s less profit than if you charged $5 a piece and only sold 2 million. Same income, much lower overhead.
So you cut staffing and make 1/5th of what you can because that maximizes profit.
Which is fine until your thingamajig is something that people need like food, water, or shelter. If you’re putting profit over production, then people who can’t afford it have to go without.
It’s literally what’s going on with insulin. This is t a hypothetical, this is what’s been happening for a long time.
It’s just with the same few giant corporations making everything, if just one does, the other 2-4 giant corporations crunch the same numbers and come up with the same plan.
Something that used to be called price fixing is suddenly just “internal analytics”
So… The Chinese real estate model? Overbuild, saturate the market, and suddenly housing is no longer an issue.
wait, all we have to do is make more than what the optimal profit supply/demand curve dictates, and we can get rid of homelessness? maybe do the same with food so no one has to starve?
I could have bought a decent house alone, albeit uncomfortably. But I was happy enough in my condo. Now I have a wife and dual income, and we’d have to really stretch for a shitty house on the outskirts. And neither of our wages have changed much.
Wages are not stagnant.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q
You can see rising median wages for several decades. The covid stimuluses caused a bump but cant expect that level of government spending forever.
It went from 335 in 1979 to 365. That’s less than a 9% increase. In 34 years. How do you not see this as stagnant?
that may be true, if you live in the magic no change in cost of living world
The advice in that article is primo out of touch and humorous. They give statistics that people’s savings and assets are down X amount, and the first advice is save for an emergency. Running out of savings?! Just save more, five head.
I am reminded of that quote along the lines of “it is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not weakness, that is life.” I did everything right, and had a more than adequate emergency fund.
But then my house vaporized that emergency fund… and only then did COVID happen and I lost my job twice. So that’s roughly three “holy shit thank god we saved for a rainy day” events in three years.
I’m sure I will be in “just save money” mode some day in the future. Lots of shit left to clean up right now though.
I’m a simple man: I see a Star Trek quote, I upvote
But a man of culture nonetheless!
If you do not already frequent Risa I suggest you join us!
I’m a simple man: I see someone point out the Star Trek quote, I upvote
I’m a simple man: I upvote recursive comment threads.
i
√-1
-i
and only then did COVID happen and I lost my job twice. So that’s roughly three “holy shit thank god we saved for a rainy day” events in three years.
You just explained the last three years of my life. I have no savings left. Period. If anything happens to the car, or either one of us loses our jobs, we’re done. That’s it.
Well, you aren’t “done”. Life continues.
Even when the state conspires against you having shelter from weather when you’re homeless. Life still goes on.
Until it doesnt.
If you stop eating Starbucks and drinking avocado toasts, you will be fine
I love that the guy who penned that gold was one of the world’s richest people, and not that long ago called for increasing unemployment, so that the worker learns his place again.
Ok, yeah! I’ll just set aside the (checks notes) almost nothing I have left after food, rent, utilities, gas, and my exactly two streaming services.
yeah, I’m seeing discretionary spending right there that could be accruing interest instead. and judging by your profile pic I think you know what I’m suggesting.
Aye aye cap’n 🫡
Now ask the CEOs how they’re doing.
Man, some of them have had to delay that second private jet purchase until next year.
Most of them got richer. So no they did not put off anything.
About $42 trillion in new wealth was created in the first two years of the pandemic. Two-thirds of that has gone to the richest 1% of the world’s people
Mitch McConnell staring off into space - Good thing Americans had those stimulus checks to live off of for the past 30 months.
Speaking of, where did that money come from?
Did they just print it?
Weird how when it comes to helping the working class, taxing the rich is never an option. But when it comes to helping the ruling class, you can tax the working class and print money.
There is ALWAYS more money available to kill people with. Never so much to help folks with.
Just to add facts to your comment
America spent $8 TRILLION on two wars over 20 years
And just to add lyrics to your facts
You don’t give money to the bums
on a corner with a sign bleeding from their gums
Talking about you don’t support a crackhead
What you think happens to the money from your taxes
Shit the governments an addict
With a billion dollar a week kill brown people habithttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO18F4aKGzQ
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/brotherali/unclesamgoddamn.html
Sorry, have a complicated day ahead and I’m in a goofy mood as I allow myself to finish this coffee before jumping into it.
Hope your complicated day isn’t overwhelming - I appreciate goofy so thanks :)
Just busy and a lot of moving parts. Thanks!
(I swear I didn’t notice your username until after my prior comment!)
Unless those folks are corporations.
See bit corporations aren’t poors, they’re people.
Didn’t it just come from taxes. I know they claim there’s never any money but there’s always money, they just don’t to use any of it.
They’re always claiming they need to raise taxes but they don’t, they just need to spend them. Also possibly maybe they shouldn’t give contracts to their chums as backhanders. Maybe then they get better deals.
But, but, but … how could big politically connected companies ever be able to be competive in the Free Market without subsidies???
Every dollar they can save by not spending on making US citizens lives better can be used to buy another missile or drone. The Ukrainian and Israeli armies have benefitted more from our tax dollars than US citizens have in recent times, it seems.
I canceled all our streaming services and Amazon prime. I canceled my phone service and opted for a $15/month plan (Mint). I buy a cheap phone, about $70 bucks. I asked my wife to stop buying me snack foods at the grocery store to save ~$50/week. All told I think we are not spending ~$300/month that I can now put towards our cars that are starting to break down. Someone said something about savings but I only cultivate dust and stones there.
Don’t feel like you have to do without just because you’re smart enough not to subscribe!
You can stream pretty much anything for free here: https://fmoviesz.to/
Just make sure you have uBlock Origin installed.
Shhh! Keep it secret, keep it safe
Thank you for being a hero
Wonderful resource.
Bookmarked.
if your cars are totaled one day, definetely buy a toyota made around 2000-2015. those things are modern but still indestructible. (but definetely don’t cheap out on maintenance, oil is especially important)
lol cars are really expensive
And basically required if you want to have a job in the US…
Especially with the war on work from home that seems to be going on at the moment.
Can’t you guys just apply to work for European companies remotely wouldn’t that be a workaround? I know my company has a few remote American employees and they’re not totally useless.
Most companies would rather not perform the hassle of hiring international workers. Taxes are… Complicated. The only reason it makes sense is to save a shit ton of money - see India.
The other time would be for high demand skills that they can’t staff locally which only applies to certain industries like tech, etc. Even then it usually only makes sense if they’re getting top quality talent in those industries.
I consider myself to be a decent software engineer which is fairly in demand (even with recent layoffs imo), but even then I think I’d have a hard time finding a remote European job.
Oh and let’s not forget that for most engineering positions the salaries are usually lower in European companies. Unless they’d be willing to pay relative to where I live, it would probably mean a pay cut. And I doubt even the benefits would make it worth it given I’d still be living in the US with our private health insurance system, terrible/expensive transportation, etc.
If it offered relocation then that could make it worth it but that’s probably even more difficult to get hired for and has obvious downsides
So, is nobody going to mention the picture of two smiling kayakers chosen to accompany this article?
After buying kayaks with their COVID checks, their outdoor gear addiction has spiraled out of control
They are living out of them.
They are part of the 20%
The kayaks probably survived their chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation. (jk)
I took it as they are going up Shit Stream and are about to lose their paddles. 🤣
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Same. Huge promotion, way more responsibility and stress, annnnnnd I’m just treading water financially.
Not surprising at all.
Corporations made BANK and all the CEOs put it directly into their pockets.
No. More. Billionaires. Yank their fucking wealth
Why stop at their wealth?
As someone pointed out to me, round them all up. Throw in them into an island penal colony and let them all go Lord of the Flies on each other.
My suggestion for improvement, was every once awhile, lob some artillery shells at the island. Can’t let those billionaires get comfortable.
I think the worst punishment for the ruling class is to make them part of the working class.
I guarantee you, most of them would rather kill themselves or others than live like us.
they do, generally, jump
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It was another really good chance for wealth transfers
Over here in the, “no fucking shit” category of news…
“Gee…you f***ing think?” -Me, single income father of three-
Don’t eat the rich. Their greed is too fattening.
Kill the rich instead.
Compost, grow, consume. Give the earth its tithe.
The implication being that covid-19 is a field wealth redistribution program?
It doesn’t make that claim. It’s just that if you were wealthy between 2020 and now you can more easily navigate the price hikes by refinancing during the housing boom, sellings off assets, and shifting investments around.
But people in lower incomes don’t even have assets/savings to fall back on so they just lose harder when the prices hike.
Actually they are saying that if you were wealthy then you spin that wealth to increase your wealth. Whether that is drastically increasing profits. Using your connections to get free PPP money from the government. Etcetera…
We did not all lose something during Covid. The richest among us got a lot richer, and they continue to do so.
We are not in this boat together.
Boats are expensive!
We’re all pushed into the water that then raises the tide for the rich in those boats…
Uh how is it not higher?
Who are these 20%ers?
I think some people, myself included, managed to stay stable, so that’s probably a big chunk of it. I got a new job in June 2020 that was enough of a raise to make up for inflation, so while I’m not ahead of where I was 3 years ago, I was at least in the same mediocre position I started in. That said, I’ve had $3k in dental bills since July because dental insurance is pretty much a scam, soooo I’m now officially fucked, but I was doing ok.
I hate to break it to you, but if $3,000 in bills is enough to fuck you, you were never as stable as you thought. Welcome to the 80%
People like me and my wife. Wife is in healthcare and I am in automation. Wife gets as much overtime as she wants and I got several pay raises as suddenly companies found that they couldn’t depend on just buying the same things forever and ran out of workers.
Oh don’t worry I am sure the boot is ready to crush us both like a bug. Just ignoring us for the time being.
So my wife and I are one of them. I’ll call it as it is, we got lucky, and both work in tech.
Now that said, I “rent” (rent in quotes because the amount is almost exactly what the increase in food costs was) out a room to a good friend because she was struggling, and just last week got another friend couch surfing for who knows how long until she can get her feet under her.
A lot of us in healthcare stayed pretty stable. I don’t know of any that did “better”, but other than elective stuff, day to day dropped only a little. About 9-10% of Americans are in healthcare. I do know a lot of delivery services did well too.
And we now have the career experience from working Covid front lines combined with the aftermath of the Great Resignation, making us even more in demand. Yeah, I’m also one of the few doing better financially after Covid than before.
Who are these 20%ers?
LOL, which income quintile do you think?
Well, I currently make more than the average household in my state, solo. So does my gf.
And we can’t afford shit.
So, you tell me? I’m in the top 5% of income in my state. I am doing way worse than I was in 2019. E erything cost double and I dont make double.
What costs double? I track my expenses very closely and have for about a decade and my essentials are up 10% at most, 7% on average. That’s food, transportation, home expenses and cloth. My recreation expenses were actually down or flat.
I’m in a similar situation up here in Canada. Back then I could afford a house at a reasonable distance from town, even at current interest rates and with my significantly lower salary. Now I can maybe look at a small bungalow 1h out or more… if I assume I can keep working remotely indefinitely. Groceries just skyrocketed. Had to move in between, with high interest and low vacancy rates, we had to eat a big rent hike despite us moving way out of town.
From the article, emphasis added:
The poorest 40% of households suffered an 8% drop in cash savings and the middle 40% (the U.S. middle class) also saw their bank deposits and other liquid assets topple. Only the wealthiest 20% of households are still enjoying the extra cash they stockpiled during the pandemic, with their savings about 8% above where they were in March 2020.
I’m not disbelieving your personal experience, but the article does indeed say it’s the top quintile who benefited.
The poorest 40% of households have cash savings?
What the fuck are my wife and I doing wrong?
I may be a 1%er in this context. 49 at the start, had just scored a job paying double salary and benefits both (<-worked hard for this bit, for many years), Habitat for Humanity mortgage (no interest or land taxes), all that.
COVID killed mom (grandma really), got some inheritance, bought a couple of acres of swamp. It’s mine and I play there every weekend. Long story, but the land is a big deal in my life.
Went nuts buying stuff I always wanted and couldn’t afford before inflation really set in. I wouldn’t/couldn’t buy most of that stuff at these prices.
And now I’m about to get paid on the last of the inheritance and pay my little house off.
I know this sort of comment isn’t welcome, but you asked. Dumb luck mostly, and I recognize that.
And speaking of dumb luck, I’m getting married in 2-weeks to the finest woman I’ve ever met. (OK. I made a LOT of effort, but still, lots of luck as well) Been with a lot of women, so I’ve failed a lot, not this time. She’s gushing to her Filipina friends ATM. I don’t speak Tagalog or I might relate a bit of the conversation, all sounds good though. (Nothing private of course.)
Glad things are going well for you. Best of luck.
Comment is welcome! Don’t forget the prenup. Congrats!!
Spending an extra 8% on groceries just means a bit less to savings? IDK, I kind of feel like the opposite. Economic dooming ahead of an election is as natural as the sunrise, especially when there’s a Democrat in office.
Well if your income increased more than inflation you might be fine. For my family this was the case and we have a fixed income mortgage as well so our expenses as a whole have gone up a lot less than inflation. I think this is true for a substantial minority of people.
