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.
Plant a vegetable garden. Build a rain catchment system. Build a solar power system. Read books instead of consuming other media. Buy only local. Start a consumer or retail cooperative. Don’t participate in wanton consumerism.
Voting in the US doesn’t yield desirable results because of the gerrymandering and the voting system; however most changes which directly affect people are made at a grassroots level so participate in activities at a grassroots level.
Don’t participate in wanton consumerism.
This is the answer. And it comes with other benefits also.
I do okay financially. I don’t have problems affording necessities. But I have found there is also a lot of satisfaction in being more self-sufficient, in relying less on supply companies to deliver my every need. And it saves a ton of money.
Food is a big one. I used to spend a ton of money on takeout, delivery, junk food. But here’s the thing, basic cooking really isn’t that hard. It doesn’t have to take up a lot of time, especially if you meal prep. And the resulting food is both better in quality and better for you.
On that same thread, the grocery store is not always your friend. Especially if it’s one of the big national chains. You will find much better quality produce at your local farmer’s market, and it’s often cheaper too. Certainly way more flavorful, the vegetable that was in the dirt yesterday tastes way better than the one that’s been in a warehouse for a month. Happier chickens lay tastier eggs. Etc.
And there’s a lot of stuff you can do yourself. A vegetable garden is a great place to start, if you have even a tiny backyard. Think folding table size. Plant yourself some tomatoes and put up a net frame so animals don’t eat them, they will be the best tomatoes you’ve ever had. But planting and growing stuff is one of the most efficient ways to get food- Stick it in the dirt and water it and you get food for free!
Then think about all the shit we buy. How much of it do we really need? How much of it ends up in the landfill in a year or two? When purchasing things, think about the product entire life cycle and how each step will affect you. IE, Don’t just think about the dopamine rush you’ll get from unboxing your shiny new toy, or the novelty of using it the first couple times, ask yourself is it going to enhance your life owning it over the long term, and is that amount of enhancement worth its purchase price and the space it consumes?
Then think about all the shit we buy. How much of it do we really need? How much of it ends up in the landfill in a year or two?
I worked in logistics for a few years running trucks out of the DRC mainly moving copper cathode and cobalt. When visiting those mines the conditions were horrific from a human and environmental perspective. It really changed how I consume.
Not to mention anything using tantalum capacitors are effectively funding war crimes currently being perpetrated in the DRC.
All of that human life, and the destruction of our plant just to fill a landfill.
Don’t participate
This, as much as possible and in as many areas as possible. Keep everything local as much as possible and minimize consumption. I’ve found that satisfaction arises much more readily from minimum consumption than maximum consumption, which might be why the advertising industry spends billions per year to convince us that backward is forward.
Totally agree with participation at grassroot level though. Run for office because you can count on the ghouls sending a candidate.
as much as possible and in as many areas as possible.
I do want to just take a second to highlight this. The idea of buying local and buying from people who make things instead of corporations can be hard. It’s expensive. And obviously the point is that we are all struggling. So looking at all the stuff I buy I thinking I need to spend so much more on all of that is daunting.
We all live under the same shitty capitalistic hellscape. We can’t get out of it. We can only do what we can. Need a new dresser? A locally made one will cost you a lot. Don’t stress about not being able to afford it. If you need to, get a cheaper one.
But for a lot of things, you can get it for just as cheap looking around on Etsy. If they have their own website where you can order it so they don’t have to pay Etsy money, even better. My boyfriend is in his last semester of nursing school, so I’m getting him a gift, and it’s custom made. It’s expensive, but most things I would get him are probably made with cheap labor in another country, and would just help prop up a large corporation.
Does this mean everything I buy is custome made? That it’s made locally? No. I can’t afford that. But I stopped using Amazon for just about everything, have started buying from people when I can, and it’s honestly kind of nice. I got to help someone make a living doing what they want to do, instead of just working a job. So even though we can’t afford it all the time, it’s great to do it when you can, and not let the idea of it needing to be everything make us feel defeated and then never doing it.
When I said buy local I was specifically talking about food and similar. Depending on few factors such as: climate, availability of land, other people with similar goals, food can be easy to produce either as a group or individual basis and there are systems looking at an aquaponics cycle for example tilapia -> leafy greens -> BSF maggots -> you can either split this into chickens and tilapia or just back into tilapia (we’ve done this it really requires a group effort and land availability).
Other things as you’ve mentioned like furniture can be a little more challenging due to economies of scale (also child labour, corruption, and general shittery) that major corporations are able to exploit that a local tradesperson can’t.
For this sort of stuff I just try to budget, I never buy it immediately.
I guess it’s about compromises, and unfortunately for certain things we have to do so.
To reiterate the importance of a group, it’s really made it a lot easier to cut costs by having a group with various expertise.
Oh yeah, food is definitely a great one. I’m lucky in that towards the end of summer, our local vegetable garden will sell a lot of their stuff in front of the local church. It’s right next to my apartment complex. I love baking, especially muffins, so I’ll go right over there and grab some blue berries and raspberries. Get a pumpkin for Halloween. Maybe some watermelon. And all of that money goes back into things for the garden for the next year. I think it’s great.
My wife and I tried to plant a vegetable garden last year, it was our second try after learning some things the previous year. We got a lot of veggies out of it and had a lot of fun. We weren’t so interested in saving money, we were more worried about bare shelves at the grocery store. We also have a few chickens.
We are going to make it even better this year.
My new year’s resolution this year is to figure out how to build a generator capable of putting out at least 200w. The trick is, I want something that doesn’t require a manufactured fuel to run. Solar or wind are obvious options, but I have also considered a steam engine or wood gas engine.
Depending on how complicated you want to make it you can build a pyrolysis plant this produces various forms of fuel and can be run of a solar panel. The feedstock to this plant is plastics waste be careful of the plastics though as certain plastics produce chlorine gas.
I.t.o farming I highly suggest into looking at aeroponics and aquaponics. Both have disadvantages and advantages. You can construct systems using off the shelf materials. Stay away from turn key solutions. Aeroponics is really interesting and we’ve been playing around with it for a number of years.
You may not like the answer but you need to continue working the political process further upstream and more deeply. It’s easy to just vote for the president every 4 years and then think the system doesn’t work. But it’s too late to have any kind of effect that late in the process. Find more progressive candidates to support and vote in your primaries to support them. Volunteer and help them get out the vote. And do this even if the candidate you like is across the country somewhere, because having more progressive candidates overall helps move the Overton window and shift the party over time. And when you’ve lost the primary and don’t have a progressive choice, do the least bad thing and keep the regressive candidate from winning. You may spend all your life doing all this only for some limited victories and a small net shift if any, but that’s the lot of one person among 300 million. It’s a hell of a lot more impact than the vast majority of people will have. And it’s just the beginning of what you can do. Join a union or run for office yourself and make a more direct impact.
Of course we all live with limitations but few of us are doing as much as we could actually do. I know this well because I have some blue collar friends busy with jobs and kids who still do about 400x more than I do.
That’s the correct long term answer. But you might also add that there are forces that actively fight against this kind of prpgress, so in addition to what you’ve written, I’ll add educate yourself and others, and don’t fall to the cultural war paradigm the’re creating to distract us.
That shit sounds boring.
You guys want to join my radical and poorly regulated militia instead?
Would that require actually meeting up with people? I think I’ll just post messages of despair on the Internet! /s
I know, we can storm the Capitol!
Why not! Lol
Nice, that makes three of us (but the other guy never comes to the meetings)
Boy, you’d think it be easier to recruit revolutionaries in an unhinged lefty commietopia echochamber, as people keep assuring me Lemmy is.
Yep 100%. It actually encourages me that they work so hard to keep people from uniting. It means they’re afraid of it.
The only solution is to demand more money and buy less. Buying less will decrease demand and cut their profits, having more money will cover inequity.
This pretty much already happened with the “nobody wants to work” bullshit. People moved to better jobs, and jobs that could no longer pay a living wage either raised wages or closed their doors. Workers need to keep demanding more, unionizing, and raising wages to keep the money in their pockets. The people complaining are complaining they can’t have 4 car garages when the employees can’t afford rent. Fuck those people.
If you want to live through 80’s dystopian books on this subject, we all need to start learning how to hack; compromise these company’s networks, take down their supply chain. In the end, we’re enabling them. We can either give up because there are too many of them, or educate ourselves on their weaknesses.
I like the concept of destroying them from the inside. Get a job with them and at the first possible instant do
rm -rfon all their servers.
Cool, you go to jail and their sysadmin restores from backups. Accomplished nothing, ruined your life.
Damn, alright… Where are the backups?
Off-site cloud backups for geographical disaster resiliency and operated by a third party contractor that you don’t work for.
That’s like saying “we all need to learn how to be spies and pick locks so we can steal the gold from Fort Knox”.
Also, disrupting the supply chain can literally kill people. Look what happened when the Suez canal was blocked.
how to hack; compromise these company’s networks, take down their supply chain.
That will only result in hiring more network security and passing the costs onto consumers.
I take stuff from work.
This is the way
You need to be the example you want to see in this world. Buy ZERO Corporate.
That’s it.
Delete subscriptions. Replace your music collection with pirated MP3s. Same with movies.
Learn to cook.
Obviously you’ll have to buy gas. Nothing is perfect.
Make a start.
Tbh, in the digital world Lemmy is actually a nice step imo. But more steps can always be taken (as long they’re reasonable). Whether its physical or digital.
Moving everything to Fediverse is a great next step.
Voting with your wallet is literally plutocracy – those with more dollars get more votes.
Not only is our theoretically bad, but it’s practically bad: the impact of a boycott is negligible, but the impact on the people doing the boycott is huge: not having access to the conveniences everyone else has puts us at a significant disadvantage compared to our peers.
And finally, it’s not just practically bad, it’s actually contraindicated. The executives of a corporation are legally required to maximize immediate returns to their investors. It’s literally illegal for a CEO to move a company in the direction of civic responsibility over profit. And it’s not just “profit” – it has to be increasing profit. Line has to go up; they can’t just keep it flat, even if “flat” is hugely profitable. To withdraw our financial support will just cause them to squeeze harder on everyone else.
(There’s an argument that there might be more profit in social responsibility, but unless you have numbers to back that up, and it demonstrates immediate returns in addition to long term benefits, then it’s just a guess, and a guess is never going to be more convincing to shareholders than facts.)
The only way to change this is with regulation, and a cultural shift away from “line goes up” mentality. And you can’t effect political change when you’re spend 3x as long making dinner because you’re boycotting processed food.
Suggesting that we just give up all the conveniences that our labor, our creativity, and our cultural contributions have enabled, for the sake of convincing a CEO to be nicer is just ineffectual.
The executives of a corporation are legally required to maximize immediate returns to their investors. It’s literally illegal for a CEO to move a company in the direction of civic responsibility over profit. And it’s not just “profit” – it has to be increasing profit. Line has to go up; they can’t just keep it flat, even if “flat” is hugely profitable.
Pretty sure this is a myth. https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/8146/are-u-s-companies-legally-obligated-to-maximize-profits-for-shareholders
This moves me.
Thank you.
I’m so distanced from all regulatory processes that they seem literally as impossible as your vision of boycotts. And yet, I now see how pressuring regulatory bodies for the change we want is a very effective tactic.
But it look how long legalized marijuana has taken — that process started in the 70s.
Look how fast Musk was able to turn Twitter into the mouthpiece of fascism. Weeks.
This is what we are dealing with.
I want to push back on your sense of “convenience.”
I am not covetous of streaming. I have abandoned it.
I’m in charge of my media libraries.
What I’m saying is that we can do both: apply pressure on regulatory bodies WHILE abandoning crushing predatory capitalism.
I eat healthily. It does not hurt ME that I refuse to eat corporate bile.
I choose my media. It does not hurt ME that I never see ads.
Anyway — hoping that you can appreciate you have made me value the regulatory pressure argument while I still believe we are powerful.
Oh I pirate the shit out of everything – and partly it’s a boycott, but I think mostly it’s the convenience. “Owning” things and enjoying them on my terms (no Internet? No problem) is just better than subscriptions.
And I block ads, 100% for sure. I would literally give up most of the Internet rather than subject myself to ads – I’m “on the spectrum” and I have a very hard time with overstimulation and distraction, so ads substantially interrupt my ability to read (which I already have trouble with).
Like – I love lemmy and everything, but I’m here because Reddit disabled the ad-free app I used to use. I was a daily reddit user for like 13 years. if I could still use Relay, my ethical resolve against their anti-user practices, and my personal commitment to foss, probably wouldn’t have held up.
My feeling is, if I behave in a way that’s conducive with good mental health and life satisfaction, and what I do is also a political statement, then the universe is in harmony.
It’s really just the "voting with your wallet’ perspective I mean to illuminate and undercut – it’s a very tempting idea, but I would rather we (as a resistance movement) remain sane and comfortable than ascetic and underengaged.
Shoplift
“If you saw someone stealing food, no you didn’t.”
Join a more radical organisation than the democrats. Participate in rallies, protests and put up flyers. Its not easy.
Instructions unclear: Joined the Trump campaign.
Stop buying their shit. Obviously there’s things you need to live and that’s fine but stop wasting your money and making them rich by buying all the ancillary shit.
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.
I read this as “buying clubs”. Like, buy clubs and hit stuff. My first take was “Ah, the violent revolutionary type.” :)
Only in my darker moments 😅 Most of the time I think their punishment is having to be a working stiff like the rest of us
How does one start a buying club?
Food co-ops are the most popular form of buyers club and an excellent place to start. Here’s a how to guide.
Organize locally and stop being so dependent on corporations. Try to start a garden if you can, live more sustainably, and reject as many “fees” as you can. Cut cords, go for FOSS software if you can, try to use publicly funded entertainment like parks, and try to cook for yourself, rather than eating out.
If you’re already doing all of that, I’m afraid there isn’t much more you can do.
this, but zoom out. network with your friends and neighbors to share resources. do your best to trade services in kind rather than money. every time you get what you need without resorting to the market, you’ve cut out governments and corporations that don’t actually do anything for you. Maybe you need clothes and you can’t sew, but you can grow and can food. The guy down the street can’t work in a garden because his back’s fucked up, but he can sew. Maybe you have to buy the fabric from a real store, but then you take the fabric and some jarred tomato sauce to him, and he gives you back something you can wear. He also gives you the jars back when he’s done with them, so you can fill them again without having to buy more from the market. Bit of an injury? The other neighbor lady is an RN. She can’t save you if you’re having a heart attack but she can put in and take out stitches, help relocate a dislocated joint and all sorts of other stuff. She needs her driveway shoveled though, and you can’t do it because you’re injured but you can make bread, so you give some dope ass cheese bread to the kids that live across the way and they do it. The key here is small groups where people actually know one another with repeated interactions. Capitalism thrives when both sides of the equation have to balance out immediately, because the person you’re dealing with is a stranger and is likely to disappear as soon as the deal is done. If you float him when he’s short he’ll never come back around to make it right. A community economy thrives when everyone in it knows that they’re going to see the same people regularly, because that means Pete doesn’t have to pay me for this food today. He’s Pete. He has lived right down the street for years and he’s gonna keep living right down the street for years, and he’ll make things right eventually. He’ll also float me when I’m the one short, and trust me to make things right eventually. This is how humans interacted economically for a very, very long time. Favors and even giveaways were their own sort of currency.
This is extra tough nowadays, because participating in the capitalist economy is not optional. We can provide some things for one another, but the alternative power structure isn’t mature enough that we can realistically feed, house and clothe one another without resorting to the market. So you avoid the market when you can. Trade with your neighbors, do them favors, encourage them to do you favors. When you do have to participate in capitalism, buy unrefined, raw goods where you can and refine them yourself. Each step of refinement that a product goes through has to be profitable for the refiner, so the more refinement a product has gone through the more cost in excess of value is tacked on. Simply put: under capitalism a loaf of bread has to cost more than the ingredients and time it takes to make it or no one would bother to make and sell bread. But we can’t all be wheat farmers. So you buy flour, and you deny them the profit of refinement. You buy fabric from the capitalists and put your own time and effort into making that fabric into clothes. You buy a tomato seedling for a couple bucks and you use the only thing that’s 100% yours, the sweat of your brow, to turn that seedling into tomatoes. You get real simple and real friendly with the people around you, and you figure out every way you’re capable of to avoid the power structure they’ve built around you and instead to use the power structure that you’ve built with a small group of people that actually give a fuck about one another. Limit your interfacing with the dominant power structure to strict necessity. And steal from walmart.
I hope urban community gardens were a thing in my country. It would provide fresh and cheap vegetables and I wouldn’t mind working at it a few hours per month.
Same. Mixed-use urban infrastructure with community gardens, public transit, and more would be wonderful. Building it yourself is the only option for many.
When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich.
General strikes, shut shit down.
Move to another country
Easier said than done.
I know but it’s the only real solution
What we should do is collectively stop paying what the corporations are asking and start negotiating the price of absolutely everything.
For example when we’re at the car dealership instead of saying “oh my God I want that car so bad I’ll pay anything you want” you say " I’ll give you $10,000 less than you’re asking for or I’m not going to buy anything from you"
Somehow the corporate elite of not just America but of all other major countries in the world have convinced the populace that you must pay what they’re asking when you actually don’t have to.
As the consumer you hold all the power you are not required to buy anything you are doing a favor by purchasing products from these corporations.
oh my God I want that car so bad I’ll pay anything you want” you say " I’ll give you $10,000 less than you’re asking for or I’m not going to buy anything from you"
That’s only works if there is a surplus. Manufacturers have gotten really good at only producing exactly what is needed and no more to keep their products in demand.
At some point you will need a new car. My 15 year old Sienna was having more and more expensive problems. Technically I could have kept going but I wanted a car I could trust to make long trips with my family. If it was just me, being stranded for a day wouldn’t be a problem.
So I waited 2years for the supply chain to get better before giving up and buying a new Sienna. It was the only one on the lot. I could pay full price or not buy it at all. The dealer didn’t have to negotiate because someone else would buy it immediately.
Yes. That’s a problem, that guy right behind you is the issue. He’s the one that should be negotiating the price.
We need to stop allowing the manufacturer to set whatever price they want.
Meh. The only problem of manufacturers raising prices is out of control executive pay. If the workers are getting more money because a product is desired, then they should benefit.
To an extent, this is already happening. I work in manufacturing, and the last couple of years there was more demand for our product than our factories were physically capable of producing, and prices were raised to weed out the number of customer orders to what we could handle. Projections for this year are for softened demand, and sales expects to have to offer significant price cuts to keep enough orders for our manufacturing lines to stay busy.
Collective “we have enough stuff and will buy less” at work.
you are not required to buy anything
As long as we keep capitalism tightly regulated!
https://apnews.com/article/wifi-cartel-michoacan-extortion-mexico-1a5ec0f8fdb0ed88fe6e0e471868d564
