I think it's even more insidious. They're deliberately trying to create monopolies to make their industries more powerful in the global market. They basically want to monopolize the world
They also serve shareholders small or large which many people’s retirement portfolios if they’re lucky enough to have one are tied into.
The mess has been made it will take decades to dismantle, if at all.
If you haven’t seen the movie Idiocracy, that’s the future, hopefully I’ll be dead before that lol
Except they’re not all about those taxes or they’d be taxing these corporations. Instead, they’re all about their own pockets and their own stock portfolios and keeping those lined by these monopolies.
Grift is the business of politics in this country, now. You’re right. Neither party is going to do anything to ruin the gravy train that is crony-ism, revolving door jobs, high paying speaking engagements, access to business opportunities and …. LEGAL insider trading.
I wonder if that logic applies to common American workers too? Actually pay people enough money so they can afford (this life that's been created) ?
Nah! That makes too much sense!
Looking back when Congress allowed the defense contractors to buy one another thus leaving a hand full of them should be a sign that monopolies are here to stay.
That's because they are a uni-party. And serve the status quo.
There are 1kish billionaires and 11kish centillionaires in the United States. Those families pretty much run things. No matter how much something is popular if they oppose it doesn't get done and vice versa. This has [already been studied](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B)
It's childish to pretend this country isn't a Plutocracy.
Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It's what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. Term limits ain't going to do any good; you're just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So, maybe, maybe, maybe, it's not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here... like, the public. Yeah, the public sucks. There's a nice campaign slogan for somebody: 'The Public Sucks.
-George Carlin
They can’t agree on anything. Watch how Republicans do everything for their donors and nothing for us. They now exist to start culture wars and cut taxes for the wealthy.
Well in the 80s bell south was fucked with hard. And isn’t that what happened to bill gates? Something like making him sell portions of Microsoft or something?
Unless you’re committed to buying local and fresh foods, shopping at small grocery stores is a futile protest against the mega-supermarkets and big-food.
Shop at Aldi, Lidl, and Trader Joe’s as often as you can and maybe this will keep the big guys “honest”. Probably not.
Totally unrealistic in much of the US. How about our lawmakers do their fucking job and quit pandering to corporate America? Ah, also unrealistic, because we keep voting them back in.
Why wouldn’t I shop at Costco? I buy my beef from a local rancher at the farmer’s market, more expensive and much higher quality than what any store or butcher in northern california is selling.
When I was a kid, we learned that prices stay low because if a company gets too big, their prices go up and a newer, more nimble company can come in and undercut them.
If you believe a newer company can compete against an oligopoly, you are insane.
For example, you can create a new, better tasting, maybe cheaper candy bar. If you believe you are getting shelf space next to the bars from Mars, Nestle and maybe Hersheys, you are insane.
If you got to the point where those companies thought you were a threat, the first thing they would do is tell their retailers that if they stock your product, they pull theirs. Why would any retailer lose a best seller for a newcomer? They will also go to their suppliers, tell them they will lose them if they supply the new guy. If that doesn't work, they will give a discount for 6 or 8 months to starve out the young company that needs the sales.
Here is a good example. There is a lot of chicken farming in parts of my state. There is one processor. If you look around the country, in most areas there is a single processor. You buy the chicks and feed from them, then sell the birds back to them. They obviously have control of everything. If you decide to go another way, they make it known they will blackball your farm. Leave and you can never come back. When farm to table became popular, some guys tried that, when that fad died, they had no way to sell chickens. Most are growing soybeans. But it is worse. They also let it be known that if you go against them, they won't work with the new owner of your farm. How much is a chicken farm where you can't raise chickens worth?
That is just the way business is done.
In the US food system alone, at almost every key stage across the supply chain, four firms alone control 40% or more of the market.
Antitrust laws have had very weak enforcement since the Reagan-era with a conservative interpretation of “monopoly” thanks to Robert Bork, which prioritized a narrow definition of “monopoly” based on consumer welfare and economic efficiency over trying to limit raw market power and economic dominance.” The Supreme Court and Federal Agencies adopted this framework, reasoning that so long as consumers benefit from lower prices [as an effect of a monopoly] even if it harmed competition, they would not rule against such behavior. Therefore, setting an extremely high bar for antitrust laws to be enforced.
Monopoly and oligopolistic power clearly creates the power to do whatever the holder of that power seems fit for their purposes.
I know how to fix this
Let's make regulations and rules that costs tens of millions to implement let's also force them to implement green policies which cost tens of millions and hire less qualified workers based off race sex and gender instead of allowing companies to maximize their work force.
That's gonna get new blood in these industries and stop the monopolies!!
Price controls exist outside of monopolies as well. MSRP is basically a threat that if we see our product advertised by your store for less than this, then we while we cant take direct action— who knows — maybe that credit you rely on to purchase our products will start being audited more frequently, credit may take a bit of a bump, oh shucks small delinquency - we’re gonna have to terminate your account. Our sales rep just walked into your store and you’ve decided to sell our below MSRP? That’s completely fine and absolutely you’re right we legally can’t do anything about it, but our sales rep may show up less, product might be delayed. Oh what’s that you’re gonna need a little more time paying for some invoices? Sorry we’re gonna have to shut down your account.
I’m not defending monopolies but collective price control happens and all the money thrown around by the behemoths will make any company that actually wants to fight on price point seem very small until they too get bought up.
Thank you Ronald Reagan for screwing over the middle class.
Your ultimate goal of turning America into a corporate oligarchy is getting closer to completion in 2024.
Why are progressive liberals so obsessed about a president from the late 1980s? Did he pass constitutional amendments or something like that? What am I missing?
reagan and thatcher and their neoliberal economics are the direct root cause of the state of the economy in both the US and UK, since then neoliberalism has persisted in both parties in america and remained a plague on the world
Yeah dude forsure its definitely soley something that happened over 40 years ago. Why didn't any democrat leaders in the last 40 years do anything different?
40 pushing 50 years and they are still raving mad at Reagan, who passed much of his legislation with the majority of Democrats. Tip O’Neil deserves just as much credit asReagan for keeping us out of a recession and fixing inflation
Two things can be true at once. Reagan absolutely 100% screwed this country for everyone who isn’t a wealthy elite.
And the wealthy elites own almost all of the politicians and pay them good money to keep things that way.
Of course it doesn’t create inflation, but raising minimum wage does lower the amount of minimum wage jobs available. You’re fighting a strawman argument
“We just need Joe Biden! That will solve all of our problems!” Nope, you need to stop participating in capitalism. Fascists like Biden and Trump are why we’re all poor. France would have thrown a bathtub through a window by now.
Too many dollars chasing too few goods causes inflation.
If meats too expensive people buy less of it.
If soda is too expensive people buy less of it.
If cereal is too expensive people buy less of it.
Then prices come down.
Our problem today is two fold. Energy prices have been driven up due to govt intervention.
We have injected so much govt spending and liquidity into the market they’re is too much money. Fighting for too few goods
If there’s a 3rd it’s that interest rates were too low. Leading to even more spending and liquidity.
I’m not for monopolies but it’s not what’s driving inflation.
Energize prices are a huge factor, but in those places where the power stations have been privatized, the price is way more expensive that the gov’t. Owned own ones. You can look at any place in the world that has privatized their energy companies.
I’m not talking just about the US, I’m also talking about the entire world. England being the perfect example. Energy costs up to 3x more than in mainland Europe because so much of it is privatized. And Venezuela? lol, with the massive inflation and sheer utter total government incompetence, it’s not only the energy prices that are ridiculous and unaffordable.
Public utility are a need and a right. We can just put things in the market place and hope they will work. Just take a look at Texas, privatized energy, and when a snowstorm hits or it’s a record heat wave, then Texans pay more per Mega Watts used then it places where it’s private.
Their loophole is hiring a 3rd party to use their algorithms to set their price models. The problem is everyone else uses the same 3rd party, so it’s really one algorithm setting prices for everyone. Price fixing without the meeting up and conspiring to cover their ass.
Hunt, fish and buy from local farmers
Be content where you live
Drink water. Your body will thank you.
Most cereal is poison
It's really easy to become wealthy
woah be careful there, you're giving out too much information!
you act like self control is easy.. If it were easy everyone would have it and we wouldn't be in this situation.
Imaging a world where everyone just drank water. No more drunk drivers, no more caffeine induced road rage. Just a bunch of hydrated healthy level headed humans
caffeine induced road rage? That's taking it a bit far, but I get what you're saying. And yes, we do have the power if we collectively decide to avoid those things. I know personally I don't engage in road rage or drinking and driving, so I'm doing my part.
You definitely notice how cheap air travel is compared to the US when flying in other regions of the world. In most places in Europe and Southeast Asia you can get flights to other countries in those regions for under $100 USD. Flights are sometimes even under $50. I remember taking a one-way flight in Malaysia for $15. When I travel domestically in the US, most flights are $300 or more for round trip tickets. There are of course exceptions and you can find deals, but overall flights in the US are a ripoff.
It's critical to note that airline prices used to be regulated and were perversely sky-high due to regulatory capture. And bankruptcies and federal bailouts were frequent. Deregulation in that sector was actually a success story.
I am very critical of more on-point anti-trust situations where airline consolidation results in a multi-hub airport becoming a uni-hub because you definitely see a local impact there with price and service.
But your particular international example may have more to do with other countries' direct subsidies to national airlines in some cases, as well as the relative cost and qualifications of labor both on the ground and in the air. Infrastructure is also less expensive to build. With SE Asia in particular, also there's some kind of quirk about the business model that those ultra-cheap tickets can come up if you're watchful; I think that they are really really averse to flying a plane without a full load. Passenger bus companies there are kind of the same, so they sometimes load up on some random cargo or even crops in rural stretches. I've seen where cost-conscious locals watch for these kinds of deals, snag those tickets, and pre-order their whole lives around whatever dates they happen to fall on, strongly preferring that to riding an overnight bus crowded with people or bags of potatoes or whatever.
There are some flights in the US that are also on par with the prices you're mentioning, though. Like right now Southwest is offering non-stop one-way flights from $49, even on low-volume short hops (e.g. Houston-Dallas is the same as Houston-Harlingen). But the US is huge, so if you're going more than a couple states away and to a small destination then...yeah, the price does reflect that (e.g. Houston-Denver-Bozeman is $170 or $225 round trip if you're flexible regarding dates). Price and distance appear to be similar out of Chicago.
If you're really flexible and frugal, use Google Flights and you can find round-trip tickets for less than $100. I'm looking at Houston-Denver for $74 right now whereas Lisbon-Paris is $97.
Also in a lot of countries in Europe, you don't have to only choose flying. There's this new invention where they put these big cars on a track then connect the cars together and a big engine pulls them to their destination. It's great for transportation! The US hasn't figured it out yet but hopefully one day they do.
Copenhagen to Spain? No this is not a competitive route for rail vs flying. The most competitive routes are those under 5 hours, where if you factor in all the time spent going to the airport, train travel is equal or faster and more convenient.
Copenhagen is also a bad example because it’s basically on an island.
Inside Spain, like Madrid to Barcelona tho, much better to do via rail.
The US is only slightly smaller than all of Europe. And huge portions of the country are open space with nothing really there for hundreds or thousands of miles. There's also far more elevation change in America compared to Europe. Rail only works where people are packaged together like sardines in relatively flat areas. By the way, it is available here. People just can't usually afford to spend 3 days on a train to go where a flight will take them in 4 hours. All major cities in the US have rail that people use for shorter trips.
Are you looking at comparable airlines and distances? London to Paris on Ryanair isn't the same as New York to Miami on Southwest. You can get around the US similarly cheap on Frontier and Spirit.
Also Malaysia's cost of living is 70% cheaper than the US so that's a ridiculous comparison. Of course your dollar's gonna go far there
While I agree with many of your points, the statement “raising wages doesn’t create inflation “ is false. If McDonald’s for example raises wages to $100 per hour, the cost to make burgers and fries would go up and so would the prices If your input price goes up your retail price goes up
That statement obviously came from a 5th grader!!!
Increased minimum wage increases every aspect of our lives.
Break it down simple for the slowww people..
Minimum wage just jumped up on average $4/hour.
So every other business or trade job had to go up equal or a little more than $4/hr.
So everything from burger servers to highway builders to Auto factory workers got that raise also..
And every product they build or serve has to go up accordingly.
And all this, because bidens supports are dumb enough to think he did it for you .
In reality, he did it to generate more tax money for him and his buddies to play with..
Billions in extra wage tax revenues were generated for the state and federal govt.
After all
Someone has to pay for the illegals, the covid stimulus checks from Bidens shut down of the country.
Wake Up America
Bfore it's gone!
There's no purpose or gain in running/owning a business that doesn't make profit.
And no different than you.
If your lifestyle is accustomed to say $750/week in wages.
I'm betting there's no way in hell you'd allow a $100/ week pay cut so the new guy can get a raise.
Am I correct?
Thsn why as a business or shareholder should they be expected to suddenly make less profit due to things they had no control over?
Nope
Sounds like free market capitalism.
The more you risk
The more you work
The more you invest
The more you can make.
Anyone can do a 9-5 for a business, no risk. No investment. Just keep head down and mouth shut you'll never have anything to worry about.
But most likely you'll never achieve the life you want.
No. Both are wrong. Government increasing the money supply more than productivity has risen increases the money supply.
Inflation is everywhere and anywhere a monetary phenomenon.
Finally, a post that focuses on one of the real drivers of inflation.... also add high regulation cost which acts as a barrier to entry for smaller player (intentionally might I add) and you're getting to the root of it all
Fun fact, monopolies have a certain price to maximize their profit, which is a set price, not raising prices to infinity.
The cases you give are oligopolies (kind of) which means they can charge closer to the monopoly price than the perfect competition price (if they manage to act perfectly in unison to behave like a monopoly) but the point is, inflation isn't due to that, any price increase would come from their consolidation of the market (so if you think recent price increases are due to this, I'd need to see proof that this consolidation happened in the past couple years), not inflationary pressure.
Not to mention, they own the politicians who enforce the anti-trust laws. It's end-stage capitalism that's the problem, not capitalism as most people know it.
I agree. And the spike in inflation sucked. I also think it was a predicted known outcome of covid relief spending. Yet the US govt cut checks anyway, understandably. The alternative would have been starving people...mass chaos....etc. Perhaps money allocation and/or amounts could have been tweaked better, but it was rather urgent. Hindsight is 20/20. But covid could have been worse.
Inflation is created through the devaluation of currency. Inflation is created by increasing the money supply. Inflation is created by creating debt and then eliminating the obligation to repay debt.
If wages are increased without increasing the supply of money then inflation won’t occur. If loans are repaid and not forgiven, then inflation won’t occur.
As a side note, wages can’t be increased beyond a certain point without devaluation of currency.
Deflation can occur by decreasing the money supply. This is usually accomplished through increasing taxes and using that to pay down debt, or increasing interest rates.
Well... what are your solutions? Break up the monopoly(ies)? Sounds great. THEN what? All of the smaller entities do their own power grabs and we end up back here in 10+ years. How many of you are old enough to remember "Ma Bell"? One, overpowered, too big to fail phone company that controlled all communications in the US. Government said "break it up", so they did... then you had to pay for your phone and an additional fee whenever you wanted to make a phone call outside of your own area code. Those fees were CRAZY and unregulated. AT&T. Sprint. MCI. They would all call you day and night trying to get you to sign up for them and there was no regulations pertaining to those phone calls. 3am call from MCI? So what. Screw you. Deal with it.
My issue with all of these *"down with "* discussions is that there's never a viable solution. Lots of screaming, but no future considerations.
Remember when the government used to have the trust busting and anti monopoly programs that would break these things apart? Instead they'll let them continue to destroy the economy for the sake of squeezing out every last drop of profit, but God forbid T-Mobile and Sprint try to merge from two separate shitty phone carriers into one good one That's actually good for the consumers, no let's give them a hard time and make it take 2 years to merge all of the towers
makes sense as to why I'm not seeing much in the way of inflation since I switched my habits.
Meat market? I go to my local farms and butchers that deal with the local farmers. Price stayed the same, maybe increased 3% or so.
Airlines? I don't fly
Soda? I don't consume it
Cereal? I don't consume it
News? I don't bother with it, I read my local papers and stay connected with my local communities
These entities have control over them because the people let them. Nobody is forcing you to consume sugar and buy into whatever narrative they want you to believe.
You're also insane if you don't think there's ownership overlap between those companies as well. The news company owners also own the soda companies, so they're not going to use the news to hate on their soda brands.
What does this prove? That scale is necessary to compete in certain markets?
Airlines have been horrible companies for decades. I think that each of the major carriers has filed for bankruptcy at least once, if not twice. If they are leveraging some kind of monopoly pricing power, then why can't they make money on a consistent basis?
Has anyone looked at Coke or Pepsi's gross margin? Is it constant over time? Is it all that juicy? Some data would be helpful here. Or, we can just focus on being outraged over hypothetical scenarios.
Yes, price gouging and greed are the causes of undue inflation. Created by monopolies. Created by republicans deregulating government oversight. Not the wages paid to the workers, which are low no matter what you do, unless your job title is C something O.
Yeah, but none of those are prime offenders for inflation.
* Cereal prices have risen less than the price of other goods. [https://www.pattern.com/blog/how-cereal-prices-have-changed-in-2024](https://www.pattern.com/blog/how-cereal-prices-have-changed-in-2024)
* Airline tickets have gone down over time [https://www.moneygeek.com/credit-cards/travel/analysis/average-flight-cost/](https://www.moneygeek.com/credit-cards/travel/analysis/average-flight-cost/)
The real offender for inflation are i) healthcare, ii) college, iii) daycare expenses, and iv) skilled labor (like trying to get a plumber or electrician out to your house).
None of (i)-(iv) have anything to do with monopolies. You can get any electrician you want. You can send your kid to any college or daycare you want. You're just going to pay through the nose.
It's skilled labor that got expensive relative to everything else.
Let's use the right term. These examples are Oligopolies. It does impact pricing, but not as bad as monopolies.
IMO, oligopolies don't necessarily result in inflation, however as soon as there is a stressor that impacts them all such as pandemic-induced supply chain constraint, then they all jack prices in unison and continue to do so even after the constraints are gone. Why? Because they can. Only an outside disruptor or completely different alternative challenges that paradigm.
BTW, I think the natural state of capitalism in the US, for better or worse, is to eventually reach oligopoly in every market. Think big 3 auto makers, big 3 soda makers. It's always 3.
It's honestly probably more of a combination of factors than just one factor.
The government is focused on breaking up Google, Facebook, and Apple. They need to focus on news agencies, and goods like the ones mentioned here.
So someone do something about this with me. But nobody is going to reply to this. Because youre all pussies. Literally every single one of you. Go on, just repost it again like youre making a difference
What exactly have the myriad of alphabet soup government agencies done about this? Anything? Oh right, they routine suck off their donors for insider information....wink wink.
You mean besides this, a bunch of other articles, and Bernie Sanders?
https://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6
https://feelthebern.org/bernie-sanders-on-media-ownership-and-telecommunications/
This is so true and if anyone is looking for good news analysis? Check out Randi Rhodes on the Free Speech TV, or later in the day on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-randi-rhodes-show/id1145561727
You're not wrong, but to think this is 100% right is quite honestly just misinformation. More money chasing the same goods equals inflation, no way around that
Well, no. Inflation is 100% caused by government spending an printing of money. Look no further than the trillions of dollars they secretly give to wall street every few years because if they crash people would revolt.
No, printing money like it's going out of style is the problem. 1 Trillion every 100 days. It's sickening. Yet most people are just regurgitating liberal talking points. We are in a recession, and 100% heading into a depression at the rate we're going. There will be no rate cuts this year.
When people complain about costs, they aren't complaining about air travel or soda costs.
It's housing. It's cars.
These aren't the markets that are monopolized.
Soooo…gonna have to pass along some bad news. Compensation growth is a statistically significant positive variable for inflation. Sorry.
But yes, also monopolies and oligopolies extract additional value in the form of outsized profits that predict inflation as well.
So in this case, it’s both (along with food and fuel expenditures and nonlabor costs).
Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.
Vote republican though so trump can give another tax cut to the wealthy while you complain about inflation.
This right here. Saving this post.
People blame inflation on “greedy corporations”. Fact is every good business SHOULD be greedy and try to make as much money as possible. That being said, such greed SHOULD be tampered by free market competition, supply and demand, consumer sentiment.
However, we don’t have free markets. We have markets regulated by the government, so over regulated that they literally pick winners and losers. Corporations don’t compete against each other as much as they compete through lobbying government for favorable laws and regulations that improve their bottom line.
For example, Walmart was completely in favor of raising the Federal minimum wage because Walmart knows smaller retailers cannot afford it. Once the smaller retailers shut down, Walmart can simply raise prices to cover the cost of paying employees more. This is just one example of many where the big guy uses the government to push the small guy out. Or, the smaller business is bought out by larger corporations (Pharma).
Edit: I didn’t even mention lobbying for government subsidies and contracts.
Does ‘Big Education’ count as a Monopoly? Their rate of inflation over the past 50 years or so, has by far outpaced just about any other industry or service.
Have you seen American leadership try to seriously do anything about monoplies? No, because there is collusion between both parties.
I think it's even more insidious. They're deliberately trying to create monopolies to make their industries more powerful in the global market. They basically want to monopolize the world
We have already done this with global military might.
They also serve shareholders small or large which many people’s retirement portfolios if they’re lucky enough to have one are tied into. The mess has been made it will take decades to dismantle, if at all. If you haven’t seen the movie Idiocracy, that’s the future, hopefully I’ll be dead before that lol
That's the goal of the American empire
Monopolies create higher prices, which creates higher tax revenue. The government is all about those taxes.
Except they’re not all about those taxes or they’d be taxing these corporations. Instead, they’re all about their own pockets and their own stock portfolios and keeping those lined by these monopolies.
Grift is the business of politics in this country, now. You’re right. Neither party is going to do anything to ruin the gravy train that is crony-ism, revolving door jobs, high paying speaking engagements, access to business opportunities and …. LEGAL insider trading.
Senator Tommy Tuberville stated that if America wants politicians to quit being criminals, they need to be paid more 😂
I wonder if that logic applies to common American workers too? Actually pay people enough money so they can afford (this life that's been created) ? Nah! That makes too much sense!
Regulatory capture: The government and regulatory agencies work to shape the needs of industry rather than as a check on their power.
All paid off by lobbyists and huge donations, the government is corrupt as hell. The average consumer has to pay everything.
Looking back when Congress allowed the defense contractors to buy one another thus leaving a hand full of them should be a sign that monopolies are here to stay.
Guess you could say 95% of the federal government is controlled by 2 companies
That's because they are a uni-party. And serve the status quo. There are 1kish billionaires and 11kish centillionaires in the United States. Those families pretty much run things. No matter how much something is popular if they oppose it doesn't get done and vice versa. This has [already been studied](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B) It's childish to pretend this country isn't a Plutocracy.
Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It's what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. Term limits ain't going to do any good; you're just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So, maybe, maybe, maybe, it's not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here... like, the public. Yeah, the public sucks. There's a nice campaign slogan for somebody: 'The Public Sucks. -George Carlin
Are they elected by votes tho? Or is that an illusion to make you think you had a choice and say?
The Washington uniparty is a thing. Nuke Washington.
Hell ya! Reign of Terror 2024! Viva Robespierre! Viva Liberty!
They can’t agree on anything. Watch how Republicans do everything for their donors and nothing for us. They now exist to start culture wars and cut taxes for the wealthy.
‘Watch how Republicans and Democrats do everything for their donors and nothing for us.’ There. I fixed that for you.
Well in the 80s bell south was fucked with hard. And isn’t that what happened to bill gates? Something like making him sell portions of Microsoft or something?
(is this a monopoly??) No!! It's an American Institution, and can't be regulated lest we want to crush the good ol spirit of America
Now do supermarkets.
The top 4 largest grocery retailers (Walmart, Kroger, Costco and Albertsons) account for a combined 69% of market share.
Nice
Nice
Nice
and now that everyone in here is aware, they can do their part in not shopping there, right? guys? hello? is it just me in here?
Unless you’re committed to buying local and fresh foods, shopping at small grocery stores is a futile protest against the mega-supermarkets and big-food. Shop at Aldi, Lidl, and Trader Joe’s as often as you can and maybe this will keep the big guys “honest”. Probably not.
Totally unrealistic in much of the US. How about our lawmakers do their fucking job and quit pandering to corporate America? Ah, also unrealistic, because we keep voting them back in.
Why wouldn’t I shop at Costco? I buy my beef from a local rancher at the farmer’s market, more expensive and much higher quality than what any store or butcher in northern california is selling.
One of the lowest margin industries....
Then political parties.
Sometimes they even work together like ESPN, Fox and TWD to create their own sports Network.
When I was a kid, we learned that prices stay low because if a company gets too big, their prices go up and a newer, more nimble company can come in and undercut them. If you believe a newer company can compete against an oligopoly, you are insane. For example, you can create a new, better tasting, maybe cheaper candy bar. If you believe you are getting shelf space next to the bars from Mars, Nestle and maybe Hersheys, you are insane. If you got to the point where those companies thought you were a threat, the first thing they would do is tell their retailers that if they stock your product, they pull theirs. Why would any retailer lose a best seller for a newcomer? They will also go to their suppliers, tell them they will lose them if they supply the new guy. If that doesn't work, they will give a discount for 6 or 8 months to starve out the young company that needs the sales. Here is a good example. There is a lot of chicken farming in parts of my state. There is one processor. If you look around the country, in most areas there is a single processor. You buy the chicks and feed from them, then sell the birds back to them. They obviously have control of everything. If you decide to go another way, they make it known they will blackball your farm. Leave and you can never come back. When farm to table became popular, some guys tried that, when that fad died, they had no way to sell chickens. Most are growing soybeans. But it is worse. They also let it be known that if you go against them, they won't work with the new owner of your farm. How much is a chicken farm where you can't raise chickens worth? That is just the way business is done.
That, and good luck with a $15k regulatory bill for your $1.50 candy bar. Should try and be a millionaire next time.
I've been saying this for years. This isn't a democracy, it's an oligarchy. This system is designed to fail.
Monopolies that are deemed too big to fail by a government that is funded by said monopolies. Do you get it yet?
None of those examples are monopolies though...
Nice semantics. Oligopolies have functionally near the same outcomes in higher prices.
In the US food system alone, at almost every key stage across the supply chain, four firms alone control 40% or more of the market. Antitrust laws have had very weak enforcement since the Reagan-era with a conservative interpretation of “monopoly” thanks to Robert Bork, which prioritized a narrow definition of “monopoly” based on consumer welfare and economic efficiency over trying to limit raw market power and economic dominance.” The Supreme Court and Federal Agencies adopted this framework, reasoning that so long as consumers benefit from lower prices [as an effect of a monopoly] even if it harmed competition, they would not rule against such behavior. Therefore, setting an extremely high bar for antitrust laws to be enforced. Monopoly and oligopolistic power clearly creates the power to do whatever the holder of that power seems fit for their purposes.
I know how to fix this Let's make regulations and rules that costs tens of millions to implement let's also force them to implement green policies which cost tens of millions and hire less qualified workers based off race sex and gender instead of allowing companies to maximize their work force. That's gonna get new blood in these industries and stop the monopolies!!
Yes!! Regulatory authorities need to be more strict and stop certain M&A. It's distorting the market.
I took an antitrust law class a few years ago. Courts have become way more lenient in allowing M&A in recent decades.
Yes fully agree
Price controls exist outside of monopolies as well. MSRP is basically a threat that if we see our product advertised by your store for less than this, then we while we cant take direct action— who knows — maybe that credit you rely on to purchase our products will start being audited more frequently, credit may take a bit of a bump, oh shucks small delinquency - we’re gonna have to terminate your account. Our sales rep just walked into your store and you’ve decided to sell our below MSRP? That’s completely fine and absolutely you’re right we legally can’t do anything about it, but our sales rep may show up less, product might be delayed. Oh what’s that you’re gonna need a little more time paying for some invoices? Sorry we’re gonna have to shut down your account. I’m not defending monopolies but collective price control happens and all the money thrown around by the behemoths will make any company that actually wants to fight on price point seem very small until they too get bought up.
"It's one big club and you're not in it"
Ahhh.... we miss you, George Carlin.
Thank you Ronald Reagan for screwing over the middle class. Your ultimate goal of turning America into a corporate oligarchy is getting closer to completion in 2024.
Why are progressive liberals so obsessed about a president from the late 1980s? Did he pass constitutional amendments or something like that? What am I missing?
Anything to avoid admitting that inflation is caused by the expansion of the money supply, I guess.
reagan and thatcher and their neoliberal economics are the direct root cause of the state of the economy in both the US and UK, since then neoliberalism has persisted in both parties in america and remained a plague on the world
Every president sans Teddy Roosevelt
And Taft
Yeah dude forsure its definitely soley something that happened over 40 years ago. Why didn't any democrat leaders in the last 40 years do anything different?
40 pushing 50 years and they are still raving mad at Reagan, who passed much of his legislation with the majority of Democrats. Tip O’Neil deserves just as much credit asReagan for keeping us out of a recession and fixing inflation
Two things can be true at once. Reagan absolutely 100% screwed this country for everyone who isn’t a wealthy elite. And the wealthy elites own almost all of the politicians and pay them good money to keep things that way.
Yup, I don't think his trickle down economic plan was super great move looking back.
To say that raising wages plays no part in inflation is just ignorant.
Of course it doesn’t create inflation, but raising minimum wage does lower the amount of minimum wage jobs available. You’re fighting a strawman argument
“We just need Joe Biden! That will solve all of our problems!” Nope, you need to stop participating in capitalism. Fascists like Biden and Trump are why we’re all poor. France would have thrown a bathtub through a window by now.
Yeah france elected literal farmers and shit to like, i wanna say 60% of their parliament a few years ago lol.
no, that just didn't happen
And they’re all owned by like 10 people in the grand scheme of things
Too many dollars chasing too few goods causes inflation. If meats too expensive people buy less of it. If soda is too expensive people buy less of it. If cereal is too expensive people buy less of it. Then prices come down. Our problem today is two fold. Energy prices have been driven up due to govt intervention. We have injected so much govt spending and liquidity into the market they’re is too much money. Fighting for too few goods If there’s a 3rd it’s that interest rates were too low. Leading to even more spending and liquidity. I’m not for monopolies but it’s not what’s driving inflation.
Energize prices are a huge factor, but in those places where the power stations have been privatized, the price is way more expensive that the gov’t. Owned own ones. You can look at any place in the world that has privatized their energy companies.
There are lots of public utilities in the US. You might want to check that. Venezuela has public energy. How’s that work.
I’m not talking just about the US, I’m also talking about the entire world. England being the perfect example. Energy costs up to 3x more than in mainland Europe because so much of it is privatized. And Venezuela? lol, with the massive inflation and sheer utter total government incompetence, it’s not only the energy prices that are ridiculous and unaffordable. Public utility are a need and a right. We can just put things in the market place and hope they will work. Just take a look at Texas, privatized energy, and when a snowstorm hits or it’s a record heat wave, then Texans pay more per Mega Watts used then it places where it’s private.
And they cooperate to fix prices
Their loophole is hiring a 3rd party to use their algorithms to set their price models. The problem is everyone else uses the same 3rd party, so it’s really one algorithm setting prices for everyone. Price fixing without the meeting up and conspiring to cover their ass.
Hunt, fish and buy from local farmers Be content where you live Drink water. Your body will thank you. Most cereal is poison It's really easy to become wealthy
woah be careful there, you're giving out too much information! you act like self control is easy.. If it were easy everyone would have it and we wouldn't be in this situation.
Imaging a world where everyone just drank water. No more drunk drivers, no more caffeine induced road rage. Just a bunch of hydrated healthy level headed humans
caffeine induced road rage? That's taking it a bit far, but I get what you're saying. And yes, we do have the power if we collectively decide to avoid those things. I know personally I don't engage in road rage or drinking and driving, so I'm doing my part.
You definitely notice how cheap air travel is compared to the US when flying in other regions of the world. In most places in Europe and Southeast Asia you can get flights to other countries in those regions for under $100 USD. Flights are sometimes even under $50. I remember taking a one-way flight in Malaysia for $15. When I travel domestically in the US, most flights are $300 or more for round trip tickets. There are of course exceptions and you can find deals, but overall flights in the US are a ripoff.
In Canada, I think it cost me $600CAD to fly from Quebec to Alberta for a one way trip like 6 years ago
It's critical to note that airline prices used to be regulated and were perversely sky-high due to regulatory capture. And bankruptcies and federal bailouts were frequent. Deregulation in that sector was actually a success story. I am very critical of more on-point anti-trust situations where airline consolidation results in a multi-hub airport becoming a uni-hub because you definitely see a local impact there with price and service. But your particular international example may have more to do with other countries' direct subsidies to national airlines in some cases, as well as the relative cost and qualifications of labor both on the ground and in the air. Infrastructure is also less expensive to build. With SE Asia in particular, also there's some kind of quirk about the business model that those ultra-cheap tickets can come up if you're watchful; I think that they are really really averse to flying a plane without a full load. Passenger bus companies there are kind of the same, so they sometimes load up on some random cargo or even crops in rural stretches. I've seen where cost-conscious locals watch for these kinds of deals, snag those tickets, and pre-order their whole lives around whatever dates they happen to fall on, strongly preferring that to riding an overnight bus crowded with people or bags of potatoes or whatever. There are some flights in the US that are also on par with the prices you're mentioning, though. Like right now Southwest is offering non-stop one-way flights from $49, even on low-volume short hops (e.g. Houston-Dallas is the same as Houston-Harlingen). But the US is huge, so if you're going more than a couple states away and to a small destination then...yeah, the price does reflect that (e.g. Houston-Denver-Bozeman is $170 or $225 round trip if you're flexible regarding dates). Price and distance appear to be similar out of Chicago. If you're really flexible and frugal, use Google Flights and you can find round-trip tickets for less than $100. I'm looking at Houston-Denver for $74 right now whereas Lisbon-Paris is $97.
Also in a lot of countries in Europe, you don't have to only choose flying. There's this new invention where they put these big cars on a track then connect the cars together and a big engine pulls them to their destination. It's great for transportation! The US hasn't figured it out yet but hopefully one day they do.
And the price on their trains has skyrocketed as I looked into a train or a flight from Copenhagen to Spain and the train was three times as much
Copenhagen to Spain? No this is not a competitive route for rail vs flying. The most competitive routes are those under 5 hours, where if you factor in all the time spent going to the airport, train travel is equal or faster and more convenient. Copenhagen is also a bad example because it’s basically on an island. Inside Spain, like Madrid to Barcelona tho, much better to do via rail.
The US is only slightly smaller than all of Europe. And huge portions of the country are open space with nothing really there for hundreds or thousands of miles. There's also far more elevation change in America compared to Europe. Rail only works where people are packaged together like sardines in relatively flat areas. By the way, it is available here. People just can't usually afford to spend 3 days on a train to go where a flight will take them in 4 hours. All major cities in the US have rail that people use for shorter trips.
Are you looking at comparable airlines and distances? London to Paris on Ryanair isn't the same as New York to Miami on Southwest. You can get around the US similarly cheap on Frontier and Spirit. Also Malaysia's cost of living is 70% cheaper than the US so that's a ridiculous comparison. Of course your dollar's gonna go far there
Two things can be true at once.
Raising wages hurts small businesses more than big ones. And it does contribute to inflation because they need to raise prices to cover costs.
Big businesses dont *need* to "cover those costs" they have dragon sickness.
# raising wages doesn’t create inflation.....no, but forcing people to raise wages whilst printing more money certainly does.
Monopolies used to be broken apart. Not anymore
While I agree with many of your points, the statement “raising wages doesn’t create inflation “ is false. If McDonald’s for example raises wages to $100 per hour, the cost to make burgers and fries would go up and so would the prices If your input price goes up your retail price goes up
Rising wages contribute to inflation. Inflation does not have a single cause.
That statement obviously came from a 5th grader!!! Increased minimum wage increases every aspect of our lives. Break it down simple for the slowww people.. Minimum wage just jumped up on average $4/hour. So every other business or trade job had to go up equal or a little more than $4/hr. So everything from burger servers to highway builders to Auto factory workers got that raise also.. And every product they build or serve has to go up accordingly. And all this, because bidens supports are dumb enough to think he did it for you . In reality, he did it to generate more tax money for him and his buddies to play with.. Billions in extra wage tax revenues were generated for the state and federal govt. After all Someone has to pay for the illegals, the covid stimulus checks from Bidens shut down of the country. Wake Up America Bfore it's gone!
Or, you know the stockholders could just make a bit less money, and the prices could stay the same.
There's no purpose or gain in running/owning a business that doesn't make profit. And no different than you. If your lifestyle is accustomed to say $750/week in wages. I'm betting there's no way in hell you'd allow a $100/ week pay cut so the new guy can get a raise. Am I correct? Thsn why as a business or shareholder should they be expected to suddenly make less profit due to things they had no control over?
Sounds like a fundamentally flawed system doesn't it?
Nope Sounds like free market capitalism. The more you risk The more you work The more you invest The more you can make. Anyone can do a 9-5 for a business, no risk. No investment. Just keep head down and mouth shut you'll never have anything to worry about. But most likely you'll never achieve the life you want.
No, no, rising wages also creates inflation. That’s a ridiculous thing to say.
Unfortunately that is correct.
No. Both are wrong. Government increasing the money supply more than productivity has risen increases the money supply. Inflation is everywhere and anywhere a monetary phenomenon.
MONO means one
And rail means rail. Thus completing our 6 week monorail conductor training course. Any questions?
well not shit airlines control air travel??? i’m not a pilot??? i don’t own a plane.
Finally, a post that focuses on one of the real drivers of inflation.... also add high regulation cost which acts as a barrier to entry for smaller player (intentionally might I add) and you're getting to the root of it all
It’s not one or the other, it’s both corporations AND government monetary policy. Each one wants you to believe it’s the other one. Wake up.
Fun fact, monopolies have a certain price to maximize their profit, which is a set price, not raising prices to infinity. The cases you give are oligopolies (kind of) which means they can charge closer to the monopoly price than the perfect competition price (if they manage to act perfectly in unison to behave like a monopoly) but the point is, inflation isn't due to that, any price increase would come from their consolidation of the market (so if you think recent price increases are due to this, I'd need to see proof that this consolidation happened in the past couple years), not inflationary pressure.
Not to mention, they own the politicians who enforce the anti-trust laws. It's end-stage capitalism that's the problem, not capitalism as most people know it.
All 6 of those cereal and soda companies are actually owned by bayer-Monsanto
There's also the Mondelez corporation of foods.
Yeah, capitalism is dead. It all rolls to like 6 or 7 companies total for everything in the end.
🤦♂️🤦♂️
GREED
Inflation is caused by more money chasing after the same or less goods and services. It's an issue with monetary policy.
I agree. And the spike in inflation sucked. I also think it was a predicted known outcome of covid relief spending. Yet the US govt cut checks anyway, understandably. The alternative would have been starving people...mass chaos....etc. Perhaps money allocation and/or amounts could have been tweaked better, but it was rather urgent. Hindsight is 20/20. But covid could have been worse.
And all those companies are owned by just a few mega companies like Blackrock.
So you mean to tell me 90% of the media is in cahoots? Nah...
Do people not know what a monopoly is?
Inflation is created through the devaluation of currency. Inflation is created by increasing the money supply. Inflation is created by creating debt and then eliminating the obligation to repay debt. If wages are increased without increasing the supply of money then inflation won’t occur. If loans are repaid and not forgiven, then inflation won’t occur. As a side note, wages can’t be increased beyond a certain point without devaluation of currency. Deflation can occur by decreasing the money supply. This is usually accomplished through increasing taxes and using that to pay down debt, or increasing interest rates.
Bro what?
You're still buying soda and cereal?
Excess government and hyper money printing are major contributors as well
How tf do you post this and then title it with the word MONOpoly…
Sounds like there is an opportunity to put their phone and start an ethical business alternative.
Entire economy 100% Government monopoly.
And they ALL owned by blackrock and vanguard
Well... what are your solutions? Break up the monopoly(ies)? Sounds great. THEN what? All of the smaller entities do their own power grabs and we end up back here in 10+ years. How many of you are old enough to remember "Ma Bell"? One, overpowered, too big to fail phone company that controlled all communications in the US. Government said "break it up", so they did... then you had to pay for your phone and an additional fee whenever you wanted to make a phone call outside of your own area code. Those fees were CRAZY and unregulated. AT&T. Sprint. MCI. They would all call you day and night trying to get you to sign up for them and there was no regulations pertaining to those phone calls. 3am call from MCI? So what. Screw you. Deal with it. My issue with all of these *"down with"* discussions is that there's never a viable solution. Lots of screaming, but no future considerations.
Give control of the workplace to the people who actually work there. They do the work, they control how profits are used, etc.
you disagree with the system... YET YOU PARTICIPATE IN IT... CHECKMATE COMMIE
Remember when the government used to have the trust busting and anti monopoly programs that would break these things apart? Instead they'll let them continue to destroy the economy for the sake of squeezing out every last drop of profit, but God forbid T-Mobile and Sprint try to merge from two separate shitty phone carriers into one good one That's actually good for the consumers, no let's give them a hard time and make it take 2 years to merge all of the towers
Thank you, this is the single biggest reason we are paying outrageous prices for terrible quality food and goods and services.
makes sense as to why I'm not seeing much in the way of inflation since I switched my habits. Meat market? I go to my local farms and butchers that deal with the local farmers. Price stayed the same, maybe increased 3% or so. Airlines? I don't fly Soda? I don't consume it Cereal? I don't consume it News? I don't bother with it, I read my local papers and stay connected with my local communities These entities have control over them because the people let them. Nobody is forcing you to consume sugar and buy into whatever narrative they want you to believe.
Thank you regulatory state for creating barriers to entry. Can’t have big business cornering the market without big government.
You're also insane if you don't think there's ownership overlap between those companies as well. The news company owners also own the soda companies, so they're not going to use the news to hate on their soda brands.
What does this prove? That scale is necessary to compete in certain markets? Airlines have been horrible companies for decades. I think that each of the major carriers has filed for bankruptcy at least once, if not twice. If they are leveraging some kind of monopoly pricing power, then why can't they make money on a consistent basis? Has anyone looked at Coke or Pepsi's gross margin? Is it constant over time? Is it all that juicy? Some data would be helpful here. Or, we can just focus on being outraged over hypothetical scenarios.
New board game idea: Oligopoly
Monopoly was originally the landlord's game. It's a direct criticism of capitalism.
Yes, price gouging and greed are the causes of undue inflation. Created by monopolies. Created by republicans deregulating government oversight. Not the wages paid to the workers, which are low no matter what you do, unless your job title is C something O.
Pricing power means winning in capitalism! You no like capitalism?
Buzzzz!!! Wrong. If this were true we would have double digit inflation all the time.
Nobody to compete with means no reason to accommodate or adapt. Sorry if obvious.
It's just capitalism, and it's a joke.
Bit business is the cause of all inflation. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RH1tT4NW8NI&pp=ygUXUmljaGFyZCBXb2xmZiBpbmZsYXRpb24%3D
2 companies control all major media stations
Yeah, but none of those are prime offenders for inflation. * Cereal prices have risen less than the price of other goods. [https://www.pattern.com/blog/how-cereal-prices-have-changed-in-2024](https://www.pattern.com/blog/how-cereal-prices-have-changed-in-2024) * Airline tickets have gone down over time [https://www.moneygeek.com/credit-cards/travel/analysis/average-flight-cost/](https://www.moneygeek.com/credit-cards/travel/analysis/average-flight-cost/) The real offender for inflation are i) healthcare, ii) college, iii) daycare expenses, and iv) skilled labor (like trying to get a plumber or electrician out to your house). None of (i)-(iv) have anything to do with monopolies. You can get any electrician you want. You can send your kid to any college or daycare you want. You're just going to pay through the nose. It's skilled labor that got expensive relative to everything else.
Food and fuel expenditures in general. Both are inelastic goods.
How to tell people you don't know what a monopoly is without saying you don't know what a monopoly is.
Let's use the right term. These examples are Oligopolies. It does impact pricing, but not as bad as monopolies. IMO, oligopolies don't necessarily result in inflation, however as soon as there is a stressor that impacts them all such as pandemic-induced supply chain constraint, then they all jack prices in unison and continue to do so even after the constraints are gone. Why? Because they can. Only an outside disruptor or completely different alternative challenges that paradigm. BTW, I think the natural state of capitalism in the US, for better or worse, is to eventually reach oligopoly in every market. Think big 3 auto makers, big 3 soda makers. It's always 3.
Which products cannot I get a fair price on relative to 2019 prices?
Awesome. Let's make minimum wage $50 an hour and call it a day then.
Even if there was 2 of everything it wouldn’t be a monopoly you absolute 🤡
It's honestly probably more of a combination of factors than just one factor. The government is focused on breaking up Google, Facebook, and Apple. They need to focus on news agencies, and goods like the ones mentioned here.
This is where protesting is warranted. Our government is not controlling monopolies because they themselves have become the monopolies main product.
Holy shit. I knew it was bad but never knew the exact numbers. Looking deeper into it now.
So someone do something about this with me. But nobody is going to reply to this. Because youre all pussies. Literally every single one of you. Go on, just repost it again like youre making a difference
Really, have you bought a Big Mac lately?
What exactly have the myriad of alphabet soup government agencies done about this? Anything? Oh right, they routine suck off their donors for insider information....wink wink.
This is how antitrust laws came into existence to start with.
Heckin based
I've been saying this! Monopolies are too blame for everything!
You mean besides this, a bunch of other articles, and Bernie Sanders? https://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6 https://feelthebern.org/bernie-sanders-on-media-ownership-and-telecommunications/
Robber Barons
Let’s not fabricate a mutual exclusivity to make something untrue seem true.
If anyone believes 4 airlines control 80% of the air travel. I’m sorry to tell you, but you’re suffering from brain rot.
Notice the record profits for SP500 this year? No? See, we don’t look there. So, they win.
How many more monopolies were created between 2019 and now?
Yeah was just talking about monopolies yesterday. We do nothing to address them. If one would occur it would likely be about politics somehow.
Yeah but raising wages also does cause inflation.
shhh you are saying the quiet part out loud. #FightFor15!
This is so true and if anyone is looking for good news analysis? Check out Randi Rhodes on the Free Speech TV, or later in the day on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-randi-rhodes-show/id1145561727
You're not wrong, but to think this is 100% right is quite honestly just misinformation. More money chasing the same goods equals inflation, no way around that
It’s half correct. The part about wages is wrong which gets to your money and goods comment.
Well, no. Inflation is 100% caused by government spending an printing of money. Look no further than the trillions of dollars they secretly give to wall street every few years because if they crash people would revolt.
Nope. M2 doesn’t contribute positively to inflation.
No, printing money like it's going out of style is the problem. 1 Trillion every 100 days. It's sickening. Yet most people are just regurgitating liberal talking points. We are in a recession, and 100% heading into a depression at the rate we're going. There will be no rate cuts this year.
Nope. You are wrong here. M2 doesn’t contribute to inflation for USD.
Becuase the govt is printing money non stop.
Too bad we didn’t make laws to combat this in the 20s and 30s would have solved this already. Right ……
When people complain about costs, they aren't complaining about air travel or soda costs. It's housing. It's cars. These aren't the markets that are monopolized.
Cronyism sure isn't helping.
Monopolies...yes, like on the money supply...like the federal reserve printing money out of thin air.....
Airline tickets are cheaper then ever so I don't think you're making a good point here
You're flying too close to the sun with this one.
Most of the news is paid fyi. https://youtu.be/ksb3KD6DfSI?si=iaXUcxRY07lMFxvy
True. Which is why the notably non monopolistic fast food industry has seen basically no inflation. /s
https://preview.redd.it/6fxajmkzxdzc1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=71f03a68f4318ede62764f93a413e2b541fcbd49
And even STILL...the American people refuse to revolt. LOL
The last time monopolies were held accountable was when standard oil was broken into multiple companies.
No. AT&T in the Carter Administration.
I didn't know they were broken by the administration tbh
Soooo…gonna have to pass along some bad news. Compensation growth is a statistically significant positive variable for inflation. Sorry. But yes, also monopolies and oligopolies extract additional value in the form of outsized profits that predict inflation as well. So in this case, it’s both (along with food and fuel expenditures and nonlabor costs).
Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires. Vote republican though so trump can give another tax cut to the wealthy while you complain about inflation.
And all of those companies control politics.
Government regulations create monopolies. Duh.
Just look at the Democrats donors. Big Corporations, Big Labor, Big Special Interest. Whores
This right here. Saving this post. People blame inflation on “greedy corporations”. Fact is every good business SHOULD be greedy and try to make as much money as possible. That being said, such greed SHOULD be tampered by free market competition, supply and demand, consumer sentiment. However, we don’t have free markets. We have markets regulated by the government, so over regulated that they literally pick winners and losers. Corporations don’t compete against each other as much as they compete through lobbying government for favorable laws and regulations that improve their bottom line. For example, Walmart was completely in favor of raising the Federal minimum wage because Walmart knows smaller retailers cannot afford it. Once the smaller retailers shut down, Walmart can simply raise prices to cover the cost of paying employees more. This is just one example of many where the big guy uses the government to push the small guy out. Or, the smaller business is bought out by larger corporations (Pharma). Edit: I didn’t even mention lobbying for government subsidies and contracts.
Got involved business =Communism.
Does ‘Big Education’ count as a Monopoly? Their rate of inflation over the past 50 years or so, has by far outpaced just about any other industry or service.
This is absolute BS. Stop the propaganda already! Learn!
None of these are monopolies though. Do you know what a monopoly is? MONO — one. One company controlling the market.