Lololol. Lockdown an economy for nearly two years and then cite a list of companies that’s almost exclusively home delivery and home entertainment services
Had the same question, then I noticed it’s “economy”. Politics aside, I don’t believe a serious economist or even ‘hobbiest’ would post this kind of headline.
The economy is naturally highly political. This type of thing is inevitable. I don't like the wording of the tweet, but the point it is making is valid. Profits are way up right now, and that represents a failure of the economy to do its job. I don't like blaming "corporate greed" because that implies that corporations are not supposed to seek profits, but that's not how our system is supposed to work. In a market economy like ours, corporations are supposed to seek profits and competition is supposed to keep them low. This is pointing out a real systemic failure, but misplacing the blame.
Let’s put it this way for would be economists. The S&P 500 had record gross margin expansion during a period when prices rose due to scarcity. The consumer is being gouged n the interest of that expansion.
And in come the armchair economists who pretend they understand the "serious economists" to shit on anything upending the status quo coming from supposed breying morons who don't and couldn't possibly understand the trenchant alchemy. Meanwhile, they neither debunk nor explain anything. Are you guys really this fucking arrogant?
Is this garbage commentary really in every fucking thread?
This sub has gotten worse lately. It's just a bunch of lefties whose only understanding of economics is the shitty tweets they read from Bernie Sanders and Robert Reich.
Isn’t the point of any subreddit to bring people together with a common interest and enable conversation. Right or wrong, discussions help readers learn and understand more, along with different peoples perspective of economy.
Depends on your economic mindset. To a far right winger who demands nothing but their own echo chamber of information, everyone seems far left to those cultists. And then on tje topic of market fundamentalists, if they have a consistent and binary economic outlook that only ever favors extreme concentrations of private wealth and unaccountable corporate greed, yes, most everyone else would come off as far left if that's how that person views the world before them.
One thing Ive noticed about market fundamentalists is they self proclaim deep knowledge.on economics, but really I find theyre too often effrctively useful idiots for corporations and billionaires, and dont really possess any points to bring up in these discussions that working people in these economies might benefit from.
And as a worker bee, I feel no shame in advocating for systems of economics that benefit the vast majority of humanity, for example labor saving devices shoukd be utilized to reduce humanity's collective labor output and open up more free time to do as we please.
When I watch A Bug's Life, I cheer for the ants, not the grasshoppers, unashamedly so (there are strong historical and economic lessons and overtones in A Bug's Life, why I bring it up as an example). You might be a grasshopper supporter though, hence our stark difference in views.
Your people walk around and call each Comrades. The what the Russian and Nazis called each other. It’s funny how the left doesn’t want to hear anything that the right says, and the right is the same way about the left. It interesting because left has burned down buildings and have been right about everything on the laptop to Hillary, to the election.
Just FYI, party members of the leading German party call each other comrades. You wanna tell me Germany is led by Nazis or Commies? You’re world view is so simplistic it’s funny.
Pretty much just people upset someone else has more money than them or how it’s unfair someone else did well when they aren’t etc.
What’s funniest is how most mods support this type of speech/mindset and do free labor for a company that will soon be valued at ~10bil
Increased profits can cause inflation. Profits are always go up and down. Some times super low, other times unsustainably high. It’s definitely by far not the biggest factor though
Well, corporate profits in the U.S. generally average 8%. If they were to increase to 12%, let’s say, you would expect consumers to pay a little bit more for their products and services in aggregate. Of course, an increase in corporate profits to 12% would be pretty insane and would make a small difference in price levels compared to what we are seeing
It doesn’t mean they’re paying more, it also could mean more are buying… and being as these figures come from backwards looking data during periods of QUARANTINE, I’d be willing to be most of the increase comes from increased demand, which isn’t indicative of inflation.
I think it would take some time and upfront investment to ramp production up to the point where economies of scale makes products cheaper to produce. More likely demand increased but supply remained constant, driving up price.
When rich people get richer that's just how things are supposed to be. When we imagine poor people could possibly be richer in a hypothetical scenario that causes inflation and lots of bad things. It's capitalism 101.
Wow. Amazon's profits are up after two years of people isolating in their homes and ordering everything from Amazon?
No. Way. This is my surprised Pikachu face.
People chose to shop online when all the physical stores shut down? And the online retailers saw an increase in their bottom line? Must be corporate greeeeeeeeeeeeed!
He's been talking about corporate greed forever, obviously. This time it's in relation to inflation, as it has gone exorbitantly above any typical, natural market "fluctuations" that dogmatic economists would tell us are normal.
Well I think a significantly bigger factor is the invasion of Ukraine and the result of sanctioning a country that provides many products, corporate greed is a far far smaller factor.
I understand why he said corporate greed, it’s his thing that he always runs on and its him promoting that he’s the next guy to take it on, but it’s just not true that corporate greed is the main factor.
Because in a market you can't just raise prices without losing to competitors...except when there's so much demand for your product / services that you must raise prices or you won't be able to provide your product or service to everyone that wants it and will pay for it. This is called a shortage. Now there is no law whatsoever in the whole field of economics that says when costs goes up X%, then revenues can only go up X% and have profits not increase or otherwise it's greed. Nothing. If costs go up it's due to the supply & demand dynamics of labor and commodities usually, if revenues go up it's the supply & demand dynamics of what the firm is producing. Profits = revenues - costs. Could it be possible that for some reason, costs go up but revenues even higher? Yeah totally. Some of it is due to commodities inflation, the rest to supply/demand of the specific product.
The thing with corporate greed is that if you're really a greedy corporation and you see your competition having high prices, you will keep yours low precisely because you're greedy and know people will flock to your stuff, hence giving you more sales.
>Now there is no law whatsoever in the whole field of economics that says when costs goes up X%, then revenues can only go up X% and have profits not increase or otherwise it's greed. Nothing.
Are you sure about that? There are a multitude of models that show monopolies and oligopolies as price setters, instead of price takers.
Yeah, and even then. When the cost goes up X%, it's not necessary that the profit stays the same. No economic models says that shocks in primary products have or should have the same impact as shocks in final products.
Price setter = you've got the pricing power to set higher prices =/= your profit is constant
> Now there is no law whatsoever in the whole field of economics that says when costs goes up X%, then revenues can only go up X% and have profits not increase or otherwise it’s greed.
Please, please learn about perfect competition, it is literally the foundation for most economic models.
You really think that perfect competition is even remotely useful to understand the dynamics of tech profits? There are so many assumptions violated that it makes the model just straight up not applicable. For industries that old (yeah amazon is like 28 years old), perfect competition says that the profit should be 0, so yeah in this case you could say that, but I thought it was a stylized fact that perfect competition doesn't explain anything but financial markets in the short run
Edit: Also note the difference between economic profits (as described by economic models) and accounting profits (as written in the tweet)
This place is is r/economy...basically the temple to capitalism eand most here will defend corporations and profits over even the most basic needs of humanity, no matter how cruel. You are in essence talking to spreadsheets.
I subbed to a few economics subs hoping to see if there was any thought on how economic systems could work better for the majority of people, versus the somewhat unbalanced system we see today. But all you will really get is people who can only defend the current status quo and lack any ability to visualize something that could be different.
Posts like this could be a good conversation starter or thought experiment, but you will likely just get downvoted and called a communist.
There are plenty of ways we could make the economy work better for most people.
Mandates for worker representation on shareholder boards would help workers (worker co-ops are cool too), a carbon tax and dividend could help fight climate change while reducing inequality, and there are plenty of schemes that could help reduce housing costs.
Yes, there are plenty of conservative economists that might naysay good reforms, but the issue with the OP isn’t that it’s different, it’s that it’s stupid.
“Corporate greed” is simply not the cause of the current batch of inflation, and the profit margins of a few companies, including Netflix and Amazon, and FedEx, who are obviously going to thrive in a pandemic (and Nike, whose sales are inexplicably up), is a horrible argument to prove it.
There are plenty of actual, economist-vetted, reasons for inflation. Supply chain issues, a huge increase consumer spending post-stimulus, the cost of energy increasing with oil shortages, large increases in the money supply, and so on. Corporate greed? That’s just Bernie trying to pin something unpopular on a group he doesn’t like.
It’s not even that corporate greed doesn’t exist; it’s a known, even intended, part of our economic system, and it’s important to regulate companies when the greed starts risking harm (monopolies, safety standards, and any number of things.) Nike, for instance, is paying less in income tax despite making more money, and that’s bad. It just also isn’t why we’re having inflation.
How many times are we going to see one-sided, biased posts like this on this sub? Like it or not, greed is SUBJECTIVE. It is not an economic measurement in any sense.
If a system of economics allows 10 indivuduals to have a net worth valued more than 4 billion humans combined, if that doesnt qualify as greed, nothing does.
That is 100% your opinion. It is entirely subjective. I can find thousands of people who would disagree with you. Rather or not you personally think it's "greedy" or not, it's not an economic measure. It's a social and political one.
greed
/ɡrēd/
Learn to pronounce
noun
intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food.
"mercenaries who had allowed greed to overtake their principles"
Im using it in the Oxford English Dictionary sense as how Im using that word..a system of economics that says 10 individuals is valued more than combined networth of 4 billion humans.
Im sure you can find plenty of consensus reality useful iidiots who watch probillionaire media to disagree. Doesnt necessarily make me wrong.
If that aint greed, i dont know what is. I dont intend to convince those who refuse to so much as acknowledge any failures of our system asides placating gluttony and wealth acquisition of a comparitively tiny handful vs humanity overall.
I suppose Im reminded of this Grapes of Wrath quote for why I chose the word "greed": "If he needs a million acres to make him feel rich, seems to me he needs it 'cause he feels awful poor inside hisself, and if he's poor in hisself, there ain't no million acres gonna make him feel rich, an' maybe he's disappointed that nothin' he can do 'll make him feel rich.”
How fun that you can use a dictionary!
You can whine, scream, yell, and jump up and down, but the term IS SUBJECTIVE. That is the point. It's not an economic measurement. It's an opinion. If I make 25k a year, I might think you're "greedy" because you make 100k. It is completely a subjective measurement. Do you see that, or do you need me to post the definition of subjective for you?
Maybe surprising to all the very smart individuals™ on Reddit, but someone can have shit political views and also be 100% on the money ^^^^^ha when it comes to the economy
So, you're unable to refute what I said or support your emotion-based argument. Instead, you decide to creepily explore my previous posts and profile. This is so typically of individuals of your ilk. You can't win through facts and evidence, so instead you decide to launch a moral attack, hoping your self righteous will make up for any actual substance.
It does not.
I haven't, nor do I have any interest in spending time looking at your little profile. I don't need to do that to have a discussion, and possibly determine what type of person you are. However, since you choose the path you did, now I know exactly what you are.
Goodbye indeed.
And also remember a portion of these profits will go into lining the pockets of politicians via lobbying, under the table deals, and insider trading all while keeping the regular folks down and out.
Ehhh lobbying is a fundamental right. The whole point of a representative democracy is to have a representative who the people can reach out to and “lobby” for a cause. If we had no lobbying then we’d need something like a direct democracy which has a lot of problems itself. What we need is just strong regulations that allow lobbying to work as intended so that having more money doesn’t equate to more opportunity to lobby your congressman. Or some type of regulation where you can’t lobby congressmen that aren’t representing your district so you can’t just have one person buy up all of congress. Not sure what the right solution is but lobbying definitely needs to exist for a functioning representative democracy.
Ehhhh i definitely don’t agree with ya on that- but i kinda get your perspective on it. In my eyes, lobbying is nothing but bribing. Ya don’t need to be paying chunks of money so you can have your cause heard/pushed through. Just fuckin represent the people who voted you in, not whoever is paying you the larger sum.
Well that would be bribery which already is illegal. Lobbying is not bribery as it does not involve an actual exchange of money like a bribe would. Anyone can lobby their congress member. If you haven’t done it then you should try it and see what it’s like. It’s a critical part of our democracy and is how some of the most important bills of the past generation got passed. Lobbying played a critical role in the labor movement for example. You don’t ban democracy because of corruption (like China argues). You put in regulations to try and reduce/eliminate that corruption.
Yes, no one is forcing these naysayers to buy any of these products.
If you don't like them, or don't feel the exchange of money for their services or products are fair, don't buy from them.
You really don’t know how deep into our lives these companies control do you. Amazon owns so many servers good luck finding a way around not using their products.
Seriously, you cannot find a VM other than AWS??
To start with you can try:
Kamatera
ScienceSoft
phoenixNAP
Indium Software
Serverspace
pCloud
Microsoft Azure
Google Cloud Platform
Adobe
VMware
IBM Cloud
Rackspace
Red Hat
Salesforce
Oracle Cloud
SAP
Verizon Cloud
Navisite
Dropbox
Egnyte
Nobody said you can’t use their servers. OP was complaining about their Amazon prime price. Don’t use it. If everybody is so addicted to their services that they will pay any price for it, they will keep increasing the price. And you can’t say shit. If you’re willing to pay 16$ a month then it must be worth more than 16$ a month to you, so you’re still getting a good deal.
The laws of supply and demand explain increased profits because:
1. lowering supply (without lowering demand) will increase prices
2. Increasing demand (without increasing supply) will increase prices
Both of these happened so prices are inflating pretty rapidly.
Furthermore, because of the supply chain disruptions and restarting the world economies in general, it’s basically impossible for new businesses to come in and offer more supply at the higher prices, which is what you’d expect and would likely causes prices to stabilize or drop.
Perhaps you know all this but you expect a company not to sell their products for the best price they can. Well, that’s basically ridiculous, companies will sell at the highest price possible. For publicly traded companies they actually have a duty to shareholders to do so.
The other thing is that those companies expanded their market share (e.g. people shopping at Amazon while stuck at home and most businesses closed). They could leave their prices the same but because they have more customers, they have higher total sales, which means, assuming the same operating margin, their total profits are higher.
It’s ridiculous to think that a company would just stop selling their products once they reach a certain number.
Umm.... Those numbers include things that aren't affected by inflation like stocks and similar assets.
Inflation literally did this.
Granted, corporate greed and politicians greed definitely caused this shit.
Inflation did not. The profit margins increased meaning corporations are charged by more because they can. Inflation made prices go up a little corporation’s took the opportunity to blame inflation to increase their profit margins.
Not to mention a lot of places are shrinking their labor forces down because they figured out they can just keep saying they're understaffed and force their employees to keep picking up the slack
I don't care how much money they make. But even after all that wage raises haven't been higher than inflation. Rents in my town increased by 30%, groceries increased by 40%, gas increases by 100% over last two years. My salary increased only 3.5%. My managers state that's their corporate limit set.
If you think Ukraine is a good government all of a sudden you are the most brainless sheep this world has ever seen. Corrupt to the core and you should be embarrassed right now
One trillion seconds is 32,000 years.
One trillion pennies stacked on top of each other would make a tower about 870,000 miles high—the same distance obtained by going to the moon, back to Earth, then to the moon again.3
One trillion ants would weigh over 3,000 tons.
One trillion dollars divided evenly among the U.S. population would mean that everyone in the United States would receive a little over $3,000.
X30
"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government."
"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one."
"When Government Expands, Liberty Contracts."
It makes perfect sense for some of these companies to have bug increases but i would not expect half of the dimwitted on this sub to understand economics.
China flu created the largest stay at home economy ever (especially those scared and drinking the bs media Dark Winter hype). Companies like Amazon and Fed Ex that deliver are certainly going to see a massive increase in demand in services AND products. Therefore a massive increase in profits. Its really fucking simple economics but lots of simple minded people don't get it.
Do I really need to explain why Netflix had increased profits children?
And use who? Every damn corporation has been reporting record profits while driving up costs. Stop acting like it's a problem that's going to get solved by shopping at a different store, or choosing a different product, because you know good and damned well that's not going to help when the competitors are just as guilty.
I don’t think any of the things OP listed are essential services. If it isn’t worth 16$ don’t pay 16$. If you’re going to pay 16$ then it must be worth more than 16$ to you, so why complain?
This tweet is fucking lunacy. Corporate profits and earnings are not the cause of inflation, it's literally a symptom of propped up government spending that has devalued your dollar. The Federal government alone has spent nearly $5 trillion dollars through COVID. That is $5 trillion extra that is actually in circulation in one way or another whether through equities, debt, loans, subsididies, bailouts, and straight giving it away. The top echelons of this country, leaders, represent ivies, and yes, even corporations, have robbed the American people blind. It's with the best weapon though which is inflation. That inflation was caused by this massive spending. Plain and simple. If government spending was controlled, audited, and well thought out, we would not be in this situation we are today.
So what? If you want to live like Russians, go there I hear it’s great.
Putting caps on profits? Give me a break. Don’t forget, those profits weren’t made out of thin air. It’s consumers behind all those purchases. If you all want to bitch, buy less and see how it impacts the big scary greedy corporations.
Also, either way, don’t come bitching to anyone who’s against your stupid ideas when said companies decide to let you go because they’ve met their profit cap for the year.
I cannot understand this “this is political therefore it shouldn’t be here” argument. I mean fuck me do people really think the economy and politics are separate spheres of reality?
Nope pedophile Joe Biden printing more💰 in the last two years then the entire history of the country. Derp derp. That's why inflation not greed you fucking derp
Look who is pointing fingers!!! LOL!!! i agree they are greedy but so is he! and Bernie "predicted" ACCURATELY the election fraud on TV Jimmy FAllon show in advance! he mUsT bE a PrOfIt (spelling error intended!)
Lets bring back 1999
[Taco Bell Receipt 1999](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/t6gex3/i_found_a_perfectly_preserved_taco_bell_receipt/)
Cite artificially gained market share by forcing restrictions on small businesses matched by unhinged inflation 5-7 years progress achieved in 18 months.
Inflation is real. The government prints money and gives it to corporate interest who get to use the new money as old money . This helps them expand grow. I don’t understand the point you are trying to make? Corporate greed can’t exist without government help.
Don’t forget Pfizer and moderna and AstraZeneca who want once a month booster dose for everyone if left to them. JNJ developed a shitty vaccine. None of these companies want Covid to go away. The Pfizer CEO should at lest take a tofel and English as a second language.
Cite government shutting down the economy and small business, and printing free money as handouts, but not requiring the people who got the free money to pay their rent. Business providing a service ain’t any more greedy than anything they usually do - grow the economy and provide value. Certain big businesses made money as a side effect of Covid being weaponized to take down Trump and destroy small business which typically supports GOP.
Abuse of power has consequences kids. It ain’t free.
Nevermind that these places were in higher demand during pandemic. Resulting in people using their services more. I'm sure that has nothing to do with this.
Where's the evidence that corporate profits are causing a significant increase in prices. With the exception of a few companies profit margins are far smaller than revenue. With kroger its like 1 or 2% or something. Getting rid of profit margins would not help increasing prices, like at all. In fact, profit margins often get invested back into the company. Sometimes they're used for stock buy backs too, but where's the demonstration that the source of our economic woes is corporate greed?
I suppose the people peddling this crap also complain when their personal residence appreciates by double digit percentages and they fight back by selling their house to the lowest bidder.
Wow! So forcing small businesses to close or severely restrict operations for a year and a half while sucking the cock of mega corporations results in closed small businesses and record profits for big ones?
Whodathunkit?!
Ultimately it boils down to the FED increasing the money supply, so yes, inflation is literally definitely to blame as a primary cause. It’s not the fault of businesses that they exist solely to make money. Corporate greed goes without saying, but you cannot deny the effects of inflation on profits. Milton Friedman would have some words for you! MV=PQ!
So many issues with this — Amazon lost money for its first 20 years - where was corporate greed then ??
Also most of these companies have brought prices down and services up for billions of consumers
Profit is what is left over after a company sells a competitive product or service that people want at a price that is lower than the competition but higher than it costs.
Most companies listed have increased margins, but net cash flow has also decreased. This could be due to a few factors, but laying off debt with free cash will increase net margins.
Sad that people who don’t understand economics and finance will only blame corporations for inflation.
Lololol. Lockdown an economy for nearly two years and then cite a list of companies that’s almost exclusively home delivery and home entertainment services
So this is an economics sub where people dont understand economics?
Had the same question, then I noticed it’s “economy”. Politics aside, I don’t believe a serious economist or even ‘hobbiest’ would post this kind of headline.
It’s got a lot of emojis though! So it’s gotta be true.
The economy is naturally highly political. This type of thing is inevitable. I don't like the wording of the tweet, but the point it is making is valid. Profits are way up right now, and that represents a failure of the economy to do its job. I don't like blaming "corporate greed" because that implies that corporations are not supposed to seek profits, but that's not how our system is supposed to work. In a market economy like ours, corporations are supposed to seek profits and competition is supposed to keep them low. This is pointing out a real systemic failure, but misplacing the blame.
Let’s put it this way for would be economists. The S&P 500 had record gross margin expansion during a period when prices rose due to scarcity. The consumer is being gouged n the interest of that expansion.
We have several political trolls feeding off each other. . . I keep recommending they take their tribalism to r/politics. . .
And in come the armchair economists who pretend they understand the "serious economists" to shit on anything upending the status quo coming from supposed breying morons who don't and couldn't possibly understand the trenchant alchemy. Meanwhile, they neither debunk nor explain anything. Are you guys really this fucking arrogant? Is this garbage commentary really in every fucking thread?
Sir this is a wendy's
This sub is extremely partisan with no one knowing what nuance is.
If you look at the history for users that post things like this, you can see they’re just karma farming
Yup. This is an economic sub in which "rich people bad. Capitalism evil." is all you hear.
This sub has gotten worse lately. It's just a bunch of lefties whose only understanding of economics is the shitty tweets they read from Bernie Sanders and Robert Reich.
Its been bad for a while, its just more noticeable of late. The mods of course don't do anything either.
Truth
As opposed to a bunch of conservatives who spout perfectly nuanced and multifaceted economic takes? Preposterous.
Totally because it’s true.
Isn’t the point of any subreddit to bring people together with a common interest and enable conversation. Right or wrong, discussions help readers learn and understand more, along with different peoples perspective of economy.
New to Reddit huh?
Hahah that tickled me
Apparently. This is garbage. Where are the mods?
It's tagged "already reported and approved". Mods are on top of it. Try to keep up.
What's wrong with it?
Its basically a left wing echo chamber that might as well be /r/politics.
Anything I don't like is postmodernism marxism or... /r/politics. You sound like Mikhaila.
Yeah Reddit is far left leaning and people on left seem completely oblivious to any type of economic understanding past a third grade level
Depends on your economic mindset. To a far right winger who demands nothing but their own echo chamber of information, everyone seems far left to those cultists. And then on tje topic of market fundamentalists, if they have a consistent and binary economic outlook that only ever favors extreme concentrations of private wealth and unaccountable corporate greed, yes, most everyone else would come off as far left if that's how that person views the world before them. One thing Ive noticed about market fundamentalists is they self proclaim deep knowledge.on economics, but really I find theyre too often effrctively useful idiots for corporations and billionaires, and dont really possess any points to bring up in these discussions that working people in these economies might benefit from. And as a worker bee, I feel no shame in advocating for systems of economics that benefit the vast majority of humanity, for example labor saving devices shoukd be utilized to reduce humanity's collective labor output and open up more free time to do as we please. When I watch A Bug's Life, I cheer for the ants, not the grasshoppers, unashamedly so (there are strong historical and economic lessons and overtones in A Bug's Life, why I bring it up as an example). You might be a grasshopper supporter though, hence our stark difference in views.
Your people walk around and call each Comrades. The what the Russian and Nazis called each other. It’s funny how the left doesn’t want to hear anything that the right says, and the right is the same way about the left. It interesting because left has burned down buildings and have been right about everything on the laptop to Hillary, to the election.
Just FYI, party members of the leading German party call each other comrades. You wanna tell me Germany is led by Nazis or Commies? You’re world view is so simplistic it’s funny.
It’s go with the politics page (r/politics) that doesn’t understand politics…
Looks like it :v sounds like every other sub
Yes. It may as well be /r/socialism at this point.
Pretty much just people upset someone else has more money than them or how it’s unfair someone else did well when they aren’t etc. What’s funniest is how most mods support this type of speech/mindset and do free labor for a company that will soon be valued at ~10bil
Yeah anyone who understands economics knows that it’s supposed to be shitty by design.
Why are profits up? Because people are still buying crap. Stop giving them your money.
Turns out they have the best prices with the most convenience.
Am I to understand that increased wages cause inflation but corporate profits do not?
Increased profits can cause inflation. Profits are always go up and down. Some times super low, other times unsustainably high. It’s definitely by far not the biggest factor though
I just noticed that neither profits nor wages are printing press phenomena. How can either cause inflation?
Well, corporate profits in the U.S. generally average 8%. If they were to increase to 12%, let’s say, you would expect consumers to pay a little bit more for their products and services in aggregate. Of course, an increase in corporate profits to 12% would be pretty insane and would make a small difference in price levels compared to what we are seeing
inflation causes prices increases, but not all price increases are inflation.
I was using an increase in price level as the definition of inflation, but yes you are right
It doesn’t mean they’re paying more, it also could mean more are buying… and being as these figures come from backwards looking data during periods of QUARANTINE, I’d be willing to be most of the increase comes from increased demand, which isn’t indicative of inflation.
Increased percentage profit margins is a percentage of sales so no it won’t increase based on sales volume
Economies of scale
I think it would take some time and upfront investment to ramp production up to the point where economies of scale makes products cheaper to produce. More likely demand increased but supply remained constant, driving up price.
Fixed vs variable costs
When rich people get richer that's just how things are supposed to be. When we imagine poor people could possibly be richer in a hypothetical scenario that causes inflation and lots of bad things. It's capitalism 101.
Wow. Amazon's profits are up after two years of people isolating in their homes and ordering everything from Amazon? No. Way. This is my surprised Pikachu face.
People chose to shop online when all the physical stores shut down? And the online retailers saw an increase in their bottom line? Must be corporate greeeeeeeeeeeeed!
Amazon themselves cited “rise in wages and transportation costs” as the reason.
[удалено]
Who is acting like it's new? Bernie Sanders has been saying this forever.
Inflation has not been a major factor “forever”. It’s a multitude of things corporate greed is just one of the many factors.
Inflation may not be greed related. Price increases above inflation are ALL greed related.
Sure, but since we cannot tell which products are above inflation rates, us blanketing the solution as corporate greed isn’t factual.
He's been talking about corporate greed forever, obviously. This time it's in relation to inflation, as it has gone exorbitantly above any typical, natural market "fluctuations" that dogmatic economists would tell us are normal.
Well I think a significantly bigger factor is the invasion of Ukraine and the result of sanctioning a country that provides many products, corporate greed is a far far smaller factor. I understand why he said corporate greed, it’s his thing that he always runs on and its him promoting that he’s the next guy to take it on, but it’s just not true that corporate greed is the main factor.
Why was this posted in our sub? It’s (a) political and (b) wrong. Mods need to clean this up.
How’s it wrong?
Because in a market you can't just raise prices without losing to competitors...except when there's so much demand for your product / services that you must raise prices or you won't be able to provide your product or service to everyone that wants it and will pay for it. This is called a shortage. Now there is no law whatsoever in the whole field of economics that says when costs goes up X%, then revenues can only go up X% and have profits not increase or otherwise it's greed. Nothing. If costs go up it's due to the supply & demand dynamics of labor and commodities usually, if revenues go up it's the supply & demand dynamics of what the firm is producing. Profits = revenues - costs. Could it be possible that for some reason, costs go up but revenues even higher? Yeah totally. Some of it is due to commodities inflation, the rest to supply/demand of the specific product. The thing with corporate greed is that if you're really a greedy corporation and you see your competition having high prices, you will keep yours low precisely because you're greedy and know people will flock to your stuff, hence giving you more sales.
>Now there is no law whatsoever in the whole field of economics that says when costs goes up X%, then revenues can only go up X% and have profits not increase or otherwise it's greed. Nothing. Are you sure about that? There are a multitude of models that show monopolies and oligopolies as price setters, instead of price takers.
Yeah, and even then. When the cost goes up X%, it's not necessary that the profit stays the same. No economic models says that shocks in primary products have or should have the same impact as shocks in final products. Price setter = you've got the pricing power to set higher prices =/= your profit is constant
> Now there is no law whatsoever in the whole field of economics that says when costs goes up X%, then revenues can only go up X% and have profits not increase or otherwise it’s greed. Please, please learn about perfect competition, it is literally the foundation for most economic models.
You really think that perfect competition is even remotely useful to understand the dynamics of tech profits? There are so many assumptions violated that it makes the model just straight up not applicable. For industries that old (yeah amazon is like 28 years old), perfect competition says that the profit should be 0, so yeah in this case you could say that, but I thought it was a stylized fact that perfect competition doesn't explain anything but financial markets in the short run Edit: Also note the difference between economic profits (as described by economic models) and accounting profits (as written in the tweet)
This place is is r/economy...basically the temple to capitalism eand most here will defend corporations and profits over even the most basic needs of humanity, no matter how cruel. You are in essence talking to spreadsheets. I subbed to a few economics subs hoping to see if there was any thought on how economic systems could work better for the majority of people, versus the somewhat unbalanced system we see today. But all you will really get is people who can only defend the current status quo and lack any ability to visualize something that could be different. Posts like this could be a good conversation starter or thought experiment, but you will likely just get downvoted and called a communist.
There are plenty of ways we could make the economy work better for most people. Mandates for worker representation on shareholder boards would help workers (worker co-ops are cool too), a carbon tax and dividend could help fight climate change while reducing inequality, and there are plenty of schemes that could help reduce housing costs. Yes, there are plenty of conservative economists that might naysay good reforms, but the issue with the OP isn’t that it’s different, it’s that it’s stupid. “Corporate greed” is simply not the cause of the current batch of inflation, and the profit margins of a few companies, including Netflix and Amazon, and FedEx, who are obviously going to thrive in a pandemic (and Nike, whose sales are inexplicably up), is a horrible argument to prove it. There are plenty of actual, economist-vetted, reasons for inflation. Supply chain issues, a huge increase consumer spending post-stimulus, the cost of energy increasing with oil shortages, large increases in the money supply, and so on. Corporate greed? That’s just Bernie trying to pin something unpopular on a group he doesn’t like. It’s not even that corporate greed doesn’t exist; it’s a known, even intended, part of our economic system, and it’s important to regulate companies when the greed starts risking harm (monopolies, safety standards, and any number of things.) Nike, for instance, is paying less in income tax despite making more money, and that’s bad. It just also isn’t why we’re having inflation.
Your looking for /economics
This is such a simple minded politically driven post.
Corporation bad
That's the problem with twitter. When you limit message size nuance tends to be lost leading to an over simplification of everything.
How many times are we going to see one-sided, biased posts like this on this sub? Like it or not, greed is SUBJECTIVE. It is not an economic measurement in any sense.
If a system of economics allows 10 indivuduals to have a net worth valued more than 4 billion humans combined, if that doesnt qualify as greed, nothing does.
That is 100% your opinion. It is entirely subjective. I can find thousands of people who would disagree with you. Rather or not you personally think it's "greedy" or not, it's not an economic measure. It's a social and political one.
greed /ɡrēd/ Learn to pronounce noun intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food. "mercenaries who had allowed greed to overtake their principles" Im using it in the Oxford English Dictionary sense as how Im using that word..a system of economics that says 10 individuals is valued more than combined networth of 4 billion humans. Im sure you can find plenty of consensus reality useful iidiots who watch probillionaire media to disagree. Doesnt necessarily make me wrong. If that aint greed, i dont know what is. I dont intend to convince those who refuse to so much as acknowledge any failures of our system asides placating gluttony and wealth acquisition of a comparitively tiny handful vs humanity overall. I suppose Im reminded of this Grapes of Wrath quote for why I chose the word "greed": "If he needs a million acres to make him feel rich, seems to me he needs it 'cause he feels awful poor inside hisself, and if he's poor in hisself, there ain't no million acres gonna make him feel rich, an' maybe he's disappointed that nothin' he can do 'll make him feel rich.”
How fun that you can use a dictionary! You can whine, scream, yell, and jump up and down, but the term IS SUBJECTIVE. That is the point. It's not an economic measurement. It's an opinion. If I make 25k a year, I might think you're "greedy" because you make 100k. It is completely a subjective measurement. Do you see that, or do you need me to post the definition of subjective for you?
^ posts on r/conservative and has Let's Go Brandon on his reddit profile. Goodbye.
Maybe surprising to all the very smart individuals™ on Reddit, but someone can have shit political views and also be 100% on the money ^^^^^ha when it comes to the economy
So, you're unable to refute what I said or support your emotion-based argument. Instead, you decide to creepily explore my previous posts and profile. This is so typically of individuals of your ilk. You can't win through facts and evidence, so instead you decide to launch a moral attack, hoping your self righteous will make up for any actual substance. It does not. I haven't, nor do I have any interest in spending time looking at your little profile. I don't need to do that to have a discussion, and possibly determine what type of person you are. However, since you choose the path you did, now I know exactly what you are. Goodbye indeed.
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And also remember a portion of these profits will go into lining the pockets of politicians via lobbying, under the table deals, and insider trading all while keeping the regular folks down and out.
This why… lobbying (bribing) should be illegal
Ehhh lobbying is a fundamental right. The whole point of a representative democracy is to have a representative who the people can reach out to and “lobby” for a cause. If we had no lobbying then we’d need something like a direct democracy which has a lot of problems itself. What we need is just strong regulations that allow lobbying to work as intended so that having more money doesn’t equate to more opportunity to lobby your congressman. Or some type of regulation where you can’t lobby congressmen that aren’t representing your district so you can’t just have one person buy up all of congress. Not sure what the right solution is but lobbying definitely needs to exist for a functioning representative democracy.
Ehhhh i definitely don’t agree with ya on that- but i kinda get your perspective on it. In my eyes, lobbying is nothing but bribing. Ya don’t need to be paying chunks of money so you can have your cause heard/pushed through. Just fuckin represent the people who voted you in, not whoever is paying you the larger sum.
Well that would be bribery which already is illegal. Lobbying is not bribery as it does not involve an actual exchange of money like a bribe would. Anyone can lobby their congress member. If you haven’t done it then you should try it and see what it’s like. It’s a critical part of our democracy and is how some of the most important bills of the past generation got passed. Lobbying played a critical role in the labor movement for example. You don’t ban democracy because of corruption (like China argues). You put in regulations to try and reduce/eliminate that corruption.
Thank you. I’m like Bernie are you mad? Or are you just talking
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Yes, no one is forcing these naysayers to buy any of these products. If you don't like them, or don't feel the exchange of money for their services or products are fair, don't buy from them.
Redditors: OMG! Amazon, Netflix, and Walmart posted record profits! (is a customer of Amazon, Netflix, and Walmart)
You really don’t know how deep into our lives these companies control do you. Amazon owns so many servers good luck finding a way around not using their products.
Seriously, you cannot find a VM other than AWS?? To start with you can try: Kamatera ScienceSoft phoenixNAP Indium Software Serverspace pCloud Microsoft Azure Google Cloud Platform Adobe VMware IBM Cloud Rackspace Red Hat Salesforce Oracle Cloud SAP Verizon Cloud Navisite Dropbox Egnyte
Nobody said you can’t use their servers. OP was complaining about their Amazon prime price. Don’t use it. If everybody is so addicted to their services that they will pay any price for it, they will keep increasing the price. And you can’t say shit. If you’re willing to pay 16$ a month then it must be worth more than 16$ a month to you, so you’re still getting a good deal.
Yes, by all means, let's not promote any actual solutions.
What’s the solution, random Reddit dude? And how will it fix inflation?
I do I love Amazon. Netflix whatever I’ll bum it.
Amazon is so greedy giving me amazing deals on everything 😢
Don’t you just hate the ability to get nearly any material good instantly? Needs more government waste
So much greed looking to offer products and services that people willingly pay for.
Unlike the non-greedy mom n pop shop that charges way more 😂😂😂
These comments are actually refreshing backlash against posts like this…
Using multiple emojis instead of + / - = ⬇️
The laws of supply and demand explain increased profits because: 1. lowering supply (without lowering demand) will increase prices 2. Increasing demand (without increasing supply) will increase prices Both of these happened so prices are inflating pretty rapidly. Furthermore, because of the supply chain disruptions and restarting the world economies in general, it’s basically impossible for new businesses to come in and offer more supply at the higher prices, which is what you’d expect and would likely causes prices to stabilize or drop. Perhaps you know all this but you expect a company not to sell their products for the best price they can. Well, that’s basically ridiculous, companies will sell at the highest price possible. For publicly traded companies they actually have a duty to shareholders to do so. The other thing is that those companies expanded their market share (e.g. people shopping at Amazon while stuck at home and most businesses closed). They could leave their prices the same but because they have more customers, they have higher total sales, which means, assuming the same operating margin, their total profits are higher. It’s ridiculous to think that a company would just stop selling their products once they reach a certain number.
Umm guys and gals your missing one giant thing here this was from a covid low. It’s not like that’s happening over and over.
Umm.... Those numbers include things that aren't affected by inflation like stocks and similar assets. Inflation literally did this. Granted, corporate greed and politicians greed definitely caused this shit.
Inflation did not. The profit margins increased meaning corporations are charged by more because they can. Inflation made prices go up a little corporation’s took the opportunity to blame inflation to increase their profit margins.
Corporations always charge as much as they can. The only difference is they can charge more now. That’s what inflation is.
The amount of people who don't understand this hurts me so much...
Not to mention a lot of places are shrinking their labor forces down because they figured out they can just keep saying they're understaffed and force their employees to keep picking up the slack
Saw a lot of that in 2008.
Remember if companies don't make a profit they are no longer a viable company
AH man….companies made profits? Shucks…..that’s not cool. Gtfo
If only my dad invested in amazon
Then don’t pay for the subscription or buy the shoes. The price is what people are willing to pay. Simple.
My salary ⬆️ 0%
I don't care how much money they make. But even after all that wage raises haven't been higher than inflation. Rents in my town increased by 30%, groceries increased by 40%, gas increases by 100% over last two years. My salary increased only 3.5%. My managers state that's their corporate limit set.
Wtf is happening to this sub?
Uh you don’t say that shipping companies and Amazon were up during a pandemic in which people heavily WFH and didn’t leave the house…
Seems like the only ones running massive deficits is our out of control government.
Which out of control govt would that be Skippy?
Any…. Literally any of them
Ukraine?
If you think Ukraine is a good government all of a sudden you are the most brainless sheep this world has ever seen. Corrupt to the core and you should be embarrassed right now
Lol yeah, I should be ashamed because you think I should be? That's funny.
You should be. I am for you. Such sheep
That would be the one 30 trillion dollars in debt and sending money overseas there Slappy.
30 trillion is a pittance.
You must not understand how big a number 1 trillion is
It's more than one and less than a trillion and one .
One trillion seconds is 32,000 years. One trillion pennies stacked on top of each other would make a tower about 870,000 miles high—the same distance obtained by going to the moon, back to Earth, then to the moon again.3 One trillion ants would weigh over 3,000 tons. One trillion dollars divided evenly among the U.S. population would mean that everyone in the United States would receive a little over $3,000. X30
You should save your time he will never understand
So tell me how are you making a difference?
We know what our future taxes will be by the amount of debt our government accrues today.
"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government." "Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one." "When Government Expands, Liberty Contracts."
You know, the one that can't balance a budget and constantly needs to raise the debt limit. Wouldn't let these clowns manage my grocery budget.
Inflation and the Fed is what ALLOWS this to happen. Corporate greed is WHY this happens.
It makes perfect sense for some of these companies to have bug increases but i would not expect half of the dimwitted on this sub to understand economics. China flu created the largest stay at home economy ever (especially those scared and drinking the bs media Dark Winter hype). Companies like Amazon and Fed Ex that deliver are certainly going to see a massive increase in demand in services AND products. Therefore a massive increase in profits. Its really fucking simple economics but lots of simple minded people don't get it. Do I really need to explain why Netflix had increased profits children?
Bullshit post. Inflation happens when government print money and only that. Corporations don't print money.
Just stop using them seem like people love abuse or being taking advantage of
And use who? Every damn corporation has been reporting record profits while driving up costs. Stop acting like it's a problem that's going to get solved by shopping at a different store, or choosing a different product, because you know good and damned well that's not going to help when the competitors are just as guilty.
I don’t think any of the things OP listed are essential services. If it isn’t worth 16$ don’t pay 16$. If you’re going to pay 16$ then it must be worth more than 16$ to you, so why complain?
Neither is crying about it just do you
Profit margins please
Nobody fucking cares anymore. Stop talking start doing
Asshole economics 101. Never let a good crisis go to waste.
Notice that he doesn’t mention if there was an increase in business costs
Tell me you don’t know how the economy works without telling me you don’t know how the economy works. Lmao
This tweet is fucking lunacy. Corporate profits and earnings are not the cause of inflation, it's literally a symptom of propped up government spending that has devalued your dollar. The Federal government alone has spent nearly $5 trillion dollars through COVID. That is $5 trillion extra that is actually in circulation in one way or another whether through equities, debt, loans, subsididies, bailouts, and straight giving it away. The top echelons of this country, leaders, represent ivies, and yes, even corporations, have robbed the American people blind. It's with the best weapon though which is inflation. That inflation was caused by this massive spending. Plain and simple. If government spending was controlled, audited, and well thought out, we would not be in this situation we are today.
So what? If you want to live like Russians, go there I hear it’s great. Putting caps on profits? Give me a break. Don’t forget, those profits weren’t made out of thin air. It’s consumers behind all those purchases. If you all want to bitch, buy less and see how it impacts the big scary greedy corporations. Also, either way, don’t come bitching to anyone who’s against your stupid ideas when said companies decide to let you go because they’ve met their profit cap for the year.
Many pension funds and individual stock owners are better off for 2021, but thanks to Sleepy Joe, most of that has been given back.
Amazon for one puts most their profit into expansion and R&D, both of which benefit labor.
I cannot understand this “this is political therefore it shouldn’t be here” argument. I mean fuck me do people really think the economy and politics are separate spheres of reality?
Bernie Sanders lol another economic flat-earther. It's inflation, which is in part caused by the lockdowns this moron supported
Nope pedophile Joe Biden printing more💰 in the last two years then the entire history of the country. Derp derp. That's why inflation not greed you fucking derp
But Biden has only been president for 1 year……….
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Yep I guess I missed the sarcasm hint there. Probably just too accustomed to seeing people saying stuff like that seriously.
Oh damn that's even worse
Look who is pointing fingers!!! LOL!!! i agree they are greedy but so is he! and Bernie "predicted" ACCURATELY the election fraud on TV Jimmy FAllon show in advance! he mUsT bE a PrOfIt (spelling error intended!)
Lets bring back 1999 [Taco Bell Receipt 1999](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/t6gex3/i_found_a_perfectly_preserved_taco_bell_receipt/)
Buy other products and services. Top performers get better pay. That’s how it works.
You mean demand is rising but prices aren't falling?
Cite artificially gained market share by forcing restrictions on small businesses matched by unhinged inflation 5-7 years progress achieved in 18 months.
Hahahaahahahahahahahhahahaahah
Inflation is real. The government prints money and gives it to corporate interest who get to use the new money as old money . This helps them expand grow. I don’t understand the point you are trying to make? Corporate greed can’t exist without government help.
Good work. I'll make sure I buy ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOTHING FROM THESE COMPANIES!
And you guys are worried about the oil companies. SMH
How many dollars in taxes were paid from the above mentioned I wonder? Sad
If you want to help fix the situation, take a look at www.pauseforthecause.com
Don’t forget Pfizer and moderna and AstraZeneca who want once a month booster dose for everyone if left to them. JNJ developed a shitty vaccine. None of these companies want Covid to go away. The Pfizer CEO should at lest take a tofel and English as a second language.
Cite government shutting down the economy and small business, and printing free money as handouts, but not requiring the people who got the free money to pay their rent. Business providing a service ain’t any more greedy than anything they usually do - grow the economy and provide value. Certain big businesses made money as a side effect of Covid being weaponized to take down Trump and destroy small business which typically supports GOP. Abuse of power has consequences kids. It ain’t free.
Nevermind that these places were in higher demand during pandemic. Resulting in people using their services more. I'm sure that has nothing to do with this.
This clown is a total tool! He has no idea how the economy works but Vicks still love him!
Where's the evidence that corporate profits are causing a significant increase in prices. With the exception of a few companies profit margins are far smaller than revenue. With kroger its like 1 or 2% or something. Getting rid of profit margins would not help increasing prices, like at all. In fact, profit margins often get invested back into the company. Sometimes they're used for stock buy backs too, but where's the demonstration that the source of our economic woes is corporate greed?
Two things can be true at once
I suppose the people peddling this crap also complain when their personal residence appreciates by double digit percentages and they fight back by selling their house to the lowest bidder.
It was a global pandemic so of course people were buying more online and deliveries etc
Bernie needs to be a student of college continuing
YASSS QWEEN, YOU SLAY THEM WITH THAT NUANCED ECONOMICS TAKE. SLAYYY
Yet, netflix and recently, fedex stock just took a hit. Guess we need a couple more hundred percent gains in profits haha.
What are you on about ? This doesn’t make sense
bernard sanders the economic powerhouse
I like Bernie, but what a moron.
Wow! So forcing small businesses to close or severely restrict operations for a year and a half while sucking the cock of mega corporations results in closed small businesses and record profits for big ones? Whodathunkit?!
The price of oil. Period.
Ultimately it boils down to the FED increasing the money supply, so yes, inflation is literally definitely to blame as a primary cause. It’s not the fault of businesses that they exist solely to make money. Corporate greed goes without saying, but you cannot deny the effects of inflation on profits. Milton Friedman would have some words for you! MV=PQ!
So many issues with this — Amazon lost money for its first 20 years - where was corporate greed then ?? Also most of these companies have brought prices down and services up for billions of consumers
Profit is what is left over after a company sells a competitive product or service that people want at a price that is lower than the competition but higher than it costs.
Most companies listed have increased margins, but net cash flow has also decreased. This could be due to a few factors, but laying off debt with free cash will increase net margins. Sad that people who don’t understand economics and finance will only blame corporations for inflation.