Why's Everything So Expensive?

Kento

Duke status
Jan 11, 2002
68,687
20,894
113
The Bar
You forgot the part about most small businesses run on thin margins and their owners aren't making out like bandits.

Therefore wage increases are an issue for them.
Somebody will have to eat the cost.

The business owner? The employee (lost hours, automation)? The consumer?

It's not big corporations that are getting f*cked as much, it's the little guys.
I hear you.

Got a good solution to protect the small businesses and keep them operating while crushing the big corporations?

The Walmartification of this country has long been an issue.
 

grapedrink

Duke status
May 21, 2011
25,938
14,725
113
A Beach
And they will still continue to get undercut by the large corporations and shutter their doors.
True, although the big boys have similar margins. They just have a larger war chest and footprint. For them it’s a volume game.
 

PRCD

Tom Curren status
Feb 25, 2020
12,513
8,548
113
Sorry to hear that.

Bezos-China controls all.

How does Prime shipping even work? How do they have so much sh!t in stock at a particular location you can get basically everything next day?
Not sure. Prime is their killer app.

These GloboMegaCorps are going to be a disaster for us. Most of their logistics go through naval chokepoints in Malaysia, Indo, and SE Asia too. We're going to regret offshoring all of our mfg because it was good for Jack Welch clones.
 

oneula

Miki Dora status
Jun 3, 2004
4,363
2,711
113
makes sense
they've been losing their shirt shipping to Hawaii free for Prime customers especially since you can buy just about anything on Amazon (weight and size wise). My postman hates me with some of the larger items I've purchased.

Since we just dug up a 90's Stereo MCs tune for our latest commercial, I'll let these other 90's euro-rappers I followed with them back then tell their story of what's going on


 

Waterlogged05

Michael Peterson status
May 14, 2005
1,923
1,822
113
market has already moved on, despite higher inflation numbers numbers right now after a low year, market has priced in inflation not being an issue... for now. Inflation was so low last year the fed was trying to get it up a bit more.
The term thrown around right now is "transitory" like I said before. Although we will see in 6 months.
Whoever mentioned shrinkflation is right, they are cutting out dope bro! noticed that on a lot of my hygiene products

10 year bond yield down today and stocks back up across the board, positive sentiment for da summah baybay

As far as how we can help small businesses?

Maybe if healthcare wasn't a racket where insurance companies can fuck us and place the burden on businesses and individuals the small businesses would have higher margins. Healthcare should never be tied to employment. Some 1800s wage slave bullsh!t. We have enough money for standardized healthcare and it would save us money in less than 10 years. Combine that with a healthier workforce = better employment numbers.

"The researchers found that the economic models that were supported by left-leaning funders or that were done by academics found slightly larger net savings. But analyses supported by more conservative funders or performed outside of academia still predicted single-payer systems would yield savings.
“This means that across the political spectrum, there is near consensus among these economists that a single-payer system would save money,” said Christopher Cai, a third-year medical student at UCSF and the study’s first author. “Replacing private insurance with a public system is essential to achieving these savings.”

source: https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/01/416416/single-payer-systems-likely-save-money-us-analysis-finds



Raising the wage on restaurant workers has a very small impact in overall costs for the products.


By Lina Moe, James Parrott, and Yannet Lathrop
"This is the first assessment of restaurant employment and earnings over the entire period of New York City’s historic minimum wage increases, 2013-18. Contrary to fears of massive job losses, $20 Big Macs, and shuttered restaurants, we found a thriving industry.

The New York State minimum wage rose in phases from $7.25 an hour at the end of 2013 to $13.50 during 2018. During this period, New York City has seen a strong economic expansion of the restaurant industry, outpacing national growth in employment, annual wages, and the number of both limited- and full-service restaurant establishments. The restaurant industry has the highest proportion of workers affected by the minimum wage of any major industry.

Compared to 12 large cities around the country that did not have any minimum wage increases from 2013-18, New York City’s restaurants generally have seen stronger job growth. New York City’s experience is consistent with the latest research focusing on the food services industry in large cities where there have been large minimum wage increases—no negative employment effects and sizable average wage gains for restaurant workers.

This report does not suggest that New York City’s sharp minimum wage increase caused restaurant employment to soar—the more rapid restaurant employment gains likely are due to the city’s faster private job growth. But the research presented here clearly shows that the large wage floor rise did not diminish various indicators of restaurant performance, including job growth.

New York’s rising minimum wage has tremendously benefitted low-wage workers, including those in both the full-service and limited-service categories. New York City workers in the lowest-paid three deciles of the wage distribution had inflation-adjusted wage gains of 8.5 to 15 percent since 2013 (the largest wage gains for these workers in the last 50 years). Wage gains among restaurant workers have been even stronger, with 2013-18 real wage increases averaging 15-23 percent for full-service and 26-30 percent for limited-service restaurant workers. "

-Source: http://www.centernyc.org/new-york-citys-15-minimum-wage
 
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Waterlogged05

Michael Peterson status
May 14, 2005
1,923
1,822
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burgers and wings are designer now bro.
What's next Album presents w Stab, the Kerrger! Twin Cheese on top of a low rockered toasted brioche bun made to conquer the appetite of the socal soul surfer or the aussie slab chaser after a gnarly sesh! only 23.99 if you show your vaccine and varial foam membership card!
 

vanrysss

Billy Hamilton status
Mar 25, 2019
1,630
3,669
113
from Oregon, now SD
Not to be antagonistic, but is there any data backing that claim up, or reputable studies? It's an oft-repeated argument made by Republicans that doesn't jive well.

Economic theory says that wage increases are actually good for businesses. The additional cost of labor is more than offset by the increase in spending power by laborers in the aggregate. That line of thinking is ultimately based on marginal utility of income which basically says that giving poor people money is good because they spend it all.