Price gouging as her first policy announcement? Really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's the thing. I don't care anything about this, but when people are constantly complaining about prices and inflation, and then she tries to propose a solution, it's heresy.

What do you want from her exactly? Trump hasn't said 2 words beyond, prices are up. Ok.

He’s talked repeatedly about fixing gas pipelines and bringing the US back to a place of energy independence and then energy dominance. Decreasing gas prices will naturally decrease the cost of goods across the board.

That oil pipeline was not actually for oil. Tar sands is not used for producing gasoline. It’s a very polluting process to even get it to something useable, which will never be gasoline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you deported all the illegals there would be more supply and less demand for everything.

Why can’t we increase the number of immigration courts to process asylees faster? Asylees, by the way, are not here illegally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Ahhhh yes. Price controls. Because that has worked out so well for making affordable housing in NYC. Name a single country on Earth that has ever done well with govt prices controls on the macro economy and food. We will be great once we are turned into Argentina and Venezuela. Dems are moving at breakneck speed towards socialism. Now they literally want to control the means of production through strict price controls.

It isn't a price control. The government isn't saying " you can only charge this price" it is "you can't increase it by more than x%" and x is much more than the typical market rate increase. Plenty of places in the US have these types of restrictions for rents and it has not stopped housing production in those places (housing production has been low for other reasons in places with and without these laws).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The FTC already found evidence that the companies that run grocery stores are price gouging.
https://www.ftc.gov/reports/feeding-america-time-crisis-ftc-staff-report-united-states-grocery-supply-chain-covid-19-pandemic

No, the report said consistently elevated profits (through the third quarter of 2023) warranted further research:

"Grocery retailer profits rose and remain elevated, warranting further consideration by the Commission and policymakers. This study did not test whether the specific companies that received 6(b) Orders increased their prices by more or less than their input cost increases. However, publicly available data on general grocery retail patterns reveal that during the pandemic, one measure of annual profits for food and beverage retailers—the amount of money companies make over and above their total costs—rose substantially and remain quite elevated. Specifically, food and beverage retailer revenues increased to more than 6 percent over total costs in 2021, higher than their most recent peak, in 2015, of 5.6 percent. In the first three-quarters of 2023, retailer profits rose even more, with revenue reaching 7 percent over total costs. This casts doubt on assertions that rising prices at the grocery store are simply moving in lockstep with retailers’ own rising costs. These elevated profit levels warrant further inquiry by the Commission and policymakers."

[Anonymous]

I think it was smart: price gouging is affecting the whole middle class and anyone poor right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Food and Grocery companies are not price gouging and aren't getting rich, the cost of these things have gone up. The only real price gouging is contractors doing work on houses of that is because of govt regulations subsidizing home repairs and renovations for energy savings. So it's short sighted to go after grocery stores when its deeper than that.

The food and grocery industry have been making huge profits. They started jacking prices up during the pandemic, initially due to supply chain issues, but as the supply chain issues were resolved, they continued jacking up prices and increasing their profit margins. They very much are gouging.

https://qz.com/supermarket-prices-grocery-food-inflation-pandemic-1851369826

Because consumers have too much money, dimwit. Companies keep raising prices yet demand is barely dented. Companies will stop raising prices once consumers stop buying yet consumers don’t stop buying. You fail to ask the fundamental question of why do consumers have so much stamina for these price increases? That’s because they’re too flush with cash due to the trillions of dollars the govt printed and spent with stimulus injections into the economy.


You think all those stimi checks, extensions of unemployment that were paying people more than they made at their jobs, student loan repayment moratoriums, rent moratoriums, and billions handed out to states to spend have no consequences and are free money? The piper must be paid and it comes in the form of inflation.

Ahh yes, the famously elastic demand for...*checks notes*...food.

The GOP, everybody: "If you don't like how expensive food is, have you tried not eating?"

And they never mention credit card debt. Most Americans have just become accustomed to living with debt. Buying basics on cards and paying interest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Food and Grocery companies are not price gouging and aren't getting rich, the cost of these things have gone up. The only real price gouging is contractors doing work on houses of that is because of govt regulations subsidizing home repairs and renovations for energy savings. So it's short sighted to go after grocery stores when its deeper than that.

The food and grocery industry have been making huge profits. They started jacking prices up during the pandemic, initially due to supply chain issues, but as the supply chain issues were resolved, they continued jacking up prices and increasing their profit margins. They very much are gouging.

https://qz.com/supermarket-prices-grocery-food-inflation-pandemic-1851369826

Because consumers have too much money, dimwit. Companies keep raising prices yet demand is barely dented. Companies will stop raising prices once consumers stop buying yet consumers don’t stop buying. You fail to ask the fundamental question of why do consumers have so much stamina for these price increases? That’s because they’re too flush with cash due to the trillions of dollars the govt printed and spent with stimulus injections into the economy.


You think all those stimi checks, extensions of unemployment that were paying people more than they made at their jobs, student loan repayment moratoriums, rent moratoriums, and billions handed out to states to spend have no consequences and are free money? The piper must be paid and it comes in the form of inflation.

Ahh yes, the famously elastic demand for...*checks notes*...food.

The GOP, everybody: "If you don't like how expensive food is, have you tried not eating?"

And they never mention credit card debt. Most Americans have just become accustomed to living with debt. Buying basics on cards and paying interest.

That is also because Americans have an addiction to things. Newest iPhone, 80 inch TV, Barcalounger, expensive cars, middle class vacations to Paris, London and Rome. The ease of credit makes those things accessible. Kind of like republicans and tanks and boats and planes and guns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Government price controls on consumer goods is COMMUNISM.

That’s all.

It literally isn’t communism. Use your brain cells for once. Communism would be the government expropriating your food producing business, dismantling the owner-worker dynamic, and letting the workers oversee how much production to make.

Potato potahto

[Anonymous]

I think that she’s smart to pick something that impacts all of us. It’s disingenuous to talk about prices being up “1% this past year” — without knowing what people are actually buying, without looking at prices pre-COVID, and without looking at corporate profits. Most of us know that we’re spending quite a bit more — both in dollar amounts and as a percentage of our incomes— than we were a few years ago. We also see the financial impact lower quality and deceptive packaging.

Harris’s stance will help most of us in a quality-of-life area that really matters. It also puts her policies in sharp contrast with the Republican policies that have prioritized corporate and shareholder profits above quality of life for the rest of us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Ahhhh yes. Price controls. Because that has worked out so well for making affordable housing in NYC. Name a single country on Earth that has ever done well with govt prices controls on the macro economy and food. We will be great once we are turned into Argentina and Venezuela. Dems are moving at breakneck speed towards socialism. Now they literally want to control the means of production through strict price controls.

It isn't a price control. The government isn't saying " you can only charge this price" it is "you can't increase it by more than x%" and x is much more than the typical market rate increase. Plenty of places in the US have these types of restrictions for rents and it has not stopped housing production in those places (housing production has been low for other reasons in places with and without these laws).

Of course it's a price control. Changing definitions doesn't hide it.

You are correct, what we call it doesn't matter. But until we see an actual policy proposal, it's absurd to claim this is going to have the same impact as rigid price controls. The notion that Harris will propose rigid price controls is preposterous. The language she is using is anti gauging which already exists in the US for rents in some jurisdictions and the impact on the economy is minimal. It also probably doesn't help people that much either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Food and Grocery companies are not price gouging and aren't getting rich, the cost of these things have gone up. The only real price gouging is contractors doing work on houses of that is because of govt regulations subsidizing home repairs and renovations for energy savings. So it's short sighted to go after grocery stores when its deeper than that.

The food and grocery industry have been making huge profits. They started jacking prices up during the pandemic, initially due to supply chain issues, but as the supply chain issues were resolved, they continued jacking up prices and increasing their profit margins. They very much are gouging.

https://qz.com/supermarket-prices-grocery-food-inflation-pandemic-1851369826

Because consumers have too much money, dimwit. Companies keep raising prices yet demand is barely dented. Companies will stop raising prices once consumers stop buying yet consumers don’t stop buying. You fail to ask the fundamental question of why do consumers have so much stamina for these price increases? That’s because they’re too flush with cash due to the trillions of dollars the govt printed and spent with stimulus injections into the economy.


You think all those stimi checks, extensions of unemployment that were paying people more than they made at their jobs, student loan repayment moratoriums, rent moratoriums, and billions handed out to states to spend have no consequences and are free money? The piper must be paid and it comes in the form of inflation.

Ahh yes, the famously elastic demand for...*checks notes*...food.

The GOP, everybody: "If you don't like how expensive food is, have you tried not eating?"

And they never mention credit card debt. Most Americans have just become accustomed to living with debt. Buying basics on cards and paying interest.

That's a personal choice. If you make poor life choices, it's on you.

Your idea of reclassifying half the country as poor doesn't wash.

I didn’t reclassify anyone. I’m a new poster. I’m saying people are still buying overpriced basics because of credit and the defense that “it’s what the market will bear” is dishonest when you don’t factor in consumer debt increases. When people start missing payments $hit going to hit the fan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Food and Grocery companies are not price gouging and aren't getting rich, the cost of these things have gone up. The only real price gouging is contractors doing work on houses of that is because of govt regulations subsidizing home repairs and renovations for energy savings. So it's short sighted to go after grocery stores when its deeper than that.

The food and grocery industry have been making huge profits. They started jacking prices up during the pandemic, initially due to supply chain issues, but as the supply chain issues were resolved, they continued jacking up prices and increasing their profit margins. They very much are gouging.

https://qz.com/supermarket-prices-grocery-food-inflation-pandemic-1851369826

Because consumers have too much money, dimwit. Companies keep raising prices yet demand is barely dented. Companies will stop raising prices once consumers stop buying yet consumers don’t stop buying. You fail to ask the fundamental question of why do consumers have so much stamina for these price increases? That’s because they’re too flush with cash due to the trillions of dollars the govt printed and spent with stimulus injections into the economy.


You think all those stimi checks, extensions of unemployment that were paying people more than they made at their jobs, student loan repayment moratoriums, rent moratoriums, and billions handed out to states to spend have no consequences and are free money? The piper must be paid and it comes in the form of inflation.

Ahh yes, the famously elastic demand for...*checks notes*...food.

The GOP, everybody: "If you don't like how expensive food is, have you tried not eating?"

And they never mention credit card debt. Most Americans have just become accustomed to living with debt. Buying basics on cards and paying interest.

That's a personal choice. If you make poor life choices, it's on you.

Your idea of reclassifying half the country as poor doesn't wash.

I didn’t reclassify anyone. I’m a new poster. I’m saying people are still buying overpriced basics because of credit and the defense that “it’s what the market will bear” is dishonest when you don’t factor in consumer debt increases. When people start missing payments $hit going to hit the fan.

Let’s eliminate credit cards then

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you deported all the illegals there would be more supply and less demand for everything.

Why can’t we increase the number of immigration courts to process asylees faster? Asylees, by the way, are not here illegally.

Many of them have not actually complied with what should be done. They are supposed to go to the nearest safe country. Many of them go through several countries where they could stay. That's because they aren't actually asylum seekers, but rather, they are committing asylum fraud as a means of obtaining entry into the United States--fraud is actually illegal.

[Anonymous]

It will be as useful as the Elizabeth Warren transparency in real estate transactions that was supposed to be beneficial to buyers. Now buyers have to sign two settlement statements instead of one. Each statement has the same information but arranged differently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Food and Grocery companies are not price gouging and aren't getting rich, the cost of these things have gone up. The only real price gouging is contractors doing work on houses of that is because of govt regulations subsidizing home repairs and renovations for energy savings. So it's short sighted to go after grocery stores when its deeper than that.

The food and grocery industry have been making huge profits. They started jacking prices up during the pandemic, initially due to supply chain issues, but as the supply chain issues were resolved, they continued jacking up prices and increasing their profit margins. They very much are gouging.

https://qz.com/supermarket-prices-grocery-food-inflation-pandemic-1851369826

Because consumers have too much money, dimwit. Companies keep raising prices yet demand is barely dented. Companies will stop raising prices once consumers stop buying yet consumers don’t stop buying. You fail to ask the fundamental question of why do consumers have so much stamina for these price increases? That’s because they’re too flush with cash due to the trillions of dollars the govt printed and spent with stimulus injections into the economy.


You think all those stimi checks, extensions of unemployment that were paying people more than they made at their jobs, student loan repayment moratoriums, rent moratoriums, and billions handed out to states to spend have no consequences and are free money? The piper must be paid and it comes in the form of inflation.

Ahh yes, the famously elastic demand for...*checks notes*...food.

The GOP, everybody: "If you don't like how expensive food is, have you tried not eating?"

And they never mention credit card debt. Most Americans have just become accustomed to living with debt. Buying basics on cards and paying interest.

That's a personal choice. If you make poor life choices, it's on you.

Your idea of reclassifying half the country as poor doesn't wash.

I didn’t reclassify anyone. I’m a new poster. I’m saying people are still buying overpriced basics because of credit and the defense that “it’s what the market will bear” is dishonest when you don’t factor in consumer debt increases. When people start missing payments $hit going to hit the fan.

Let’s eliminate credit cards then

No, let's counsel people how to properly run their financial lives but then allow them to live their lives. It's called individual choice and free will. And if they fail, they can't shoulder it on anyone else.

No more bankruptcy? Trump will kill that in a hot minute.