this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2023
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[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 174 points 9 months ago (9 children)

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

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.zip 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 12 points 9 months ago (9 children)

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.

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[–] EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world 99 points 9 months ago (1 children)

A strong stock market is not a strong economy. The economy is the flow of money exchanging hands, which is down because people are paid less than ever compared to the cost of living. This leads to starvation.

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[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 85 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

Hey NBC, an economy that's not providing the basic necessities for working families is not a strong economy. No matter what the pretty graph says.

[–] 1847953620@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago (17 children)

iT's NoT a ReCeSsIoN (because we don't like you having a word to call it, so we're the ones who get to redefine it however we wish)

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[–] alienanimals@lemmy.world 79 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Strong economy == corporate price gouging while everyone else's wages stagnate.

[–] eestileib@sh.itjust.works 35 points 9 months ago

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"...

[–] capital@lemmy.world 60 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Some practical advice for donating to food banks: Give money instead of food.

  1. They know exactly what they need. You don’t.

  2. They have partnerships and buy in bulk which makes that same dollar go further in their hands than in yours.

https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-blog/donating-food-food-bank-consider-cash-instead-canned-goods

That article has changed how I give to food banks since I read it.

[–] sawdustprophet@midwest.social 24 points 9 months ago

I remember reading another factor is that food which people donate is often expired, nearly expired, or undesirable and unlikely to be used before it expires, so often ends up getting thrown away anyway.

[–] EvilEyedPanda@lemmy.world 57 points 9 months ago
[–] Wooster@startrek.website 53 points 9 months ago

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.

[–] jdadam@lemm.ee 53 points 9 months ago (5 children)

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.

[–] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 28 points 9 months ago

"It gets better" is just a bullshit comment to keep you complacent. It doesn't get better unless we make it better.

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[–] notannpc@lemmy.world 49 points 9 months ago

That’s capitalism working exactly as expected.

[–] paddirn@lemmy.world 48 points 9 months ago

It’s a strong hoarding economy, the rich and ultra-rich are hoarding wealth and companies are raising prices for everyone else to feed their insatiable demands for profit. There’s nothing strong about this economy for the majority of people.

[–] MisterFrog@lemmy.world 48 points 9 months ago (5 children)

Same reason I hate it when the housing market is described at "strong" in Australia? In what way? Is the market providing housing for all who need it? No?

Then it's weak and I'll have none of this "strong" housing market bullshit.

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[–] quams69@lemmy.world 43 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

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.

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[–] orcrist@lemm.ee 42 points 9 months ago (2 children)

As we all know, the word "economy" means "rich people's yachts".

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 18 points 9 months ago

Nice 'economy' you got there. Be a shame if this Dewalt cordless drill with 40mm carbide holesaw happened to it.

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[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 36 points 9 months ago

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.

[–] Surp@lemmy.world 32 points 9 months ago

Strong for who? The rich?

[–] Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 30 points 9 months ago

Because trickle down economy unsurprisingly doesn't work. Good question tho.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 22 points 9 months ago (21 children)

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?

[–] BobGnarley@lemm.ee 15 points 9 months ago

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.

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[–] FireTower@lemmy.world 17 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I wish someone had told me the economy was strong again earlier. Here I was thinking that hyper inflation was a bad thing.

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[–] Mediocre_Bard@lemmy.world 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)
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[–] Synthead@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The US doesn't tax properly

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[–] Waraugh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 9 months ago (6 children)

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?

[–] CraigeryTheKid@lemm.ee 34 points 9 months ago (9 children)

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".

[–] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 16 points 9 months ago

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.

[–] Waraugh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

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.

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[–] Adeptfuckup@lemmy.world 20 points 9 months ago

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?

[–] RBWells@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago

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.

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