Of course you’re right, in principle. But that’s easier said than done. Ever try to talk to one of them? Like talking to a wall. Say something reasonable or try to talk sense to them with facts and all you get is a glassy-eyed stare and a self-satisfied smile if you’re lucky.
Yes, it is most difficult to do. I think back to Hilliary calling the rTrump fans The Basket of Deplorables, and thought that was the beginning of the deep divide. I felt she could have somehow not fallen into his trap that they are looked down on and HE spoke their lingo & was one of THEM. By now the cement has set, and talk & reasoning are, as you note, don't get any communicating accomplished. The hard thing for me is that many of the people in my family are for him, though, thank goodness, not racist, supremists, or extremists. But they came under the spell through religion. So, I can't lump them in with the bellicose ones, or call them names. All I can do is say I disagree if something is said (which isn't often) & not try to change their minds. That's no help in breaking the spell, but I refuse to let himvtell mevwho "we" are.
I’m sorry to hear that your family has been infested with Trumpism; I’m sure that’s difficult to deal with. I too, had been a fan of Hillary and thought she would have made a wonderful president. I heard her speak during a visit to Pittsburgh when she was campaigning and had the good fortune to speak with her after she was phenomenal. The room was packed yet when we spoke, It was as though she and I were the only people in the room. After that, I participated in several campaigns for her and was devastated when she lost. Although I think she was trying to be a proper lady when she debated Trump, I was disappointed that when Trump slinked up behind her to intimidate her, although I think she was trying to be a proper lady when she debated Trump, I was disappointed that when Trump slinked up behind her to intimidate her, I wanted to see her turn around and cripple him with her spike heels.
Sorry, but that divide was there since trump came down that stupid escalator. That is why we all just nodded and agreed with it. We were already tired of their lies and conspiracies and blame game.
Im reading this substack so I have a more complete idea of various opinions. Has anyone here looked in a mirror? I registered as an independent decades ago because I was tired of hypocrites.
If anyone criticizes their party, they are stupid and "a threat to democracy" and they must automatically be FOR the other. Not true, but I anticipate all of the above.
Hillary had a private, illegal internet server that would have gotten anyone else sent to prison because it allowed foreign enemy access; approved the false Steele dossier and cost taxpayers over 32 million to find exactly what? This would make a great president?
I don't support Harris because she hid Biden's dementia and no one above has mentioned, nor can I find, any specific accomplishments. She flamed out last time because she was terrible, and that was according to Democrats! Why was that memory holed?
Why can't we hold all people to higher standards without being called names and assuming they must be stupid. Let's demand better, no matter the party.
Lying to the public is awful. Lying to yourself is worse.
Why don’t we keep the oil drilled in America in America? Putting that oil on the open market first with prices set by someone else, just doesn’t make sense to me. We are currently the world’s leading producer of oil. If we saved it for ourselves and only sold the excess on the open market would we not save money for our consumers and actually have energy independence? Trump lies about being energy independent when he was in office, in fact it was a lie. Don’t feel bad about explaining something stupid that I am missing, I do not care who is right, I care what is right. Thanks
The quicker we can move toward alternative energy sources, the better. Oil ought to be left in the ground, where it belongs.
As far as who or what Is being right, I can’t help thinking about the misuse of the word itself as in ‘right wing’, right equals might, etc. Semantics play a larger role than we accord them. The ‘right wing’ for me should be renamed, the ‘wrong’ wing’ or the extreme wing. Doing so might make people stop and think before they blindly follow such folly.
I keep seeing some that have converted away from maga politics Tennessee Brando is one I keep seeing on YouTube and or ticktock, if its not all AI bs 🤔
Anyone who steps away from MAGAville gets my thumbs up. When Kamala wins in November, there should be public bonfires to burn all that hideous MAGA merch.
Many of them won’t even listen to anything you say. If you can engage a non-1% Trump supporter, do not waste your time listing his many flaws. Instead explain how his policies work against their self-interest. Good luck.
If there were such a thing as time travel, imagine going back to Galileo’s time and trying convince the average schmo that the earth was not flat and that it revolved around the sun. The more things change the more they stay the same.
Yep! I have two observations that I believe increase inflation. I agree that increasing interest rates is not the best way to curb Inflation. I believe that RR's solution to stop monopolies is crucial. Also, tax corporate investment home buying, a renewable energy policy, and tax non-essential energy use, like cryptomining, will help the root causes of inflation.
High oil prices drives up inflation because crop production costs more at every stage: planting, growing with fertilizer, and product delivery to retailers. The few food makers and markets pass the costs on and increase prices knowing consumers have few options due to grocery store monopolies. Prices are easily fixed when consumers have few choices. In many places, consumers have only one or two choices.
However, increased oil prices alone do not account for the drastic food price hikes. The monopoly of grocery stores are a significant factor. Since we all eat, the higher price of food reaches all families.
Before the pandemic, a pack of lunch meat at WalMart was $3.50 and an Amy's frozen dinner was $3.35. Today, that same lunch meat is $5, and the Amy's meal is $6.50 or more.
Think about how many cases, or boxs, of these items fit on a truck. Let's say a box holds 20 packages, or units. Now think about how many boxes can fit on a truck. The first row can be 10 boxes high by 10 boxes wide for 100 boxes in a row. This stacking can go 30 rows back for 3000 boxes. Each box has 20 packages, so 60,000 units in a truck.
At $3.35/unit, a truck had $201,000 worth of product before COVID. Now then, 60,000 at today's price of $6.50 is $390,000! That's one truck!
Most all of Amy's products are vegetarian! Are you going to tell me that the cost of beans and rice has doubled? The increased price of fuel does not account for this huge price increase. It's not increased fertilizer costs because it's all organic. Only corporate greed accounts for this price hike that's blamed on inflation.
In fairness, my estimated numbers of units/box, box/row, and rows/truck could could be very wrong. However, I tried to be conservative and round down on everything. It's possible many more units are fit in one row.
Housing costs and affordable housing are also pointed to as a consequence of inflation. I believe two underreported factors are driving these dilemmas. Like eating, everyone needs housing so the issue effects everyone. If you don't own, this issue is major.
One, corporations buying up existing properties for rentals investments. With corporations buying up properties with cash offers, buying a home is becoming impossible. This creates more demand on rentals and prices increase. It's a vicious cycle for people living paycheck to paycheck.
Two, the cost of new construction is up because a large percentage of materials are being used to replace existing housing that has been destroyed by environmental disasters driven by climate change.
In 2016, an area bigger than Houston flooded after taking a double whammy from a hurricane. Houston is huge! Many thousands of homes and apartments were damaged by flooding.
How in the world did they get enough drywall and wood to rebuild? The next year, Baton Rouge flooded. Then Florida. In West, wild fires destroyed homes that needed to be replaced.
IMO, rebuilding existing housing destroyed by the consequences of climate change is consuming a lot of building materials and causing higher costs of building supplies. While I'm not a build market expert, these facts will certainly contribute to a shortage of supplies and higher prices.
IMO, the real costs of climate change are underestimated. Having a fossil fuel economy is creating climate change that is causing higher food and housing costs. It's amazing to me that Republicans and Trump are hell bent on fossil fuels and "drill baby drill." Talk about short-sighted.
I'm not saying investing in renewable energy today will solve these problems tomorrow. I am saying that these housing and nutrition problems are being driven by an out-dated energy policy and we need to make changes for the future. Increasing interest rates makes it impossible for first many people to buy a home. All these factors are inflating the housing prices. What if inflation is not the cause of inflation, it's the effect of corporate greed and environmental disasters driven by climate change.
Indeed, renewable energy will lessen the demand for fossil fuels, decrease dependence on a volatile oil market, and lessen the looming climate change, climate disasters and climate collapse. A gallon of gas increases $.30 overnight when a storm hit the Gulf. That's not a supply issue; that's corporate greed!
In closing, energy conservation is important. AI is consumes 10x more energy to run servers. Cryptomining uses tons of energy. Why? So a computer can speculate for us, think for us, store more of our consumer data to sell us more products? It's ridiculous. How much energy conservation is needed just to offset the energy used by AI and crypto mining? I will tell you. A lot and more than necessary.
I propose that we tax corporations and data mining companies using energy for non-essential purposes. Heating, cooling, transportation and food production are essential. I propose that we tax companies buying up housing as an investment. I propose that we study ways to make new housing materials more available and affordable.
Two things are certain. Biden has made the USA greater by having a 21st century energy policy and investing in alternative energy, supporting labor, and addressing monopolies. Trump wants to go back to a 20th century energy policy and deregulation that makes us less safe, drives food prices up, drives housing prices up, and increases climate change that is making the planet unliveable.
Right. IMHO the main "source" is the OPEC monopoly that has been undermining our economy since 1973. It's also a national security failure. OPEC has v]been finding Saudis purchase of much of our asses (think EXXON), Iran Russia and their proxy wars in places like the Ukraine, Syria, Gaza, etc.
Daniel, Jaime is correct. the sentence should read OPEC is funding Saudi's purchase of much of our asses, And via the Association of Primary Dealers in Government Securities it has been using American dollars (aka Petrodollars) to purchase large blocks of our government securities, along with China, Central banks and sovereign funds that is why the American Dollar is the world's reserve, and the American (Fed) reserve is our government securities, corporate bonds and checking accounts)
And it’s not only OPEC who has driven up energy prices. Texas based independent Pioneer Natural Resources, now merged into Exxon, conspired with OPEC to fix prices and tried to get other independents to go along with the scheme.
“In a blockbuster civil settlement reached in May, the Federal Trade Commission revealed that the former CEO of Texas’ largest oil drilling company sent hundreds of text messages to OPEC representatives, allegedly intending to hold down oil production.”
Price-fixing case shows need for aggressive Big Oil investigations | The Seattle Times
Also driving up fuel and food prices is the demand for oil created by corporate farming's intensive ag practices that uses lots of pestices and herbicides. It's not inflation, it's corporate greed.
But that's an essay for another day. Watch, "OMG GMO's."
I like to remind folks of a Fortune magazine article -- September 24, 2018, by Glenn Fleishman titled as follows: "Trump Rolls Back Train-Braking Rule Meant to Keep Oil Tankers from Exploding Near Communities."
And then the pandemic hit. Trump had already disbanded the nation's pandemic response team and threw away the "response playbook." He allowed our eyes and ears IN China to come home without replacing them.
MAGA tried to destroy our country; they are now in the process of destroying themselves.
That's a great point. Ohio had a huge train explosion after Trump's deregulation that caused major damage to the community. Trump stated in the debate that deregulation is how to build the community. Vance thinks so too, despite what happened in his state. This should definitely be addressed in the opening comments of the VP debate. Thanks, Thomas!
Deregulation caused the savings and loan scandal Deregulation all but sunk the big three auto manufacturers, the Obama bailouts, on and on Ragan almost sunk the country and Bush nearly finished it off .
Obama saved us, but we still should bolster the anti-trust laws.
With MAGA it is priorities, the only thing of importance is maintaining masculine supremacy. Liberals, feminazis, queers, non Christians, even people of color have to be kept in their place, everything else is irrelevant, after all god will protect and provide. /s
Everyone has their own pet idea on why Rome fell and it all depends on their identity and ideology.
Rome still exists, it still rules over half the planet from Rome never the less, only it exists in sectarian form not secular form.
As regards my masculinity I a retired special operations team leader, 26 years and Viet Nam and the 2nd Korean war under my belt.
Masculiniity has it's place and it's importance, but not in patriarchal form, those days are long gone, and society has evolved, and what we are experiencing is the dying gasp of the patriarchy as we move towards a more eqalitarian society and world.
I've heard arguments for a matriarchy, and those are as bullshit as patriarchy.
Women can be as bad ass as men if that is what you think of as masculinity.
Xerxes favorite General/Admiral was a woman,she even build a bridge over the Bosporus strait.
A Chinese Woman Led the Largest and Most Successful Pirate Fleet in History. Sometimes called, Zheng Yi Sao or "Wife of Zheng Yi," she's known to history as Ching Shih for what she accomplished once he died
According to Pliny the Sarmatians required of their women to fight in battle and slay a foe to win the right to marriage, and the many kurgans in the steppes which housed the remains of warrior women are proof.
And it was Boudicea Queen of the Icenes, that came close to driving the Romans out of Britain.
Phyisologically women make better SEALS than men, because they are better able to stand pain, the cold and make better long distance swimmers, and they are better fighter pilots because the have a lower center of gravity and faster reflexes than men and can more easily withstand high G forces, but what they don't have is the bone and muscle mass of men, but with 26 years of humping rucks and jumping with weapons and full equipment, I am hear to tell you that muscle and bone mass are nothing, the only muscle that counts is between the ears, and brute jocks are lacking in that department. I can train a chimp to hump a rucksack and an squad weapon, but I can't train him to make an instant assessment of the situation and make a decision.
Unfortunately, your opinion is not based on any facts and your last sentence tells us exactly who you are and how mistaken you seem to be. The GOP 's famous tax cuts are responsible for taking money away from the people. It is simple Economics 101.
An example of what Reich is discussing is the increase in average hotel room rates since the pandemic ended. We are on vacation and have had a hassle with fees that can't be canceled added to our bill and being booked twice for the same room and same hotel. We were double charged and the fees added almost doubled the cost of one of the bookings. We tried to book in another hotel and swore never to stay at Choice Hotels again. But then we learned that 22 different hotel brands are now under Choice Hotels. The cost has risen so much that this will probably be our last vacation.
The reason that the hotels and airlines do that is because we have so much discretionary spending that we can afford to take vacations and fly and rent hotel rooms.
It really is a supply and demand situation. If there wasn't the demand, the prices would not go up, in fact they would go down.
There is elastic demand which responds to price and inelastic demand that will pay the price.
The shrinking candy bar, but it's rising price is an example. I am pre diabetic and not suppose to eat simple carbs, but a candy bar once in a while is a treat and doesn't throw off my blood glucose. I like Butterfingers, but when I checked out yesterday, I saw a price of $1.49 for this tiny little thing and I can afford it, (I wrote checks without borrowing to pay the house painter, yesterday, but I refuse to pay $1.49 for something that shouldn't cost more than $.25
I forgo a lot of guilty pleasures and discretionary spending, because I refuse to submit to robbery.
Is that from a vending machine. I drink Zevia, one can day with dinner. A six pack use to cost $5.99 now the price has bumped to $6.99 one more bump and I stop drinking Zevia. I do not drink anything with sugar, aspartame, or any chemical that ends on "ol". (Which means alcohol.
Agree on the drink prices. For the last few years we only drink water in restaurants unless it is a special occasion. Then we may pop for one glass of wine each. Used to get an ice tea for $1.25-$1.50. In our area it has gone up to at least $2.50 and some place are now charging up to $3.50... for a glass of colored water. I know several folks who own restaurants and they have to make money too, but this is getting out of hand. We support our local family owned places about 90% of the time.
The big bottles at the supermarket. My wife worked at a hotshot law firm in DC in the 80's and looked at the files they had on aspartame. Troubling stuff so we have both avoided it.
Aspartame is addictive. And it actually causes diabetes and weight gain.
The body recognizes it as sugar (glucose) and the pancreas pumps out insulin like it is suppose to, the insulin attacks and wipes out the glucose in your body, and you become hypoglycemic, which you then take care of by ingesting sugary junk foods, and gain weight
It is nothing to watch someone push a grocery cart with a case of Diet Coke or Pepsi, and on top of the case is a case or two of Twinkies or some junk food.
It is addictive, and Coca Cola pays screen writers and movie producers to use the words Diet Coke, and Phillip Morris pays them to write scenes where actors are smoking.
I remember when you could stay at some motels for under $10, & most motels for under $20 or $30. 10 years later it was hard to find anything under $30. Then they rose to around $60. Around 15 years ago, most of the cheaper motels hovered around $100. I shudder to think what they might be now.
I have no idea Jaime, I would sleep in the car rather than spend a night in Motel 6, about 20 years ago my wife went to a professional conference for Building Officials, to save money she stayed in a Motel 6, and came home with scabies, it took a week and a silver ointment to get rid of them.
On the funny side, I remember complaining to my Dad when I was in HS (1960's!) about a price on some had gone way up. He explained inflation by saying, "when I was a boy (1920's) a loaf of bread was 5 cents". Got it. I guess we will never really get rid of inflation but hopefully it will stay as low as possible. Cheers... GH
Whoa, yes. We have to travel monthly for a medical shot for my husband. Trying to find even a dumpy but safe motel room
in creepy, ugly Redding CA now costs close to $200...insanity. We'll just stress and drive back home northward...& we're staunch senior democrats, by the by. Go Kamala !!
drumpf the seller of 'bunk' to the voting public, drumpf bought by Musk and the oligarchs who own the economy, to the rest of our society's detriment. Kamala must continue to 'bust up' the
big-money players. Pick up a copy of 'American Oligarchy' by Thom Hartmann.
We are in Mauritius in the tourism industry and wholly dependent on Google for our promotions and advertising. Since we joined in 2016, Google has forced up our contribution 10 fold, and their service is non-existent now. In 2016 as a Google One Member I had direct access to a Google adviser 24/7. Now their website sends me around on a circular pattern without an end or any assistance.
Jill, I am not in business, but when I am contacting businesses I have to deal with, the run-around is pretty common. It didn't used to be that way, but so many of the jobs if there are jobs are outsourced to people in other countries who are not familiar with life here. That is not to say that they aren't any good but that they are in over their heads and that our utilities should be hiring local people for tech support and other help and that there should be people, real people, not botts to fix problems. I am sure some of the problems getting back up and running with this past week's crash was due to insufficient IT folks to make the necessary changes to fix the mistake. Corporations want the huge profits for themselves and their shareholders, often the same people, they don't see the need to do things right.
I remember calling a help line for a computer issue a few years ago. I could NOT understand the person who was supposed to help me. I got so frustrated that I told him in SLOW words that I wanted to speak to someone I could understand. That was the case on many customer "service" numbers. I am impressed by the occasional number I call that gets me to someone I can understand.
Some companies actually offer online chat boxes, which are helpful because you get a pretty quick response and don’t have to speak to anyone except by typing. Even so, I miss the days when you could actually call the helpline for a problem and speak to a real honest to goodness human being that speaks English without an incomprehensible accent. That said, I do have empathy for all of those callbank people in India and other countries; they need jobs just like everyone else. Perhaps taxing the hell out of multinational companies who spread themselves globally would mitigate this problem?
This is why I loved my Discover card. I could get a person right away and one that I could understand and they knew their business. Now Discover has been bought. At this point, I have not noticed a change. But Discover was a company I could trust. Now, it’s wait and see.
I now block my calls, but occasionally one gets through, and even a legit company, like my CPAP supplier hires call centers. I can tell what nation a person is from instantly, and 99.9% are from India and the rest from the Philipinnes.
India is an overpopulated country, more so than China and getting worse every day, labor is cheap and the people are hungry. Most large corporations have moved their call centers and service departments to India.
These people are monitored constantly and work off a script which they must follow or they get fired.
I am deaf in the left ear, and have high frequency hearing loss in the right ear. I have the best hearing aids that money can buy, but don't wear them all of the time, because I don't need to wear them all of the time, I am retired, and I use ear phones for my computer and TV.
I share your problem, and when I get on the phone with one of those people, I keep asking them to repeat that they are saying and tell them that I am hard of hearing, until they transfer my call. Sometime though they just hang up
Businesses outsource help desk and IT - stupid idea - those are your company’s reputation - good help and service is what people remember - even Anthem Blue Cross outsourced their pharmacy for home delivery and I’ve had nothing but problems when reaching them and speaking to representatives- they do not follow thru on system problems and updates - I’ve had to switch back to local pharmacies to get my prescriptions on time - why can’t big corp see outsourcing to 3rd world help desks is a major MISTAKE - keep the jobs here.
Susan, the problem is that with monopolies, corporations can outsource with no worries about customer satisfaction because there are not many choices and they are all outsourcing. Those corporations know they can pay workers a third or less the price they would pay American workers and who cares whether the customer is properly helped or not. And, so many corporations own so many different kinds of companies they will just sell off any that customers don't like. It truly is a scam and We the People are the victims of it. I want the people in other nations to have decent jobs that pay a living wage, but not necessarily in customer service for companies in this country.
Big corporations do this because they simply don’t give a sh*t about us. We are just numbers on their bottom line or in Vietnam lingo,-faceless gooks. I don’t know what number I am, but it surely is no longer #1. As Facebook Instagram, et.al has proved We are not the customers or users, we are the product. Tough on the ego, isn’t it?
And after hiring only foreign countries for their help line and tech support they still continue to reap subsidies from my tax dollars. So basically I’m paying to get lousy service. Makes sense to me! Not!
Linda, this is a dilemma because people complain about government spending but don't realize just how much money goes to the huge corporations that donate to candidates to get those candidates to do whatever the corporation wants. For example, why are we subsidiseing fossil fuelers? In a climate crisis that makes no sense. We do that for other corporations too and pay outrageous contracts for weapons manufacturers and other industries too. Those other corporations don't care about customer relations, only profits and what recourse do we have? You're right, none! Congress could fix this, but members owe a lot to those corporations, because of Citizens United, that can pump huge amounts of unreported funds into campaigns and PACs. I'd like to see this fixed.
20 years ago I painted this house with a 2" brush, 10 years later I painted my garage apartment, (looks like a barn). 8 years ago I would climb on the roof and clean out the gutters. Today I am not physically capable.
I would be glad to pay a handyman to clean my gutters and do some odd jobs, but there are none, not even the local Hispanics that tend my neighbors property and winery, or do odd jobs for the two local contractors.
We have a large Texmo building that is almost 50 years old, it is 6,000 square feet and dirty, I had a local handyman come out look at it and he said he would give me an estimate in a couple of days to pressure wash it and clean my gutters, that was over a week ago and haven't heard a thing from him.
People are so well off now that they pick and choose their jobs. Also supply of manual jobs, exceeds the supply of people willing to do the jobs.
My buildings are falling into disrepair because I can't find anyone to work.
I wanted my septic tank and drain field inspected and it took three weeks for the inspection. that's longer than it takes to make a Doctor's appointment.
There is a shortage of labor, a shortage of people willing or able to do the job.
William, I understand there is a shortage of labor, but what do you say is the cause and what might be a good solution? We used to depend on immigrants coming here to find a safer life for themselves and their families, but both political parties don't want THOSE people here. Pay in many places is improving but where there is competition, workers are going for those who pay best, as one should expect. I know monopolies love the fact that they have the pay rates sewn up because all the corporations pay the same and it usually is not a very good pay rate. This is a challenge for all of us.
I am not so sure that there is a shortage of labor, just a shortage of people willing to do the job for the wages offered.
I live on an island of 10,000 people and can't find anyone that is willing to do odd jobs, there are no carpenters except one dude who uses a punk, and who doesn't have a license with labor and industries.
I got a bid from a guy who does pressure washing and he wants $6,000 for washing my Texmo building, $1100 to clean the gutter on my house and my garage apartment, and pressure wash the roof of the garage apartment.
Another handyman was suppose to show up at 1:00 to give us an estimate on another job, it is now 3:00 and he hasn't shown.
As to how to fill the labor need, if it is just labor, where no real skill is needed, I am all for immigrant labor, myself , even though they are natural allies of the Gilead men. Whatever influence they might have, what ever energy and money they add to the Gileads's will be long after I am gone. It will take 10 or more years before they become citizens, and I will be dead or not caring.
The real need from my point of view are skilled mechanics, carpenters, handymen, plumbers, electricians and they are in short supply.
Until the guy who just painted my house, moved here last month, he had to contend with the rat race, that is on the mainland. His mortgage was finally paid off, he made enough selling it to purchase a new home, improve it on this island. and have enough left over to live off until his business built up. He is lucky because he has no real competition,
Need an electrician, a plumber, a carpenter, odd jobs you are going to have to hire a business and pay their hourly rates.
When I was a married E-3 I mowed my landlady's lawn, tended her bushes, trimmed them, weeded them for $2,00, we saved it up for Xmas money.
The same job today would cost her $40.00
I don't know how to solve the shortage of skilled labor, or even unskilled labor,short of a depression,which would cost people their homes and livelihood.
Do you know what brought about the end of serfdom? The plague. It created such a shortage of labor, that serfs were able to leave the land of their lord and hire themselves out for decent wages.
Today we have a shortage of labor, but people are so well off that they can pick and choose what they will do or if they will do anything to feed themselves.
Yet they whine about inflation and such.
I don't have any solution. Vegetables rot in the field, fruit rots on the vine and falls to the ground to rot, because there is as shortage of labor.
The area surrounding Puyallup (Poo yal up) Washington raises raspberries, and at picking season, the schools close so the students can earn extra cash by picking berries.
I am sure that is going on all over the country. My supermarket is carrying fresh blackberries, while I can pick the own my own property. I have a golden plum tree and almost ripe plums are falling to the ground,with luck the deer and raccoons will eat them.
States that have poultry farms,like Arkansas have passed laws that permit kids under 18 to process chickens. I doubt that they are cutting them up, but the defeathering process is wicked and dangerous and has already killed one kid
In agrarian (red) states we are headed in that direction.
Lax safety standards led to a 16-year-old worker getting pulled into a machine at a poultry plant in Hattiesburg, Mississippi — the second fatality at the facility in just over two years, the Department of Labor said on Tuesday. The machine was probably a defeathering device, it is a rotating drum with rubber "hands".
If food processors paid union scale wages, the prices would be such that we would complain about inflation.
It was more expensive to keep slaves, than it would have been to free them and hire them back at market wages, what stopped them was the fear of slave revolts, and armed former slaves, the Nat Turner rebellion was fresh in their minds.
I am not advocating for or against anything, just recounting some history and facts.
William, that may be true, so why aren't the wages going up where you are if there really are that many people looking for work? People will work hard if they will get something sufficient to live for their efforts. I worked a lot of low-paying jobs because that was what was available to a visually-impaired woman, even one with a master's degree. I don't regret the work, but I did resent it when others not working on the grants I had were making a whole lot more for doing essentially the same work. People really are tired of the dismissive attitude of employers and want better.
I have no idea what wages are in my neck of the woods, I do know that young folk, leave here when they graduate from high school, because there is no industry here, save the tourist industry
Ruth, to illustrate your point from my experience (actually my friend's)... I was helping my friend enroll in a class. He assiduously followed the procedures to get into the school, completing the enrollment process at the end of which he was supposed to receive a PIN number to help him enroll in that class. He received the PIN number by email, but when he used it to enroll in that class, it didn't work. So he replied to the email & other school authorities, explaining it didn't work, & he got a bunch of automatic replies referring him to other entities (each other), none of which were actual people. He then found an actual person to email, who I think referred him to someone else. Not sure if he finally got it resolved, but I haven't heard from him about it in the last couple of days, so he probably did. He fell from 3rd on the waiting list for the class when he initially applied to 9th by the time he emailed the human. Such a simple matter made so much more complex & frustrating by the lack of human contact!
Jaime, that's the problem, corporations don't want to pay for qualified customer service folks. They outsource the project which often means getting people who don't know the actual job, have a set of scripts that are supposed to fix everything (which most of the time they don't), and there is the language barrier (not the fault of the employees; they just need a job). Then, there's the AI which is not ready for prime time, but is widely used. The worst or best as a joke. Press ___ for ___ and when that is pressed, press _____ for ___. That can go on for quite a while. None of the options is to speak with a real person. I try the hit 0 trick to reach a person, but it usually does not work anymore. I actually did get someone to help me to fix a mess the company had made, and was so pleased after getting a run-around for a couple of hours that I sent a commendation to her. I admit I was surprised the company actually had such an option.
Ruth some immigrants, mostly Jews, came here to escape persecution, most others came here because they were poor, had no economic opportunity and sent remittances back to their families
You are right about outsourced Jobs and I blame George W Bush whose administration drew up NAFTA and GATT and Bill Clinton for signing NAFTA and GATT, they knew who really ran USA Inc, who the investors were, Wall Street and the Chamber of Commerce including National Association of Manufacturers.
The problem is the structure of our economy. There was a time when a corporation to receive and renew their charter had to prove that they were operating in the public interest but in 1919 in Michigan, Dodge v Ford Motor Company, the court ruled that the only job of a corporation was to produce a return on investment for the shareholder.
Earlier John Davidson Rockefeller, was unhappy with the corporate charter which was pretty much standard in all states, and let out word that he would move his corporation (Standard oil) to the state that had the most favorable corporate charter. Thus began the Charter wars, you won't find them on wikipedia,
New Jersey won, and Rockefeller moved to Standard Oil of NJ. Delaware saw that and made their charter law more appealing and is now the home of over 600 corporations, mostly financial, insurance and chemical. The Delaware Senators are known as the Senators from Wall Street, and our president once carried that epithet as well.
Money has always ruled politics, because you don't get elected, not even to city council, without the backing of local businesses, and someone paying to print those signs you see along city and county roadways on on lawns, and buy ads in local papers.
Citizens United merely opened the flood gates and invalidated many campaign restrictions,though some still exist.
Professor Reich: thanks for sharing this small bit of the truth with the hedonists oligarch-wannabes in the crowd. i thought this relationship between the lack of competition and rising prices was obvious but apparently some people with deeply greedy agendas need the truth spelled out for them -- too bad they can't read.
We can legislate greed the same way we legislate speed. We have been warned that if we try to the intelligent enterprises they willl move away to another country, more lenient to their greed. Perhaps it's not such a bad thing?
Thank you for this information. Knowledge is power and the more people understand this economy, the better we can break up the monopolies. This is where public education needs to help students understand the why's behind where we as a country are.
How many times do we need to learn the same lesson over and over again. AT&t was charging dollarsper minute... we broke them up and the cost came down to pennies.
Yes and rhen capitalism sponsored a bloom of competitors and the tech revolution in wireless and now we text rather than talk and my phone bill for tge 2 of us and our "devices" is >$200/mo with so many uninterpretable fees and charges that the "help" in Hyderabad can't explain it either. Thank you Ronald Reagan. I yearn for Ma Bell. Once I tried to explain a party line to a Gen Z. I told her that was better than the pay phone with the bowl of nickles in my grandmother's apartment. I was grateful however that my clumsy thumbs would soon be replaced by total voice activation on my stupid blue tooth enabled smart phone.
I have two cell phones. I pay $20 a month for each and that includes unlimited data. Try consumer cellular if you're paying ridiculous places like that.
Yep! I have two observations that I believe increase inflation. I agree that increasing interest rates is not the best way to curb Inflation. I believe that RR's solution to stop monopolies is essential. Also, tax corporate investment home buying, a renewable energy policy, and taxing non-essential energy use, like cryptomining, will help address the root causes of inflation.
High oil prices drives up inflation because crop production costs more at every stage: planting, growing with fertilizer, and product delivery to retailers. The few food makers and markets pass the costs on and increase prices knowing consumers have few options due to grocery store monopolies. Prices are easily fixed when consumers have few choices. In many places, consumers have only one or two choices.
However, increased oil prices alone do not account for the drastic price hikes alone. The monopoly of grocery stores are a significant factor. Since we all eat, the higher price of food reaches all families.
Before the pandemic, a pack of lunch meat at WalMart was $3.50 and an Amy's frozen dinner was $3.35. Today, that same lunch meat is $5, and the Amy's meal is $6.50 or more.
Think about how many cases, or boxs, of these items fit on a truck. Let's say a box holds 20 packages, or units. Now think about how many boxes can fit on a truck. The first row can be 10 boxes high by 10 boxes wide for 100 boxes in a row. This stacking can go 30 rows back for 3000 boxes. Each box has 20 packages, so 60,000 units in a truck.
At $3.35/unit, a truck had $201,000 worth of product before COVID. Now then, 60,000 at today's price of $6.50 is $390,000! That's one truck!
Most all of Amy's products are vegetarian! Are you going to tell me that the cost of beans and rice has doubled? The increased price of fuel does not account for this huge price increase. It's not increased fertilizer costs because it's all organic. Only corporate greed accounts for this price hike that's blamed on inflation.
In fairness, my estimated numbers of units/box, box/row, and rows/truck could could be very wrong. However, I tried to be conservative and round down on everything. It's possible many more units are fit in one row.
Housing costs and affordable housing are also pointed to as a consequence of inflation. I believe two underreported factors are driving these dilemmas. Like eating, everyone needs housing so the issue effects everyone. If you don't own, this issue is major.
One, corporations buying up existing properties for rentals investments. With corporations buying up properties with cash offers, buying a home is becoming impossible. This creates more demand on rentals and prices increase. It's a vicious cycle for people living paycheck to paycheck.
Two, the cost of new construction is up because a large percentage of materials are being used to replace existing housing that has been destroyed by environmental disasters driven by climate change.
In 2016, an area bigger than Houston flooded after taking a double whammy from a hurricane. Houston is huge! Many thousands of homes and apartments were damaged by flooding.
How in the world did they get enough drywall and wood to rebuild? The next year, Baton Rouge flooded. Then Florida. In West, wild fires destroyed homes that needed to be replaced.
IMO, rebuilding existing housing destroyed by the consequences of climate change is consuming a lot of building materials and causing higher costs of building supplies. While I'm not a build market expert, these facts will certainly contribute to a shortage of supplies and higher prices.
IMO, the real costs of climate change are underestimated. Having a fossil fuel economy is creating climate change that is causing higher food and housing costs. It's amazing to me that Republicans and Trump are hell bent on fossil fuels and "drill baby drill." Talk about short-sighted.
I'm not saying investing in renewable energy today will solve these problems tomorrow. I am saying that these housing and nutrition problems are being driven by an out-dated energy policy and we need to make changes for the future. Increasing interest rates makes it impossible for first many people to buy a home. All these factors are inflating the housing prices. What if inflation is not the cause of inflation, it's the effect of corporate greed and environmental disasters driven by climate change.
Indeed, renewable energy will lessen the demand for fossil fuels, decrease dependence on a volatile oil market, and lessen the looming climate change, climate disasters and climate collapse. A gallon of gas increases $.30 overnight when a storm hit the Gulf. That's not a supply issue; that's corporate greed!
In closing, energy conservation is important. AI is consumes 10x more energy to run servers. Cryptomining uses tons of energy. Why? So a computer can speculate for us, think for us, store more of our consumer data to sell us more products? It's ridiculous. How much energy conservation is needed just to offset the energy used by AI and crypto mining? I will tell you. A lot and more than necessary.
I propose that we tax corporations and data mining companies using energy for non-essential purposes. Heating, cooling, transportation and food production are essential. I propose that we tax companies buying up housing as an investment. I propose that we study ways to make new housing materials more available and affordable.
Two things are certain. Biden has made the USA greater by having a 21st century energy policy and investing in alternative energy, supporting labor, and addressing monopolies. Trump wants to go back to a 20th century energy policy and deregulation that makes us less safe, drives food prices up, drives housing prices up, and increases climate change that is making the planet unliveable.
Damn right, Danny high oil prices do contribute to,but don't cause, inflation. Because we don't have alternatives. Our alternative in America is limited to the local gas station and it's competitor, but it is he owner or franchise that takes it in the shorts, not the oil company
Karl Marx partner, Frederick Engels, inherited a textile mill, but because South Carolina cotton was so expensive (feeding clothing, guarding, entertaining, preaching, housing slaves is not cheap), Engels had to use the inferior but cheaper Egyptian cotton. So Marx wrote letters to southern editors imploring them to free the slaves and hire them back at Market Wages, thus produce cheaper cotton for Fred (He was. after all, a free trader)
We do have an alternative, but our Oil Companies are part of an international cabal, we produce more oil than we consumer, so Exxon Mobil exports oil and gas, and then turns around and imports oil . this keeps the export import market ginned up and profits flowing.
A solution is to enact legislation (which will never happen) that puts an export tariff on oil, the same way that Henry VII forced England to become a textile manufacturer. He put an export tariff on raw wool, which was Englands major export, and when Henry VII took the crown off Richard III's dead head on Bosworth field, England was the poor man of Europe, the roads had pot holes that could swallow an ox and cart. By the time his son became King, England was so wealthy that Henry VIII could build the most expensive and heavily armed ship at the time, the Mary Rose, and the nobility demanded that he pass a law prohibiting commoners from dressing like nobility (the Sumptuary law)
And If I am correct we don't need congress, because Trump imposed tariffs all on his own, so Biden can impose tariffs., but Exxon won't like it, anymore than they liked Chavez from thinking that Venezuelan oil belong to Venezuela and not Exxon Mobil, and they tried to do to him, what BP, Shell andESSO did to Mosssadegh of Iran.
There seems to be quite the disconnect between price of crude and price at the pump. More important, inflation at grocery stores is obviously not tied to the cost of fuel but rather to other costs, mostly increased cost of labour, cost of fertilizers and taxes.
Most that whine about the rising costs of products are the same sort that want higher wages, more taxes, more government etc.
An old tired saying, I know, but they ain't no free lunch.
why do you think the big corporate money is behind Trump? Things have to be rebalanced; deregulation, continued consolidation, and more corporate welfare and tax cuts is exactly what we don't need.
Thank you, again, for pointing out the obvious. I happen to know a local massive food producer with national distribution whose profits are so high he can buy, maintain and use private jets, planes and helicopters. Has for years. Maybe his wholesale prices are too high, resulting in ever higher retail prices at the grocery stores listed by Mr. Reich? Yes! Corporate greed must be managed.
Producers control supply, and thus control demand, and thus cause prices to rise, when demand, like the demand for food, is inelastic. The demand and supply bit only works in the face of elastic demand.
BTW, The world is addicted to debt, and as result the demand for debt is inelastic.
People are also addicted to food, because it keeps us from starving, thus the demand for food is also inelastic.
Demand for what. Some demand is elastic, some demand is inelastic and for some things the only way to sell them (they are called unsought goods) is to convince the consumer that they want and need them. The art of door to door salesmen and advertising.
So what demand are you talking off. Looks like Karl Marx never took marketing 101, or Econ 101 and 102.
With a Business degree from a major public university you can be assured I've read several Econ books. More importantly, I've worked much of a career in businesses where the owners and top executives were compensated quite well and we, the workers who earned that compensation for them, struggled. My suggestion; you begin talking to yje workers of large companies. Enough said, no more responses .
Thanks for that overview of what is really going on related to inflation. The problem, as I see it is that people assume inflation is the fault of whoever is president; it isn't, but that's what sticks in the heads of a lot of voters. They don't seem to want to blame the real culprits because it is their beloved businesses and those people wouldn't screw the American people, would they? Yes, folks they would and do regularly. We need more antitrust actions and the threat of them so businesses will cool their ardor for scamming the American people and blaming the results of their bad behavior on Joe Biden who has been working to bring down prices and call out the perpetrators of the scams. We need a lot more effort poured into this problem.
Although the root cause is being ignored. Just as we have seat belts and speed limits imposed as guard rails by government to keep us safe from our excessive need for speed, we need the same for our excessive need for greed.
One man because of his ability to con, manipulate, leverage
and control others does not get to be rewarded for his behavior with tens of billions of dollars yearly.
If entrepreneurs want to play in our sandbox due to the freedoms and protections our country affords them...they need to contribute to supporting that extraordinary support system. Greed does and will destroys that system as it has in the past. We need to break the time wasting/destructive cycle. Curb greed trough government legislation...let's let the adults install limits where limits are required.
If only Americans truly understood the meaning of autocracy and what it represents, then this level of inflation would not be a major concern with respect to the upcoming election.
Oh my goodness! Professor Reich, I would love to see guardrails put back in place to prevent these monopolistic corporations from price gouging! The increase in homelessness would slow down and people would be able to put groceries on the table. It absolutely boggles my mind that the orange man's cult cannot see why prices are so high and that he is the reason! They think our economy was better under him and that is simply not true! He will not help them but they just don't see it! He's like the pied piper! He plays his hypnotic tune and they are mesmerized into following and believing every single one of his lies! While I understand what is happening with these giant corporations, I have had to learn how to squeeze that nickel a little harder. There are ways to get by but it can be quite hard for an old woman living alone. I want Vice-President Harris to get elected and keep our country moving in the direction President Biden was going. I want her to build off of the successes he made. I want a blue deluge in November! Vote Blue, America! Lotus for POTUS!
In my little city bungalow I put in solar panels and most days I send more kwh to the power company than I use. My carbon footprint is teensy and my utilities bill is too. I have a sunny patch next to the house where I stick seeds in the ground in late April, never spray, fertilize or weed it. Water it when wilty and get enough veggies for 2 June through November. The city doesn't permit chickens so I still have to go to the grocery store but not that often.
Way to go, Miriam! I, too, have found other ways to get what I need rather than give money to these corporations. I shop at Aldi's, Ollie's, Sav-a-Lot, Farmer's Markets and produce stands. I go to U-picks for fruits. I have my tiny little herb garden and a cherry tomato bush. There are so many ways to get by without giving money to these greedy corporations.
I wanted to do that as well , until I got a price $52,000 and they would have to dig a 100 ft long trench to my transformer, kill my plum tree, and they said that they would finance me for 25 years. I am 85 and will die in debt, probably have to remortgage my home,. which is paid off. Now if I could find someone to do the job for $5,000.
Thank you for this series, Robert Reich! I hope Kamala Harris gets elected, because she is likely to be on the problem solving side of this monopoly and power abuse by Corporations.
There is also another elephant in the room. On average what are we up to now? 7 or 8 'entities' control 80% of each of those markets in the U.S.? And let's not forget to add our 'free press' to that list. Not to be too cynical, but I’m guessing that the ‘wants’ of the stockholders are prioritized long before the ‘needs’ of the Republic are even considered. Collusion? Hell, a couple of 4-somes at Pebble Beach will take care of hiding that minor issue.
All corporations have boards of directors, even privately owned boards, do a deep dive (via google) and you will find interlocking boards of directors, media, oil companies, defense industries, pharmaceuticals, transportation, health.
And the major institutional investors, especially in the so called liberal media) are Vanguard, Black Rock and State street.
I'm not sure that I understand what you are saying. So, are you arguing that because all of these people know each other from all of their interlocking boards of directors in all of those industries they DON'T collude to manipulate the economy? Or, even worse, that they don't play GOLF??
I do not know whether or not all of those people know each other, but I am pretty sure that if invitations were sent out to some gala, most of them would should up.
They don't have to collude in a smoke filled room, they draw their salaries and income from stocks from the corporations and industries that they control.
Because ultimate control of a corporation lies with the Board of Directors, and then with the chairman of the board. It is they that hire the Chief Executive, Chief of Operations, Chief of Finance, etc and it is to the board that they answer.
If you are curious, really seriously curious, google who owns MSNBC, then you will get the results of NBCUniversal, google that and see what results you get, then google those results, and keep going until you can't go any deeper. Do the same for CNN, this one I have memorized, you bore down to Advance Publications, and you will see what magazines and papers they own and even TV stations. Then check out Advance Publications and you get to the Newhouse family, then go to wikipedia and check out the Newhouse family or their founder Samuel Newhouse.
But before you do all of that go back to MSNBC, Board of Directors, then check out the member of each directors especially it's chairman, same for CNN of course or any cable or media company.
Be sure to check out the individual members of the Board of directors, many of them have their own wikipedia page, you will find that most of the are either CEO's or owners of their own companies, and sit on the boards of other companies.
It is exhausting, more exhausting than reading RR's articles and making comments, but it is illuminating.
Do they collude? They don't have to, they have their own self interest to safeguard.
Let's say that Robert Schitshispants is the Chairman of the Board of a cable news company, but he is also sits on the board, or is even the chairman of the board of Pissinyour hat Drug company, and also sits on the board of Imakeweapons company as well as Imasoakyour ass Petroleum company. What is to collude.
Corporations own corporations which own corporations, there are shell companies, and all corporations have a board of directors, even if they are fictional.
Back in 1983, to fulfill a class requirement, I created via the Secretary of
State of my state, a Non Profit, and I had to have three people to sign on as the Board of Directors.
Trump only blames Biden, and now Harris, for inflation along with government spending. He never mentions how much HE increased the national debt in his four miserable years in office!
Biden would have done the same or worse; in fact, he did in the form of vaccine mandates (mass murder). Trump prepared the Kool-Aid, but Biden forced it down our throats. https://timothywiney.substack.com/p/mental-midgets
So, one of these days, which you call a good time, people will be dropping dead by the billions. Our cells absorb strange bits of dna and RNA on a daily basis, but billions of us seem to survive that too.
Excellent try, Kathleen, but read his by-line, you'll never penetrate his misinformation. He's making money out of spouting nonsense and stringing together a load of words he looked up in a dictionary!! And really - back at him - let him go suck a lemon! It might go nicely with his red herring :))
Denial ain't just a river. Big Pharma profits are derived exclusively from thinking like yours. Unfortunately, you now place the rest of us at risk through shedding. mRNA is the new 2nd hand smoke. https://timothywiney.substack.com/p/extinction-level-event
Fed Chair Powell actually did the dirty work. Starting in March of 2020, the Fed purchased over $4 trillioon in market securities with their Quantitative Easing program over an 18 month period. Never in US history has that much new money been added to the economy is such a short period of time. It was a vain attempt to boost the economy for Trump in the 2020 election. It did boost the economy but not in time for the election.
Timothy, contrary to popular belief, the United States government doesn't print money to pay it's bills. It does print Federal Reserve Notes, which it sells at cost of printing to the Federal Reserve for use by member banks to meet the needs of grocery stores, gamblers, side walk vendors and drug dealers.
They also print Government Securities when are then sold to the Associalition of Primary Dealers in Government Securities, who then sells them to the Fed , Institutions and overseas investors like central banks and Sovereign funds.
I explained this in my opening post to this thread. If interested hit ctr F, then search for William Farrar, if not found then load more and search again.
Proof that Republicans are not capitalist, they are pro-monopoly and anti taxes and regulations, and anti-democracy which are all required to maintain and preserve the essence of capitalism.
Monopoly is the ultimate goal of capitalism. Undercut the prices of your competitors and put them out of business or simply buy them out. Either way competition is reduced and prices and profits can be raised. That's why we have antitrust laws but they do no good if they are not enforced.
Interesting article. Trump will surely reverse any progress made regarding monopolies and pricing; as he is always for sale.
And that is an excellent reason to NOT vote for trump!
Of course. So how do we get through to those MAGA goonies?
Maybe not call them goonies, but try to show them one by one, there is no us & them...just we!
Of course you’re right, in principle. But that’s easier said than done. Ever try to talk to one of them? Like talking to a wall. Say something reasonable or try to talk sense to them with facts and all you get is a glassy-eyed stare and a self-satisfied smile if you’re lucky.
Yes, it is most difficult to do. I think back to Hilliary calling the rTrump fans The Basket of Deplorables, and thought that was the beginning of the deep divide. I felt she could have somehow not fallen into his trap that they are looked down on and HE spoke their lingo & was one of THEM. By now the cement has set, and talk & reasoning are, as you note, don't get any communicating accomplished. The hard thing for me is that many of the people in my family are for him, though, thank goodness, not racist, supremists, or extremists. But they came under the spell through religion. So, I can't lump them in with the bellicose ones, or call them names. All I can do is say I disagree if something is said (which isn't often) & not try to change their minds. That's no help in breaking the spell, but I refuse to let himvtell mevwho "we" are.
I’m sorry to hear that your family has been infested with Trumpism; I’m sure that’s difficult to deal with. I too, had been a fan of Hillary and thought she would have made a wonderful president. I heard her speak during a visit to Pittsburgh when she was campaigning and had the good fortune to speak with her after she was phenomenal. The room was packed yet when we spoke, It was as though she and I were the only people in the room. After that, I participated in several campaigns for her and was devastated when she lost. Although I think she was trying to be a proper lady when she debated Trump, I was disappointed that when Trump slinked up behind her to intimidate her, although I think she was trying to be a proper lady when she debated Trump, I was disappointed that when Trump slinked up behind her to intimidate her, I wanted to see her turn around and cripple him with her spike heels.
Sorry, but that divide was there since trump came down that stupid escalator. That is why we all just nodded and agreed with it. We were already tired of their lies and conspiracies and blame game.
If only they would believe it. But they don't. Believe me, I've tried before.
It is frustrating, they wont listen to anyone but them.
Im reading this substack so I have a more complete idea of various opinions. Has anyone here looked in a mirror? I registered as an independent decades ago because I was tired of hypocrites.
If anyone criticizes their party, they are stupid and "a threat to democracy" and they must automatically be FOR the other. Not true, but I anticipate all of the above.
Hillary had a private, illegal internet server that would have gotten anyone else sent to prison because it allowed foreign enemy access; approved the false Steele dossier and cost taxpayers over 32 million to find exactly what? This would make a great president?
I don't support Harris because she hid Biden's dementia and no one above has mentioned, nor can I find, any specific accomplishments. She flamed out last time because she was terrible, and that was according to Democrats! Why was that memory holed?
Why can't we hold all people to higher standards without being called names and assuming they must be stupid. Let's demand better, no matter the party.
Lying to the public is awful. Lying to yourself is worse.
Why don’t we keep the oil drilled in America in America? Putting that oil on the open market first with prices set by someone else, just doesn’t make sense to me. We are currently the world’s leading producer of oil. If we saved it for ourselves and only sold the excess on the open market would we not save money for our consumers and actually have energy independence? Trump lies about being energy independent when he was in office, in fact it was a lie. Don’t feel bad about explaining something stupid that I am missing, I do not care who is right, I care what is right. Thanks
The quicker we can move toward alternative energy sources, the better. Oil ought to be left in the ground, where it belongs.
As far as who or what Is being right, I can’t help thinking about the misuse of the word itself as in ‘right wing’, right equals might, etc. Semantics play a larger role than we accord them. The ‘right wing’ for me should be renamed, the ‘wrong’ wing’ or the extreme wing. Doing so might make people stop and think before they blindly follow such folly.
As of 2020, the US became a net exporter of oil - i.e. self-sufficient:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/191381/total-us-petroleum-net-imports-since-2000/
So it was true.
I keep seeing some that have converted away from maga politics Tennessee Brando is one I keep seeing on YouTube and or ticktock, if its not all AI bs 🤔
Anyone who steps away from MAGAville gets my thumbs up. When Kamala wins in November, there should be public bonfires to burn all that hideous MAGA merch.
Integrity, intelligence, inclusion, and we shine a bright light in the dark recesses.
Many of them won’t even listen to anything you say. If you can engage a non-1% Trump supporter, do not waste your time listing his many flaws. Instead explain how his policies work against their self-interest. Good luck.
If there were such a thing as time travel, imagine going back to Galileo’s time and trying convince the average schmo that the earth was not flat and that it revolved around the sun. The more things change the more they stay the same.
Unfortunately, the Trump voters that I know in my neighborhood aren't the ones reading these articles!💙💙💙💙💙💙💥
Throw in ignorance and unwillingness to learn. 400,000 more dead in the pandemic because of that. The list is too long to complete in any lifetime.
Already ordered a Madame President TShirt
BEAUTIFUL!!! I was HOPING she's use that slogan!
I find her optimism both appealing and refreshing
Vote blue up and down the ballot.
Yep! I have two observations that I believe increase inflation. I agree that increasing interest rates is not the best way to curb Inflation. I believe that RR's solution to stop monopolies is crucial. Also, tax corporate investment home buying, a renewable energy policy, and tax non-essential energy use, like cryptomining, will help the root causes of inflation.
High oil prices drives up inflation because crop production costs more at every stage: planting, growing with fertilizer, and product delivery to retailers. The few food makers and markets pass the costs on and increase prices knowing consumers have few options due to grocery store monopolies. Prices are easily fixed when consumers have few choices. In many places, consumers have only one or two choices.
However, increased oil prices alone do not account for the drastic food price hikes. The monopoly of grocery stores are a significant factor. Since we all eat, the higher price of food reaches all families.
Before the pandemic, a pack of lunch meat at WalMart was $3.50 and an Amy's frozen dinner was $3.35. Today, that same lunch meat is $5, and the Amy's meal is $6.50 or more.
Think about how many cases, or boxs, of these items fit on a truck. Let's say a box holds 20 packages, or units. Now think about how many boxes can fit on a truck. The first row can be 10 boxes high by 10 boxes wide for 100 boxes in a row. This stacking can go 30 rows back for 3000 boxes. Each box has 20 packages, so 60,000 units in a truck.
At $3.35/unit, a truck had $201,000 worth of product before COVID. Now then, 60,000 at today's price of $6.50 is $390,000! That's one truck!
Most all of Amy's products are vegetarian! Are you going to tell me that the cost of beans and rice has doubled? The increased price of fuel does not account for this huge price increase. It's not increased fertilizer costs because it's all organic. Only corporate greed accounts for this price hike that's blamed on inflation.
In fairness, my estimated numbers of units/box, box/row, and rows/truck could could be very wrong. However, I tried to be conservative and round down on everything. It's possible many more units are fit in one row.
Housing costs and affordable housing are also pointed to as a consequence of inflation. I believe two underreported factors are driving these dilemmas. Like eating, everyone needs housing so the issue effects everyone. If you don't own, this issue is major.
One, corporations buying up existing properties for rentals investments. With corporations buying up properties with cash offers, buying a home is becoming impossible. This creates more demand on rentals and prices increase. It's a vicious cycle for people living paycheck to paycheck.
Two, the cost of new construction is up because a large percentage of materials are being used to replace existing housing that has been destroyed by environmental disasters driven by climate change.
In 2016, an area bigger than Houston flooded after taking a double whammy from a hurricane. Houston is huge! Many thousands of homes and apartments were damaged by flooding.
How in the world did they get enough drywall and wood to rebuild? The next year, Baton Rouge flooded. Then Florida. In West, wild fires destroyed homes that needed to be replaced.
IMO, rebuilding existing housing destroyed by the consequences of climate change is consuming a lot of building materials and causing higher costs of building supplies. While I'm not a build market expert, these facts will certainly contribute to a shortage of supplies and higher prices.
IMO, the real costs of climate change are underestimated. Having a fossil fuel economy is creating climate change that is causing higher food and housing costs. It's amazing to me that Republicans and Trump are hell bent on fossil fuels and "drill baby drill." Talk about short-sighted.
I'm not saying investing in renewable energy today will solve these problems tomorrow. I am saying that these housing and nutrition problems are being driven by an out-dated energy policy and we need to make changes for the future. Increasing interest rates makes it impossible for first many people to buy a home. All these factors are inflating the housing prices. What if inflation is not the cause of inflation, it's the effect of corporate greed and environmental disasters driven by climate change.
Indeed, renewable energy will lessen the demand for fossil fuels, decrease dependence on a volatile oil market, and lessen the looming climate change, climate disasters and climate collapse. A gallon of gas increases $.30 overnight when a storm hit the Gulf. That's not a supply issue; that's corporate greed!
In closing, energy conservation is important. AI is consumes 10x more energy to run servers. Cryptomining uses tons of energy. Why? So a computer can speculate for us, think for us, store more of our consumer data to sell us more products? It's ridiculous. How much energy conservation is needed just to offset the energy used by AI and crypto mining? I will tell you. A lot and more than necessary.
I propose that we tax corporations and data mining companies using energy for non-essential purposes. Heating, cooling, transportation and food production are essential. I propose that we tax companies buying up housing as an investment. I propose that we study ways to make new housing materials more available and affordable.
Two things are certain. Biden has made the USA greater by having a 21st century energy policy and investing in alternative energy, supporting labor, and addressing monopolies. Trump wants to go back to a 20th century energy policy and deregulation that makes us less safe, drives food prices up, drives housing prices up, and increases climate change that is making the planet unliveable.
#BuildBackBetter
#BuildBackGreen
#BoycottXadvertisers
#boycottTESLA
Right. IMHO the main "source" is the OPEC monopoly that has been undermining our economy since 1973. It's also a national security failure. OPEC has v]been finding Saudis purchase of much of our asses (think EXXON), Iran Russia and their proxy wars in places like the Ukraine, Syria, Gaza, etc.
At one time this was a bipartisan issue. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Oil_Producing_and_Exporting_Cartels_Act
Daniel, Jaime is correct. the sentence should read OPEC is funding Saudi's purchase of much of our asses, And via the Association of Primary Dealers in Government Securities it has been using American dollars (aka Petrodollars) to purchase large blocks of our government securities, along with China, Central banks and sovereign funds that is why the American Dollar is the world's reserve, and the American (Fed) reserve is our government securities, corporate bonds and checking accounts)
Daniel, you might like to proofread your post, especially the sentence starting with "OPEC", & correct your typographical errors.
Right. Should be assets, not asses....
I was negligently multitasking.....https://danielsolomon.substack.com/p/pet-owners-unite
Don't we all!!! GH
This shows just how addicted to fossil fuels ⛽️ our country is.
And it’s not only OPEC who has driven up energy prices. Texas based independent Pioneer Natural Resources, now merged into Exxon, conspired with OPEC to fix prices and tried to get other independents to go along with the scheme.
“In a blockbuster civil settlement reached in May, the Federal Trade Commission revealed that the former CEO of Texas’ largest oil drilling company sent hundreds of text messages to OPEC representatives, allegedly intending to hold down oil production.”
Price-fixing case shows need for aggressive Big Oil investigations | The Seattle Times
Also driving up fuel and food prices is the demand for oil created by corporate farming's intensive ag practices that uses lots of pestices and herbicides. It's not inflation, it's corporate greed.
But that's an essay for another day. Watch, "OMG GMO's."
WELL SAID ! 💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙
I like to remind folks of a Fortune magazine article -- September 24, 2018, by Glenn Fleishman titled as follows: "Trump Rolls Back Train-Braking Rule Meant to Keep Oil Tankers from Exploding Near Communities."
And then the pandemic hit. Trump had already disbanded the nation's pandemic response team and threw away the "response playbook." He allowed our eyes and ears IN China to come home without replacing them.
MAGA tried to destroy our country; they are now in the process of destroying themselves.
That's a great point. Ohio had a huge train explosion after Trump's deregulation that caused major damage to the community. Trump stated in the debate that deregulation is how to build the community. Vance thinks so too, despite what happened in his state. This should definitely be addressed in the opening comments of the VP debate. Thanks, Thomas!
Deregulation is not the answer
Deregulation caused the savings and loan scandal Deregulation all but sunk the big three auto manufacturers, the Obama bailouts, on and on Ragan almost sunk the country and Bush nearly finished it off .
Obama saved us, but we still should bolster the anti-trust laws.
Maybe it's about time to build some RR tracks thru Mara Lago and a few of his golf courses. Cheers... GH
With MAGA it is priorities, the only thing of importance is maintaining masculine supremacy. Liberals, feminazis, queers, non Christians, even people of color have to be kept in their place, everything else is irrelevant, after all god will protect and provide. /s
Everyone has their own pet idea on why Rome fell and it all depends on their identity and ideology.
Rome still exists, it still rules over half the planet from Rome never the less, only it exists in sectarian form not secular form.
As regards my masculinity I a retired special operations team leader, 26 years and Viet Nam and the 2nd Korean war under my belt.
Masculiniity has it's place and it's importance, but not in patriarchal form, those days are long gone, and society has evolved, and what we are experiencing is the dying gasp of the patriarchy as we move towards a more eqalitarian society and world.
I've heard arguments for a matriarchy, and those are as bullshit as patriarchy.
Women can be as bad ass as men if that is what you think of as masculinity.
Xerxes favorite General/Admiral was a woman,she even build a bridge over the Bosporus strait.
A Chinese Woman Led the Largest and Most Successful Pirate Fleet in History. Sometimes called, Zheng Yi Sao or "Wife of Zheng Yi," she's known to history as Ching Shih for what she accomplished once he died
According to Pliny the Sarmatians required of their women to fight in battle and slay a foe to win the right to marriage, and the many kurgans in the steppes which housed the remains of warrior women are proof.
And it was Boudicea Queen of the Icenes, that came close to driving the Romans out of Britain.
Phyisologically women make better SEALS than men, because they are better able to stand pain, the cold and make better long distance swimmers, and they are better fighter pilots because the have a lower center of gravity and faster reflexes than men and can more easily withstand high G forces, but what they don't have is the bone and muscle mass of men, but with 26 years of humping rucks and jumping with weapons and full equipment, I am hear to tell you that muscle and bone mass are nothing, the only muscle that counts is between the ears, and brute jocks are lacking in that department. I can train a chimp to hump a rucksack and an squad weapon, but I can't train him to make an instant assessment of the situation and make a decision.
Okay now we're birching on absolute silly. Or, is it absolute BS.
And may they finish the job soon!
Amen! ... and may we NOT get in their way as they assemble their circular firing squad.
Your lips to god’s ears!
Make progress. Register more Democrats.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Especially register more Democrats in Pennsylvania. Harris needs to win there to win the White House.
Working on it. Texting to Pa and Ohio tomorrow on FT 6 textarcade.
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ft6arcade24
Yes she does
Unfortunately, your opinion is not based on any facts and your last sentence tells us exactly who you are and how mistaken you seem to be. The GOP 's famous tax cuts are responsible for taking money away from the people. It is simple Economics 101.
An example of what Reich is discussing is the increase in average hotel room rates since the pandemic ended. We are on vacation and have had a hassle with fees that can't be canceled added to our bill and being booked twice for the same room and same hotel. We were double charged and the fees added almost doubled the cost of one of the bookings. We tried to book in another hotel and swore never to stay at Choice Hotels again. But then we learned that 22 different hotel brands are now under Choice Hotels. The cost has risen so much that this will probably be our last vacation.
The reason that the hotels and airlines do that is because we have so much discretionary spending that we can afford to take vacations and fly and rent hotel rooms.
It really is a supply and demand situation. If there wasn't the demand, the prices would not go up, in fact they would go down.
There is elastic demand which responds to price and inelastic demand that will pay the price.
The shrinking candy bar, but it's rising price is an example. I am pre diabetic and not suppose to eat simple carbs, but a candy bar once in a while is a treat and doesn't throw off my blood glucose. I like Butterfingers, but when I checked out yesterday, I saw a price of $1.49 for this tiny little thing and I can afford it, (I wrote checks without borrowing to pay the house painter, yesterday, but I refuse to pay $1.49 for something that shouldn't cost more than $.25
I forgo a lot of guilty pleasures and discretionary spending, because I refuse to submit to robbery.
Farewell to the bottle of Fresca I used to get not so long ago for 99 cents. Now over 3 dollars. I won't pay that. (well, most of the time)
You're better off. Sodas are really bad for you. It's like liquid crack. Lol.
IT'S AN OCCASIONAL TREAT. ONLY FRESCA.
Is that from a vending machine. I drink Zevia, one can day with dinner. A six pack use to cost $5.99 now the price has bumped to $6.99 one more bump and I stop drinking Zevia. I do not drink anything with sugar, aspartame, or any chemical that ends on "ol". (Which means alcohol.
Agree on the drink prices. For the last few years we only drink water in restaurants unless it is a special occasion. Then we may pop for one glass of wine each. Used to get an ice tea for $1.25-$1.50. In our area it has gone up to at least $2.50 and some place are now charging up to $3.50... for a glass of colored water. I know several folks who own restaurants and they have to make money too, but this is getting out of hand. We support our local family owned places about 90% of the time.
Go Kamala... Cheers... GH
The big bottles at the supermarket. My wife worked at a hotshot law firm in DC in the 80's and looked at the files they had on aspartame. Troubling stuff so we have both avoided it.
Aspartame is addictive. And it actually causes diabetes and weight gain.
The body recognizes it as sugar (glucose) and the pancreas pumps out insulin like it is suppose to, the insulin attacks and wipes out the glucose in your body, and you become hypoglycemic, which you then take care of by ingesting sugary junk foods, and gain weight
It is nothing to watch someone push a grocery cart with a case of Diet Coke or Pepsi, and on top of the case is a case or two of Twinkies or some junk food.
It is addictive, and Coca Cola pays screen writers and movie producers to use the words Diet Coke, and Phillip Morris pays them to write scenes where actors are smoking.
I remember when you could stay at some motels for under $10, & most motels for under $20 or $30. 10 years later it was hard to find anything under $30. Then they rose to around $60. Around 15 years ago, most of the cheaper motels hovered around $100. I shudder to think what they might be now.
Motel 6 got it's name because that is what they charged.
Exactly! Now what does it cost to spend a night there?
I have no idea Jaime, I would sleep in the car rather than spend a night in Motel 6, about 20 years ago my wife went to a professional conference for Building Officials, to save money she stayed in a Motel 6, and came home with scabies, it took a week and a silver ointment to get rid of them.
On the funny side, I remember complaining to my Dad when I was in HS (1960's!) about a price on some had gone way up. He explained inflation by saying, "when I was a boy (1920's) a loaf of bread was 5 cents". Got it. I guess we will never really get rid of inflation but hopefully it will stay as low as possible. Cheers... GH
Whoa, yes. We have to travel monthly for a medical shot for my husband. Trying to find even a dumpy but safe motel room
in creepy, ugly Redding CA now costs close to $200...insanity. We'll just stress and drive back home northward...& we're staunch senior democrats, by the by. Go Kamala !!
Kathi, watch the documentary "What the health." Sometimes doctors don't know what's best. I wish y'all the best.
drumpf the seller of 'bunk' to the voting public, drumpf bought by Musk and the oligarchs who own the economy, to the rest of our society's detriment. Kamala must continue to 'bust up' the
big-money players. Pick up a copy of 'American Oligarchy' by Thom Hartmann.
We are in Mauritius in the tourism industry and wholly dependent on Google for our promotions and advertising. Since we joined in 2016, Google has forced up our contribution 10 fold, and their service is non-existent now. In 2016 as a Google One Member I had direct access to a Google adviser 24/7. Now their website sends me around on a circular pattern without an end or any assistance.
Jill, I am not in business, but when I am contacting businesses I have to deal with, the run-around is pretty common. It didn't used to be that way, but so many of the jobs if there are jobs are outsourced to people in other countries who are not familiar with life here. That is not to say that they aren't any good but that they are in over their heads and that our utilities should be hiring local people for tech support and other help and that there should be people, real people, not botts to fix problems. I am sure some of the problems getting back up and running with this past week's crash was due to insufficient IT folks to make the necessary changes to fix the mistake. Corporations want the huge profits for themselves and their shareholders, often the same people, they don't see the need to do things right.
I remember calling a help line for a computer issue a few years ago. I could NOT understand the person who was supposed to help me. I got so frustrated that I told him in SLOW words that I wanted to speak to someone I could understand. That was the case on many customer "service" numbers. I am impressed by the occasional number I call that gets me to someone I can understand.
Some companies actually offer online chat boxes, which are helpful because you get a pretty quick response and don’t have to speak to anyone except by typing. Even so, I miss the days when you could actually call the helpline for a problem and speak to a real honest to goodness human being that speaks English without an incomprehensible accent. That said, I do have empathy for all of those callbank people in India and other countries; they need jobs just like everyone else. Perhaps taxing the hell out of multinational companies who spread themselves globally would mitigate this problem?
Most chat boxes are now AI, and they suck.
This is why I loved my Discover card. I could get a person right away and one that I could understand and they knew their business. Now Discover has been bought. At this point, I have not noticed a change. But Discover was a company I could trust. Now, it’s wait and see.
I now block my calls, but occasionally one gets through, and even a legit company, like my CPAP supplier hires call centers. I can tell what nation a person is from instantly, and 99.9% are from India and the rest from the Philipinnes.
India is an overpopulated country, more so than China and getting worse every day, labor is cheap and the people are hungry. Most large corporations have moved their call centers and service departments to India.
These people are monitored constantly and work off a script which they must follow or they get fired.
I am deaf in the left ear, and have high frequency hearing loss in the right ear. I have the best hearing aids that money can buy, but don't wear them all of the time, because I don't need to wear them all of the time, I am retired, and I use ear phones for my computer and TV.
I share your problem, and when I get on the phone with one of those people, I keep asking them to repeat that they are saying and tell them that I am hard of hearing, until they transfer my call. Sometime though they just hang up
Businesses outsource help desk and IT - stupid idea - those are your company’s reputation - good help and service is what people remember - even Anthem Blue Cross outsourced their pharmacy for home delivery and I’ve had nothing but problems when reaching them and speaking to representatives- they do not follow thru on system problems and updates - I’ve had to switch back to local pharmacies to get my prescriptions on time - why can’t big corp see outsourcing to 3rd world help desks is a major MISTAKE - keep the jobs here.
Susan, the problem is that with monopolies, corporations can outsource with no worries about customer satisfaction because there are not many choices and they are all outsourcing. Those corporations know they can pay workers a third or less the price they would pay American workers and who cares whether the customer is properly helped or not. And, so many corporations own so many different kinds of companies they will just sell off any that customers don't like. It truly is a scam and We the People are the victims of it. I want the people in other nations to have decent jobs that pay a living wage, but not necessarily in customer service for companies in this country.
Big corporations do this because they simply don’t give a sh*t about us. We are just numbers on their bottom line or in Vietnam lingo,-faceless gooks. I don’t know what number I am, but it surely is no longer #1. As Facebook Instagram, et.al has proved We are not the customers or users, we are the product. Tough on the ego, isn’t it?
Because they don't have to....
or answering by machines or a.i.-if not now,soon
And after hiring only foreign countries for their help line and tech support they still continue to reap subsidies from my tax dollars. So basically I’m paying to get lousy service. Makes sense to me! Not!
Linda, this is a dilemma because people complain about government spending but don't realize just how much money goes to the huge corporations that donate to candidates to get those candidates to do whatever the corporation wants. For example, why are we subsidiseing fossil fuelers? In a climate crisis that makes no sense. We do that for other corporations too and pay outrageous contracts for weapons manufacturers and other industries too. Those other corporations don't care about customer relations, only profits and what recourse do we have? You're right, none! Congress could fix this, but members owe a lot to those corporations, because of Citizens United, that can pump huge amounts of unreported funds into campaigns and PACs. I'd like to see this fixed.
20 years ago I painted this house with a 2" brush, 10 years later I painted my garage apartment, (looks like a barn). 8 years ago I would climb on the roof and clean out the gutters. Today I am not physically capable.
I would be glad to pay a handyman to clean my gutters and do some odd jobs, but there are none, not even the local Hispanics that tend my neighbors property and winery, or do odd jobs for the two local contractors.
We have a large Texmo building that is almost 50 years old, it is 6,000 square feet and dirty, I had a local handyman come out look at it and he said he would give me an estimate in a couple of days to pressure wash it and clean my gutters, that was over a week ago and haven't heard a thing from him.
People are so well off now that they pick and choose their jobs. Also supply of manual jobs, exceeds the supply of people willing to do the jobs.
My buildings are falling into disrepair because I can't find anyone to work.
I wanted my septic tank and drain field inspected and it took three weeks for the inspection. that's longer than it takes to make a Doctor's appointment.
There is a shortage of labor, a shortage of people willing or able to do the job.
William, I understand there is a shortage of labor, but what do you say is the cause and what might be a good solution? We used to depend on immigrants coming here to find a safer life for themselves and their families, but both political parties don't want THOSE people here. Pay in many places is improving but where there is competition, workers are going for those who pay best, as one should expect. I know monopolies love the fact that they have the pay rates sewn up because all the corporations pay the same and it usually is not a very good pay rate. This is a challenge for all of us.
I am not so sure that there is a shortage of labor, just a shortage of people willing to do the job for the wages offered.
I live on an island of 10,000 people and can't find anyone that is willing to do odd jobs, there are no carpenters except one dude who uses a punk, and who doesn't have a license with labor and industries.
I got a bid from a guy who does pressure washing and he wants $6,000 for washing my Texmo building, $1100 to clean the gutter on my house and my garage apartment, and pressure wash the roof of the garage apartment.
Another handyman was suppose to show up at 1:00 to give us an estimate on another job, it is now 3:00 and he hasn't shown.
As to how to fill the labor need, if it is just labor, where no real skill is needed, I am all for immigrant labor, myself , even though they are natural allies of the Gilead men. Whatever influence they might have, what ever energy and money they add to the Gileads's will be long after I am gone. It will take 10 or more years before they become citizens, and I will be dead or not caring.
The real need from my point of view are skilled mechanics, carpenters, handymen, plumbers, electricians and they are in short supply.
Until the guy who just painted my house, moved here last month, he had to contend with the rat race, that is on the mainland. His mortgage was finally paid off, he made enough selling it to purchase a new home, improve it on this island. and have enough left over to live off until his business built up. He is lucky because he has no real competition,
Need an electrician, a plumber, a carpenter, odd jobs you are going to have to hire a business and pay their hourly rates.
When I was a married E-3 I mowed my landlady's lawn, tended her bushes, trimmed them, weeded them for $2,00, we saved it up for Xmas money.
The same job today would cost her $40.00
I don't know how to solve the shortage of skilled labor, or even unskilled labor,short of a depression,which would cost people their homes and livelihood.
Do you know what brought about the end of serfdom? The plague. It created such a shortage of labor, that serfs were able to leave the land of their lord and hire themselves out for decent wages.
Today we have a shortage of labor, but people are so well off that they can pick and choose what they will do or if they will do anything to feed themselves.
Yet they whine about inflation and such.
I don't have any solution. Vegetables rot in the field, fruit rots on the vine and falls to the ground to rot, because there is as shortage of labor.
The area surrounding Puyallup (Poo yal up) Washington raises raspberries, and at picking season, the schools close so the students can earn extra cash by picking berries.
I am sure that is going on all over the country. My supermarket is carrying fresh blackberries, while I can pick the own my own property. I have a golden plum tree and almost ripe plums are falling to the ground,with luck the deer and raccoons will eat them.
States that have poultry farms,like Arkansas have passed laws that permit kids under 18 to process chickens. I doubt that they are cutting them up, but the defeathering process is wicked and dangerous and has already killed one kid
a child of 14 can perform some jobs https://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/whd/flsa/docs/haznonag.asp
In agrarian (red) states we are headed in that direction.
Lax safety standards led to a 16-year-old worker getting pulled into a machine at a poultry plant in Hattiesburg, Mississippi — the second fatality at the facility in just over two years, the Department of Labor said on Tuesday. The machine was probably a defeathering device, it is a rotating drum with rubber "hands".
If food processors paid union scale wages, the prices would be such that we would complain about inflation.
It was more expensive to keep slaves, than it would have been to free them and hire them back at market wages, what stopped them was the fear of slave revolts, and armed former slaves, the Nat Turner rebellion was fresh in their minds.
I am not advocating for or against anything, just recounting some history and facts.
William, that may be true, so why aren't the wages going up where you are if there really are that many people looking for work? People will work hard if they will get something sufficient to live for their efforts. I worked a lot of low-paying jobs because that was what was available to a visually-impaired woman, even one with a master's degree. I don't regret the work, but I did resent it when others not working on the grants I had were making a whole lot more for doing essentially the same work. People really are tired of the dismissive attitude of employers and want better.
I have no idea what wages are in my neck of the woods, I do know that young folk, leave here when they graduate from high school, because there is no industry here, save the tourist industry
Ruth, to illustrate your point from my experience (actually my friend's)... I was helping my friend enroll in a class. He assiduously followed the procedures to get into the school, completing the enrollment process at the end of which he was supposed to receive a PIN number to help him enroll in that class. He received the PIN number by email, but when he used it to enroll in that class, it didn't work. So he replied to the email & other school authorities, explaining it didn't work, & he got a bunch of automatic replies referring him to other entities (each other), none of which were actual people. He then found an actual person to email, who I think referred him to someone else. Not sure if he finally got it resolved, but I haven't heard from him about it in the last couple of days, so he probably did. He fell from 3rd on the waiting list for the class when he initially applied to 9th by the time he emailed the human. Such a simple matter made so much more complex & frustrating by the lack of human contact!
Jaime, that's the problem, corporations don't want to pay for qualified customer service folks. They outsource the project which often means getting people who don't know the actual job, have a set of scripts that are supposed to fix everything (which most of the time they don't), and there is the language barrier (not the fault of the employees; they just need a job). Then, there's the AI which is not ready for prime time, but is widely used. The worst or best as a joke. Press ___ for ___ and when that is pressed, press _____ for ___. That can go on for quite a while. None of the options is to speak with a real person. I try the hit 0 trick to reach a person, but it usually does not work anymore. I actually did get someone to help me to fix a mess the company had made, and was so pleased after getting a run-around for a couple of hours that I sent a commendation to her. I admit I was surprised the company actually had such an option.
A week later, we in NJ are STILL having computer issues! Bring the jobs back to the US where they belong!💩💩💩💩😡
Ruth some immigrants, mostly Jews, came here to escape persecution, most others came here because they were poor, had no economic opportunity and sent remittances back to their families
You are right about outsourced Jobs and I blame George W Bush whose administration drew up NAFTA and GATT and Bill Clinton for signing NAFTA and GATT, they knew who really ran USA Inc, who the investors were, Wall Street and the Chamber of Commerce including National Association of Manufacturers.
The problem is the structure of our economy. There was a time when a corporation to receive and renew their charter had to prove that they were operating in the public interest but in 1919 in Michigan, Dodge v Ford Motor Company, the court ruled that the only job of a corporation was to produce a return on investment for the shareholder.
Earlier John Davidson Rockefeller, was unhappy with the corporate charter which was pretty much standard in all states, and let out word that he would move his corporation (Standard oil) to the state that had the most favorable corporate charter. Thus began the Charter wars, you won't find them on wikipedia,
New Jersey won, and Rockefeller moved to Standard Oil of NJ. Delaware saw that and made their charter law more appealing and is now the home of over 600 corporations, mostly financial, insurance and chemical. The Delaware Senators are known as the Senators from Wall Street, and our president once carried that epithet as well.
Money has always ruled politics, because you don't get elected, not even to city council, without the backing of local businesses, and someone paying to print those signs you see along city and county roadways on on lawns, and buy ads in local papers.
Citizens United merely opened the flood gates and invalidated many campaign restrictions,though some still exist.
OUr Google call centre was in India, now it could be anywhere.
That is awful!!!!
😟
Professor Reich: thanks for sharing this small bit of the truth with the hedonists oligarch-wannabes in the crowd. i thought this relationship between the lack of competition and rising prices was obvious but apparently some people with deeply greedy agendas need the truth spelled out for them -- too bad they can't read.
We can legislate greed the same way we legislate speed. We have been warned that if we try to the intelligent enterprises they willl move away to another country, more lenient to their greed. Perhaps it's not such a bad thing?
Thank you for this information. Knowledge is power and the more people understand this economy, the better we can break up the monopolies. This is where public education needs to help students understand the why's behind where we as a country are.
How many times do we need to learn the same lesson over and over again. AT&t was charging dollarsper minute... we broke them up and the cost came down to pennies.
Yes and rhen capitalism sponsored a bloom of competitors and the tech revolution in wireless and now we text rather than talk and my phone bill for tge 2 of us and our "devices" is >$200/mo with so many uninterpretable fees and charges that the "help" in Hyderabad can't explain it either. Thank you Ronald Reagan. I yearn for Ma Bell. Once I tried to explain a party line to a Gen Z. I told her that was better than the pay phone with the bowl of nickles in my grandmother's apartment. I was grateful however that my clumsy thumbs would soon be replaced by total voice activation on my stupid blue tooth enabled smart phone.
I have two cell phones. I pay $20 a month for each and that includes unlimited data. Try consumer cellular if you're paying ridiculous places like that.
Yep! I have two observations that I believe increase inflation. I agree that increasing interest rates is not the best way to curb Inflation. I believe that RR's solution to stop monopolies is essential. Also, tax corporate investment home buying, a renewable energy policy, and taxing non-essential energy use, like cryptomining, will help address the root causes of inflation.
High oil prices drives up inflation because crop production costs more at every stage: planting, growing with fertilizer, and product delivery to retailers. The few food makers and markets pass the costs on and increase prices knowing consumers have few options due to grocery store monopolies. Prices are easily fixed when consumers have few choices. In many places, consumers have only one or two choices.
However, increased oil prices alone do not account for the drastic price hikes alone. The monopoly of grocery stores are a significant factor. Since we all eat, the higher price of food reaches all families.
Before the pandemic, a pack of lunch meat at WalMart was $3.50 and an Amy's frozen dinner was $3.35. Today, that same lunch meat is $5, and the Amy's meal is $6.50 or more.
Think about how many cases, or boxs, of these items fit on a truck. Let's say a box holds 20 packages, or units. Now think about how many boxes can fit on a truck. The first row can be 10 boxes high by 10 boxes wide for 100 boxes in a row. This stacking can go 30 rows back for 3000 boxes. Each box has 20 packages, so 60,000 units in a truck.
At $3.35/unit, a truck had $201,000 worth of product before COVID. Now then, 60,000 at today's price of $6.50 is $390,000! That's one truck!
Most all of Amy's products are vegetarian! Are you going to tell me that the cost of beans and rice has doubled? The increased price of fuel does not account for this huge price increase. It's not increased fertilizer costs because it's all organic. Only corporate greed accounts for this price hike that's blamed on inflation.
In fairness, my estimated numbers of units/box, box/row, and rows/truck could could be very wrong. However, I tried to be conservative and round down on everything. It's possible many more units are fit in one row.
Housing costs and affordable housing are also pointed to as a consequence of inflation. I believe two underreported factors are driving these dilemmas. Like eating, everyone needs housing so the issue effects everyone. If you don't own, this issue is major.
One, corporations buying up existing properties for rentals investments. With corporations buying up properties with cash offers, buying a home is becoming impossible. This creates more demand on rentals and prices increase. It's a vicious cycle for people living paycheck to paycheck.
Two, the cost of new construction is up because a large percentage of materials are being used to replace existing housing that has been destroyed by environmental disasters driven by climate change.
In 2016, an area bigger than Houston flooded after taking a double whammy from a hurricane. Houston is huge! Many thousands of homes and apartments were damaged by flooding.
How in the world did they get enough drywall and wood to rebuild? The next year, Baton Rouge flooded. Then Florida. In West, wild fires destroyed homes that needed to be replaced.
IMO, rebuilding existing housing destroyed by the consequences of climate change is consuming a lot of building materials and causing higher costs of building supplies. While I'm not a build market expert, these facts will certainly contribute to a shortage of supplies and higher prices.
IMO, the real costs of climate change are underestimated. Having a fossil fuel economy is creating climate change that is causing higher food and housing costs. It's amazing to me that Republicans and Trump are hell bent on fossil fuels and "drill baby drill." Talk about short-sighted.
I'm not saying investing in renewable energy today will solve these problems tomorrow. I am saying that these housing and nutrition problems are being driven by an out-dated energy policy and we need to make changes for the future. Increasing interest rates makes it impossible for first many people to buy a home. All these factors are inflating the housing prices. What if inflation is not the cause of inflation, it's the effect of corporate greed and environmental disasters driven by climate change.
Indeed, renewable energy will lessen the demand for fossil fuels, decrease dependence on a volatile oil market, and lessen the looming climate change, climate disasters and climate collapse. A gallon of gas increases $.30 overnight when a storm hit the Gulf. That's not a supply issue; that's corporate greed!
In closing, energy conservation is important. AI is consumes 10x more energy to run servers. Cryptomining uses tons of energy. Why? So a computer can speculate for us, think for us, store more of our consumer data to sell us more products? It's ridiculous. How much energy conservation is needed just to offset the energy used by AI and crypto mining? I will tell you. A lot and more than necessary.
I propose that we tax corporations and data mining companies using energy for non-essential purposes. Heating, cooling, transportation and food production are essential. I propose that we tax companies buying up housing as an investment. I propose that we study ways to make new housing materials more available and affordable.
Two things are certain. Biden has made the USA greater by having a 21st century energy policy and investing in alternative energy, supporting labor, and addressing monopolies. Trump wants to go back to a 20th century energy policy and deregulation that makes us less safe, drives food prices up, drives housing prices up, and increases climate change that is making the planet unliveable.
#BuildBackBetter
#BuildBackGreen
#BoycottXadvertisers
#boycottTESLA
Don't be like a troll, repeating yourself over and over. Edit your writing as well . . . it would certainly make for better reading!
Damn right, Danny high oil prices do contribute to,but don't cause, inflation. Because we don't have alternatives. Our alternative in America is limited to the local gas station and it's competitor, but it is he owner or franchise that takes it in the shorts, not the oil company
Karl Marx partner, Frederick Engels, inherited a textile mill, but because South Carolina cotton was so expensive (feeding clothing, guarding, entertaining, preaching, housing slaves is not cheap), Engels had to use the inferior but cheaper Egyptian cotton. So Marx wrote letters to southern editors imploring them to free the slaves and hire them back at Market Wages, thus produce cheaper cotton for Fred (He was. after all, a free trader)
We do have an alternative, but our Oil Companies are part of an international cabal, we produce more oil than we consumer, so Exxon Mobil exports oil and gas, and then turns around and imports oil . this keeps the export import market ginned up and profits flowing.
A solution is to enact legislation (which will never happen) that puts an export tariff on oil, the same way that Henry VII forced England to become a textile manufacturer. He put an export tariff on raw wool, which was Englands major export, and when Henry VII took the crown off Richard III's dead head on Bosworth field, England was the poor man of Europe, the roads had pot holes that could swallow an ox and cart. By the time his son became King, England was so wealthy that Henry VIII could build the most expensive and heavily armed ship at the time, the Mary Rose, and the nobility demanded that he pass a law prohibiting commoners from dressing like nobility (the Sumptuary law)
And If I am correct we don't need congress, because Trump imposed tariffs all on his own, so Biden can impose tariffs., but Exxon won't like it, anymore than they liked Chavez from thinking that Venezuelan oil belong to Venezuela and not Exxon Mobil, and they tried to do to him, what BP, Shell andESSO did to Mosssadegh of Iran.
William, you surely are a scholar.
World price of barrel of oil June 2008 $201
World price of barrel of oil June 2024 $81
Average price per gallon of gas June 2008 $4.40
Average price per gallon of gas June 2024 $3.57
There seems to be quite the disconnect between price of crude and price at the pump. More important, inflation at grocery stores is obviously not tied to the cost of fuel but rather to other costs, mostly increased cost of labour, cost of fertilizers and taxes.
Most that whine about the rising costs of products are the same sort that want higher wages, more taxes, more government etc.
An old tired saying, I know, but they ain't no free lunch.
Ovenpilot has to be an AI bot, because my comment had absolutely nothing to do with the price of crude.
I don't think you deal with reality. Crude oil has been much more expensive in past time.
https://www.macrotrends.net/1369/crude-oil-price-history-chart
Apples and oranges.
My comment had nothing to do with the price of crude, which is manipulated by OPEC (Saudi Arabia).
why do you think the big corporate money is behind Trump? Things have to be rebalanced; deregulation, continued consolidation, and more corporate welfare and tax cuts is exactly what we don't need.
Thank you, again, for pointing out the obvious. I happen to know a local massive food producer with national distribution whose profits are so high he can buy, maintain and use private jets, planes and helicopters. Has for years. Maybe his wholesale prices are too high, resulting in ever higher retail prices at the grocery stores listed by Mr. Reich? Yes! Corporate greed must be managed.
troll
Producers control supply, and thus control demand, and thus cause prices to rise, when demand, like the demand for food, is inelastic. The demand and supply bit only works in the face of elastic demand.
BTW, The world is addicted to debt, and as result the demand for debt is inelastic.
People are also addicted to food, because it keeps us from starving, thus the demand for food is also inelastic.
Chomp on that troll.
Now you know what I know. That gentleman shouldn't be able to support his luxury fleet of aircraft with revenue from our grocery shopping.
Thank you Bob Cox! Well said
No you read an econ book and go to the section that talks about elastic and inelastic demand.
You are fucking tool, dude.
Demand for what. Some demand is elastic, some demand is inelastic and for some things the only way to sell them (they are called unsought goods) is to convince the consumer that they want and need them. The art of door to door salesmen and advertising.
So what demand are you talking off. Looks like Karl Marx never took marketing 101, or Econ 101 and 102.
With a Business degree from a major public university you can be assured I've read several Econ books. More importantly, I've worked much of a career in businesses where the owners and top executives were compensated quite well and we, the workers who earned that compensation for them, struggled. My suggestion; you begin talking to yje workers of large companies. Enough said, no more responses .
Phuck off Karl
de nada mi placer
Thanks for that overview of what is really going on related to inflation. The problem, as I see it is that people assume inflation is the fault of whoever is president; it isn't, but that's what sticks in the heads of a lot of voters. They don't seem to want to blame the real culprits because it is their beloved businesses and those people wouldn't screw the American people, would they? Yes, folks they would and do regularly. We need more antitrust actions and the threat of them so businesses will cool their ardor for scamming the American people and blaming the results of their bad behavior on Joe Biden who has been working to bring down prices and call out the perpetrators of the scams. We need a lot more effort poured into this problem.
Right now the U.S. is a Monopolistic Country where big corporations have taken over one of our political parties!
Inflation is a sign that the poor are suffering, and the wealthy are on vacation.
All this is factual....
Although the root cause is being ignored. Just as we have seat belts and speed limits imposed as guard rails by government to keep us safe from our excessive need for speed, we need the same for our excessive need for greed.
One man because of his ability to con, manipulate, leverage
and control others does not get to be rewarded for his behavior with tens of billions of dollars yearly.
If entrepreneurs want to play in our sandbox due to the freedoms and protections our country affords them...they need to contribute to supporting that extraordinary support system. Greed does and will destroys that system as it has in the past. We need to break the time wasting/destructive cycle. Curb greed trough government legislation...let's let the adults install limits where limits are required.
If only Americans truly understood the meaning of autocracy and what it represents, then this level of inflation would not be a major concern with respect to the upcoming election.
Oh my goodness! Professor Reich, I would love to see guardrails put back in place to prevent these monopolistic corporations from price gouging! The increase in homelessness would slow down and people would be able to put groceries on the table. It absolutely boggles my mind that the orange man's cult cannot see why prices are so high and that he is the reason! They think our economy was better under him and that is simply not true! He will not help them but they just don't see it! He's like the pied piper! He plays his hypnotic tune and they are mesmerized into following and believing every single one of his lies! While I understand what is happening with these giant corporations, I have had to learn how to squeeze that nickel a little harder. There are ways to get by but it can be quite hard for an old woman living alone. I want Vice-President Harris to get elected and keep our country moving in the direction President Biden was going. I want her to build off of the successes he made. I want a blue deluge in November! Vote Blue, America! Lotus for POTUS!
In my little city bungalow I put in solar panels and most days I send more kwh to the power company than I use. My carbon footprint is teensy and my utilities bill is too. I have a sunny patch next to the house where I stick seeds in the ground in late April, never spray, fertilize or weed it. Water it when wilty and get enough veggies for 2 June through November. The city doesn't permit chickens so I still have to go to the grocery store but not that often.
Way to go, Miriam! I, too, have found other ways to get what I need rather than give money to these corporations. I shop at Aldi's, Ollie's, Sav-a-Lot, Farmer's Markets and produce stands. I go to U-picks for fruits. I have my tiny little herb garden and a cherry tomato bush. There are so many ways to get by without giving money to these greedy corporations.
I wanted to do that as well , until I got a price $52,000 and they would have to dig a 100 ft long trench to my transformer, kill my plum tree, and they said that they would finance me for 25 years. I am 85 and will die in debt, probably have to remortgage my home,. which is paid off. Now if I could find someone to do the job for $5,000.
Thank you for this series, Robert Reich! I hope Kamala Harris gets elected, because she is likely to be on the problem solving side of this monopoly and power abuse by Corporations.
There is also another elephant in the room. On average what are we up to now? 7 or 8 'entities' control 80% of each of those markets in the U.S.? And let's not forget to add our 'free press' to that list. Not to be too cynical, but I’m guessing that the ‘wants’ of the stockholders are prioritized long before the ‘needs’ of the Republic are even considered. Collusion? Hell, a couple of 4-somes at Pebble Beach will take care of hiding that minor issue.
All corporations have boards of directors, even privately owned boards, do a deep dive (via google) and you will find interlocking boards of directors, media, oil companies, defense industries, pharmaceuticals, transportation, health.
And the major institutional investors, especially in the so called liberal media) are Vanguard, Black Rock and State street.
I've done that deep dive, and it is relevatory.
I'm not sure that I understand what you are saying. So, are you arguing that because all of these people know each other from all of their interlocking boards of directors in all of those industries they DON'T collude to manipulate the economy? Or, even worse, that they don't play GOLF??
I do not know whether or not all of those people know each other, but I am pretty sure that if invitations were sent out to some gala, most of them would should up.
They don't have to collude in a smoke filled room, they draw their salaries and income from stocks from the corporations and industries that they control.
Because ultimate control of a corporation lies with the Board of Directors, and then with the chairman of the board. It is they that hire the Chief Executive, Chief of Operations, Chief of Finance, etc and it is to the board that they answer.
If you are curious, really seriously curious, google who owns MSNBC, then you will get the results of NBCUniversal, google that and see what results you get, then google those results, and keep going until you can't go any deeper. Do the same for CNN, this one I have memorized, you bore down to Advance Publications, and you will see what magazines and papers they own and even TV stations. Then check out Advance Publications and you get to the Newhouse family, then go to wikipedia and check out the Newhouse family or their founder Samuel Newhouse.
But before you do all of that go back to MSNBC, Board of Directors, then check out the member of each directors especially it's chairman, same for CNN of course or any cable or media company.
Be sure to check out the individual members of the Board of directors, many of them have their own wikipedia page, you will find that most of the are either CEO's or owners of their own companies, and sit on the boards of other companies.
It is exhausting, more exhausting than reading RR's articles and making comments, but it is illuminating.
Do they collude? They don't have to, they have their own self interest to safeguard.
Let's say that Robert Schitshispants is the Chairman of the Board of a cable news company, but he is also sits on the board, or is even the chairman of the board of Pissinyour hat Drug company, and also sits on the board of Imakeweapons company as well as Imasoakyour ass Petroleum company. What is to collude.
Corporations own corporations which own corporations, there are shell companies, and all corporations have a board of directors, even if they are fictional.
Back in 1983, to fulfill a class requirement, I created via the Secretary of
State of my state, a Non Profit, and I had to have three people to sign on as the Board of Directors.
Inflation is caused by Trump priting trillions to pay off his cronies during lockdown. That's what causes inflation Jackass!
Trump only blames Biden, and now Harris, for inflation along with government spending. He never mentions how much HE increased the national debt in his four miserable years in office!
Trump is a stone cold liar, a con man as well as a criminal but he's not an idiot. Well, now that I think of it, he may well be a total idiot as well.
Biden would have done the same or worse; in fact, he did in the form of vaccine mandates (mass murder). Trump prepared the Kool-Aid, but Biden forced it down our throats. https://timothywiney.substack.com/p/mental-midgets
Gee, I have had five doses of the vaccine and I seem to be still here.
https://ladycasey.substack.com/p/scientific-studies-on-vaccine-injuries?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=email
https://timothywiney.substack.com/p/may-god-bless-jessica-rose-and-damn
All in good time. https://gsconlinepress.com/journals/gscarr/content/are-mrna-vaccines-inducing-sanarelli-shwartzman-phenomenon
https://ijvtpr.com/index.php/IJVTPR/article/view/12
https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Vitamin_C_Mitigating_and_Rescuing_from_Synergistic_Toxicity_Sodium_Fluoride_Silicofluorides_Aluminum_Salts_Electromagnetic_Pollution_and_SARS-CoV-2/13580318/1
Hydrophobic Catalysis by L-Ascorbic Acid: A supramolecular Strategy to counter the SARS-CoV2 ADP Ribose Glycohydrolase (figshare.com)
So, one of these days, which you call a good time, people will be dropping dead by the billions. Our cells absorb strange bits of dna and RNA on a daily basis, but billions of us seem to survive that too.
Excellent try, Kathleen, but read his by-line, you'll never penetrate his misinformation. He's making money out of spouting nonsense and stringing together a load of words he looked up in a dictionary!! And really - back at him - let him go suck a lemon! It might go nicely with his red herring :))
Denial ain't just a river. Big Pharma profits are derived exclusively from thinking like yours. Unfortunately, you now place the rest of us at risk through shedding. mRNA is the new 2nd hand smoke. https://timothywiney.substack.com/p/extinction-level-event
https://timothywiney.substack.com/p/shoes-on-other-feet
Yet you're still here to annoy us.
If the truth annoys you, you are living a lie. https://timothywiney.substack.com/p/the-infallibility-of-leftism
Covid Vaccines Saved 20 million lives in one year.
(Medical News Today)
You're not providing truth. You are akin to a fly. Smearing your dung everywhere. An irritant best swatted.
https://timothywiney.substack.com/p/what-kind-of-science
Vaccines saved 319,000 lives (Brown University study).
Excuse me, vaccines could have saved 319,000 lives (Brown University study).
https://ladycasey.substack.com/p/scientific-studies-on-vaccine-injuries?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=email
ROFLMAO!!! https://timothywiney.substack.com/p/just-309-million-dead-no-big-deal
Again only a blathering fool would read your substack.
RFK campaigner are ye?
Fed Chair Powell actually did the dirty work. Starting in March of 2020, the Fed purchased over $4 trillioon in market securities with their Quantitative Easing program over an 18 month period. Never in US history has that much new money been added to the economy is such a short period of time. It was a vain attempt to boost the economy for Trump in the 2020 election. It did boost the economy but not in time for the election.
Timothy, contrary to popular belief, the United States government doesn't print money to pay it's bills. It does print Federal Reserve Notes, which it sells at cost of printing to the Federal Reserve for use by member banks to meet the needs of grocery stores, gamblers, side walk vendors and drug dealers.
They also print Government Securities when are then sold to the Associalition of Primary Dealers in Government Securities, who then sells them to the Fed , Institutions and overseas investors like central banks and Sovereign funds.
I explained this in my opening post to this thread. If interested hit ctr F, then search for William Farrar, if not found then load more and search again.
https://timothywiney.substack.com/p/money-money-money-must-be-funny
I don't need any lectures on montary alchemy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOk3wBuQNcE
Then you know nothing. and enjoy wallowing in ignorance. I don't defend the system, but I explain it, but you prefer blind ignorance.
Are you jabbed William? I sense vaccine rage/regret, a growing problem.
I sense an RFK troll, Get lost idiot
https://djeffries.substack.com/p/the-trumpenstein-project
Proof that Republicans are not capitalist, they are pro-monopoly and anti taxes and regulations, and anti-democracy which are all required to maintain and preserve the essence of capitalism.
Monopoly is the ultimate goal of capitalism. Undercut the prices of your competitors and put them out of business or simply buy them out. Either way competition is reduced and prices and profits can be raised. That's why we have antitrust laws but they do no good if they are not enforced.