When things are bad and the economy sucks, prices go up. When things are great and the economy is good, prices go up.
Corporate fucking greed has ruined this country, and you can thank the fucking republikkklowns for it.
The USA was founded on capitalist ideals. This is the system working as intended.
The price will be whatever the market will bear. Right now, they’re figuring out exactly what the market will bear. They’ll step back from the line just a little bit then slowly creep up over time to reclaim all the profits.
If you’re old enough to remember, this happened with fuel prices not super long ago. Prices were sent just north of ~ $3/gallon, and there was outrage. The prices dropped back to somewhat normal levels and everything resumed but the prices always kept trending higher and higher, now, we barely even flinch at $3/gal, and often, that’s considered a good price for fuel… At least, it is where I am.
The same people who were outraged by it now seek it out. This isn’t any different. They spiked prices, now sales are falling like a brick. They’ll bring it down to something “more reasonable” in the near future to recover sales, then over the next 5-10 years they slowly jack it back up to the current price and beyond and we will barely even notice.
Exactly. Democrats won’t fix that principle; they may (eventually, maybe, years into the future) raise minimum wages, which would be helpful for a while, but they cannot stop capitalism being capitalism.
And, dependent on capitalist donors just like Republicans, they won’t be able to take radical action against the status quo.
This is what many blame the failure of Biden administration to make economic reforms on - Democrats, too, play under the rule of the market, just less openly than Republicans, which is why they always try to find scapegoats to sabotage the most radical plans even when they take the majority of seats.
That’s not to say you should vote A or B. That’s just to mention that Democrats are not your friends and saviors, and they can only be seen as a lesser evil until people organize, come out on the streets and demand loud and proud what they deserve. They have nothing to lose but shackles.
I think we agree that capitalism is the problem.
If you were expecting Biden to end capitalism in America that was your fault for having terrible expectations.
We live in a market capitalist country. It isn’t going to suddenly become socialist. End of story.
I never had those, but some people still believe Biden or Harris or some other democrat will come and build socialism.
No.
Brother, free yourself from the partisan bullshit and realize both sides work to favor capitalism. And there are people on both sides that oppose this corporate greed.
I get it, the Republican Party is a fucking shit show right now. But don’t let that fool you into thinking Democrats have your best interest in mind.
Brother, take that both sides bullshit and shove it straight up your ass while reading project 2025.
Very introspective and thought provoking. 👍🏽
When prices don’t go up, economists get super scared and tell governments to print money.
Inflation is a secret tax on non-land owners.
Exactly, if you’re wages/salary doesn’t increase at the rate of inflation you are making less money than the year before in terms of buying power. If your raise just meets inflation you’re simply treading water.
no. when things are good there are guillotines instead of prices.
Guillotine aren’t a sign of good times. They’re a sign of times so bad that violence has become the only viable way of salvaging them in the eyes of the majority. They may be harbingers of good times, but they don’t indicate them.
semantics. you know what I was saying.
dead little girls in coal mines? there are dead little girls in coal mines instead of prices, or the normal dead people of all ages and genders on the streets I have to fucking walk past every day.
I don’t think I understand. When things are good, there are dead little girls in coal mines?
russian revolution. nevermind.
Ah, I’m unfortunately not familiar with that one. I only know the Guillotines from the French revolution, where they indicated the worst of times.
no, they were the end of the worst of times. the fact that guillotines were a massive improvement is an indicator of how fucking monstrous the centuries of white terror had been.
The next corporate spin will be “We should LOWER minimum wage, that’ll definitely bring prices down, trust me bro!”
Just one more tax break will fix everything, I’m sure of it!
One more tax break bro, I swear bro just one more tax break. Just one more tax break and we’ll solve the economy I guarantee it bro just one more
Just one more tax break.
Just one more lane.
Just one more fee.
Just one more…
Bro I swear.
Just one more subscription.
“You get paid in Kroger gift cards”
They already did the company town where everyone is paid in scrip instead of money. I’m sure they would love to bring it back.
“You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter, don’t you call me 'cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store”
Hear me out…maybe we should bring it back. There were some real bangers that came out because of it.
After your 4yr unpaid internship of bagging groceries is done
I have actually seen places trying to pay temporary/seasonal workers in Amazon cards.
I’ve read a times article the other day that claimed it is important for food prices to stay high even though inflation stoped, because otherwise people would stop buying stuff because it might get even cheaper. Yea let me just stop buying groceries for a month.
The entire edifice of Free Market Economics as a Political ideology is exactly that use of recognized and measured effects to justify self-serving measures in different areas were none of that applies.
Just like the observed effects of people delaying the purchasing of big ticket items, luxuries and things which are not immediate needs when prices are going down does not apply to basic needs, so do the quality improvements and price falls in markets with no barriers to entry which are naturally competitive (say teddy bears or soap) do not apply is the majority of markets out there (including some for basic needs such as housing).
Yet the Political Propaganda anchored in Economics is invariably done by using truthful things outside the context were they apply - i.e. lying using what elsewhere would be true. It’s like somebody justifying reducing the maximum speed in a stretch of road by using the Theory Of Relativity to claim that the time dilation at higher speeds would cause all sorts of problems with clocks and aging - true near the speed of light, not true at 50 Mph.
Must have been written by a right wing douche.
It sounds like bullshit to you because it is. Just another anti-consumer lie like trickle-down economy.
Yeah I’ll just starve myself. That’ll show ‘em!
To be fair, if we did raise minimum wage, they’d use it as an excuse to raise prices again. We still need to get higher minimum wage of course, but we also need get much tighter restrictions on corporations, or any financial ground we gain will be lost shortly thereafter under a million excuses to bleed the extra money out of us.
if we get hurt whether we help people or not, shouldn’t we just always help people? we’re gonna get slapped anyway.
As I said, yes, but also, let’s work together to stop the slapping…
Hopefully, Kamala Harris is given that opportunity and makes the best of it! 🤞🤞
I was at a restaurant yesterday that charged seventeen dollars for guacamole.
Omigod.
I gave up on Roblaw’s and started going to the local Polish grocery store. I might not know what all the pickled vegetables are but it’s cheaper and I support someone local.
I always tried to get my stuff from a local grocery store or a mom&pop shop even if it’s a couple dollar more expensive. I only went to big chain retailers when I absolutely have to.
Which vegetables are giving you trouble, specifically?
There’s this one that looks like carrots but isn’t
Do you mean white radishes or maybe horse radish?
I’m not sure, I’ll take a picture next time.
Horse radish is a spicy mush, tastes a bit like wasabi, but is white or slightly purple if beets were used to colour it.
White radish tastes the same as the pink one, but is large, white and long.
The ‘wasabi’ you get at most sushi joints is actually just a coloured horseradish paste. Real wasabi is a different plant (but it’s still a type of radish) and far more expensive. It’s also grated fresh on your dish as the flavour dissipates very fast.
No not like that. I’ll look again.
Salsify? It tastes a bit like asparagus, but more earthy, complements fish dishes nicely. There are variants that look like carrot.
Yes I think that’s it!
“Damn, I could have charged them $17.50!”
The owner probably.
Things are always going to get more expensive regardless of whether or not wages also rise.
It’s gotten worse during the pandemic.
It’s almost like corporations went: “Wait, we can just raise food prices as much as we want because reasons, because who’s going to stop us? And it’s not like these peasants can survive without food!”
George Weston Limited is one of North America’s largest processors and distributors of food. The company operates three subsidiaries: Loblaw Companies Limited, a grocery, drugstore and general retailer; Weston Foods, a baking company; and Choice Properties, a real estate investment trust. George Weston Ltd. owns a variety of brands and retail banners. Loblaw brands include No Name, President’s Choice, Life Brand and Joe Fresh. Loblaw stores include Loblaws, Zehrs, Your Independent Grocer, Provigo, Atlantic Superstore, Fortinos, Dominion, Independent City Market, Valu-mart, ARZ Bakery, Wholesale Club, T&T Supermarket, Real Canadian Liquorstore, Real Canadian Superstore, No Frills, Maxi, Extra Foods and Shoppers Drug Mart. In 2023, George Weston Ltd. registered over $60 billion in revenue. George Weston Ltd. Is the country’s largest private-sector employer, with over 200,000 full- and part-time employees. It is a public company headquartered in Toronto and listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol WN.
Your Independent Grocer
Bullshit branding on point.
My father thinks it’s because minimum wage was raised from 11 to 16.55 since 2015
It’s always the workers’ faults to conservatives.
ROBLAWS
I keep hearing about this Rob Loblaws guy and how he had a month but people are excited about him after his month too. Apparently you can get free stuff from him.
We did raise the minimum wage, at least some states did.
Out of curiosity, I found these two maps.
Big mac prices:
Min wage:
I don’t care enough to plot a scatter graph of min wage vs big mac prices, but at a glance it seems to be loosely correlated at most.
Just want to add for those who might not know, if the state minimum is below the federal, then the federal is used as the minimum.
So there are states where the politicians would tell business people “it’s not our fault you pay so much, we’d never want minimum wage at $7.25 and that’s why we never raised ours… we gotta fight for states’ rights!” (?)
Instead of matching the federal minimum (which is kind of a waste of time you could argue but that would occasionally send a different message at least)
I wonder if we will ever see a Big Mac that costs more than an hour’s worth of minimum wage work.
Absolutely. Beef will get more expensive because it requires a lot of drinkable water, and minimum wage will go down because it doesn’t keep up with inflation.
Except McDonalds burgers are mostly filler, shouldn’t be tied that much to beef index.
Seems like there’s a few place with lower mac price but higher min wage, and from a quick glance it seems like higher minimum wage win a lot because at least in california you can buy more mac than say, new mexico or texas.
Absolutely. At the end of the day, whether or not a business pays a living wage almost always comes down to a question of whether or not the execs have a yacht fund, and to what extent.
I’d like to see a more recent one, since it seems the pandemic spurred a lot of the price gouging. Our minimum wage has gone up $3 since 2019.
Also, since there’s not a huge difference in Big Mac prices between states, I’m wondering if national chains are using the min wage increase in a few states to increase prices across the board, rather than just increasing prices in the states with high minimums.
California since then increased minimum wage to $16 and fast food workers have a special minimum wage of $20.
I’d like to see a more recent one, since it seems the pandemic spurred a lot of the price gouging. Our minimum wage has gone up $3 since 2019.
That information would definitely be interesting to see, but I wasn’t able to find it. And for the purpose of comparing min wage to prices, pretty much any year before the pandemic will do, as the purpose is comparing min wage to prices, not how the pandemic gave the excuse to corps to fuck everybody.
Also, since there’s not a huge difference in Big Mac prices between states, I’m wondering if national chains are using the min wage increase in a few states to increase prices across the board, rather than just increasing prices in the states with high minimums.
I’d bet that’s the case as well.
You gave current big Mac prices yet wages from 2019. For example California now has $16 minimum wage and special $20 minimum wage for fast food workers.
My bad, I wasn’t able to find a date on the inforgraphic for the bic macs. It’s rather annoying to get up to date, well presented data like this.
Hoosier here. Suck it, Alabama and Wyoming, you have even shittier minimum wage than we do!
Wait, we all lose.
😕
Weston owns Canadian chains
There’s also minimum wage by County. Mine is $16.85
I’m assuming you are from California. The map is from 2019. Currently California’s minimum is $16 and fast food workers now have a minimum of $20, so almost double of that.
But then it would make the food even more exp- oh wait that also happened
