Why is everything so expensive (general rant)

[Anonymous]

It didn't help that Trump's tariff's drove up the cost of consumer goods. And it came out of nowhere so businesses and consumers both got got screwed!

Now, I think that corporations feel they can get away with charging $$$.

I agree, it's crazy. Things that I didn't used to worry about or thought I wouldn't have to think twice about-- hotel room at a 2 or 3-star hotel or a 2-hour flight cost 2 to 3 times what they used. So you have to think twice.

[Anonymous]

Ignoring politics entirely: mood, OP. Everything costs so much and I’m always low grade worried about money. Nothing I can do about it though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is crazy, this is beyond inflation, the pandemic drove prices up and they haven’t gone down.

It’s greed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CEO's and their bonuses.

And profits to shareholders. The pandemic showed companies exactly what consumers were willing to tolerate, so they've doubled down to increase profits at the expense of consumers, and society in general.

Afraid you’re both right. We make three times more than we did 10 years ago and nothing about our quality of life/lifestyle has improved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It didn't help that Trump's tariff's drove up the cost of consumer goods. And it came out of nowhere so businesses and consumers both got got screwed!

Now, I think that corporations feel they can get away with charging $$$.

I agree, it's crazy. Things that I didn't used to worry about or thought I wouldn't have to think twice about-- hotel room at a 2 or 3-star hotel or a 2-hour flight cost 2 to 3 times what they used. So you have to think twice.

Yep. I just spent $1200 for a 1.5 hour plane ride in “economy”. Insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is crazy, this is beyond inflation, the pandemic drove prices up and they haven’t gone down.

It’s greed.

Yes. Corporate greed. CEOs and their executives want to keep receiving millions in bonuses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is crazy, this is beyond inflation, the pandemic drove prices up and they haven’t gone down.

It’s greed.

Yes. Corporate greed. CEOs and their executives want to keep receiving millions in bonuses

Ding ding ding!! Winner winner chicken dinner!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It didn't help that Trump's tariff's drove up the cost of consumer goods. And it came out of nowhere so businesses and consumers both got got screwed!

Now, I think that corporations feel they can get away with charging $$$.

I agree, it's crazy. Things that I didn't used to worry about or thought I wouldn't have to think twice about-- hotel room at a 2 or 3-star hotel or a 2-hour flight cost 2 to 3 times what they used. So you have to think twice.

Biden is forcing cities to pay billions for all the illegal aliens he has flooded our country with.

Biden directly ordered our border to be opened to all. 7,000 per day, up to 11,0000 per day are simply walking right into our country, directly because of Biden.

When Arizona built its own temporary wall, Biden sued them and forced Arizona to tear down its wall. Only months later, Mayorkas - who was hand-picked by Biden - called for building more walls.

And now Biden is handing out gift-cards to them as an incentive.

[Anonymous]

Agree. But a significant part of this is due to being in the DC area. Once you get beyond the exurbs, prices go down.

Not everything but a lot of things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It didn't help that Trump's tariff's drove up the cost of consumer goods. And it came out of nowhere so businesses and consumers both got got screwed!

Now, I think that corporations feel they can get away with charging $$$.

I agree, it's crazy. Things that I didn't used to worry about or thought I wouldn't have to think twice about-- hotel room at a 2 or 3-star hotel or a 2-hour flight cost 2 to 3 times what they used. So you have to think twice.

Biden is forcing cities to pay billions for all the illegal aliens he has flooded our country with.

Biden directly ordered our border to be opened to all. 7,000 per day, up to 11,0000 per day are simply walking right into our country, directly because of Biden.

When Arizona built its own temporary wall, Biden sued them and forced Arizona to tear down its wall. Only months later, Mayorkas - who was hand-picked by Biden - called for building more walls.

And now Biden is handing out gift-cards to them as an incentive.

I hate engaging with this, but do you even bother to think this through? For instance, the PP is talking about the cost of hotels and airfare. You are talking about the burden of illegal immigrants on city governments. But city governments are not the reason hotels and flights cost more. I have not noticed a significant rise in municipal tourist taxes. It's the sticker price on hotels that stings. So your argument makes no point. Even if cities are struggling to accommodate immigrants, it is not what is making hotels pricier.

Likewise, whatever skirmishes the US government has had with Arizona over wall building (an idiotic proposition that does not even solve the problem of illegal immigration and is just a weird obsession of MAGAites who like screaming tag lines at rallies) that's not why flights cost twice what they used to. A border wall has zero impact on the costs of fuel and labor, on corporate bonus and dividend strategy, etc.

If you're going to make these inane arguments that Biden's immigration policy is somehow to blame for inflation, the least you could do is attempt to draw a connection between your weird claims and the topic at hand. That way instead of a raving lunatic, you would merely be incorrect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you need to build up your emergency savings so that these non-recurring expenses don't wreck your budget.

Earmark separate savings for luxuries/treats. So they're not conflicting with each other.

This isn’t a question about personal budget. There is no budget hack for simply not making enough money and things costing so much

The question is why do things cost so much?

Because everyone wants them. It was better back when only a small group of people would think of getting a weekend cabin and the rest of society understood that enjoying themselves in their hut was as good as it was going to get.

[Anonymous]

Govt has to incentivize what they want in society. We have incentivized corporate profits and shareholder value. Humans are not altruistic - no animal is as its wants to survive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It didn't help that Trump's tariff's drove up the cost of consumer goods. And it came out of nowhere so businesses and consumers both got got screwed!

Now, I think that corporations feel they can get away with charging $$$.

I agree, it's crazy. Things that I didn't used to worry about or thought I wouldn't have to think twice about-- hotel room at a 2 or 3-star hotel or a 2-hour flight cost 2 to 3 times what they used. So you have to think twice.

Yep. I just spent $1200 for a 1.5 hour plane ride in “economy”. Insane.

This is because the gov doesn’t allow airlines to go bankrupt, like it ought to do.

[Anonymous]

I think we also need to have a reset on what makes life enjoyable. Not everyone is meant to have overseas vacations and eat out everyday. Our great grandparents didn’t splurge on things like that but this culture of greed you talk about makes us think we need to. We are bombarded with what others are doing on social media. I don’t think people truly understand what living within your means actually means. If you can’t afford to pay off your credit card then you certainly shouldn’t be having that extra cup of coffee. OP you said what kind of life is that without these luxuries, you need to find happiness in everyday things. If I died today, I’m not thinking about how I never traveled to Europe, I’m thinking about how I could have bonded with my children more. We also live in a world of replace rather than repair. If we learned to fix things instead of rushing out and replacing appliances, we could save there too. You also don’t need to have the most modern kitchen and furniture. Society should accept that hand me down furniture from our parents is just fine. Ask yourself why you don’t like your grandmother cherry furniture, it’s because you are bombarded with ads and pictures of modern styles to make you purchase more. Things are only more expensive because we feed into this culture.

[Anonymous]

Here's my enlightened centrist take:

Both the political right and left are correct. There are winners and losers in economic policy, whether Biden or Trump, and the middle class is getting squeezed, at least the presumed white collar, professional-managerial class. In fact, I think the whole concept of the college educated white collar middle class is about to face a real reckoning.

Biden's and Democratic policies have been a win for blue collar service economy workers to an extent. Their wages have gone up, in many cases significantly, and LMC had more social safety nets during the pandemic. There have also been laudable efforts to give the worst-off people a break: forgiving $10K of student loan debt (makes much more of a difference for those who never finished their degrees or went to CCs or lower tier schools with fewer opportunities than someone with an expensive degree), child tax credits, stimulus payments, etc. I don't actually think this all contributes as much to inflation as the right thinks, I really do think inflation originated more with supply chains and then just continued because of the "vibe" and companies knowing they can get away with it. But generally yes, blue collar/service worker people have been somewhat better off.

The other winners from both Biden AND Trump Covid and post-Covid policies are the corporate executives. Airlines for example got huge bailouts and there were no enforcement mechanisms to ensure they held onto their end of the bargain and not lay off people. The thing that the right wing understands but the idealist left does not, is that there is virtually no government regulation or economic policy that can force down executive pay or limit shareholder profits. There simply isn't. Every restriction, tax, regulation, impact fee, you name it, imposed on businesses will be pushed back to the consumer. Every. Single. One. Yes, I hate it too. But it's true. So the left is correct that "corporate greed" is the source of inflation but the left is wrong that they can do anything about it. The only thing they can do is respond to incentives.

Now back to the white collar middle class. The "losers" of this economy are the traditional knowledge-economy, middle management, corporate ladder but non-C-suite jobs. They see prices going up, executive bonuses going up, service workers wages going up, but their own wages are stagnant. As all kinds of products and services go up in cost, companies are cutting other costs elsewhere, such as professional services, consulting, IT, anything knowledge and "analysis" based that doesn't connect to raw materials or jobs affected by minimum wage hikes. So your white collar analyst/consultant/middle manager making $75K-150K is not going to be making any more money if they are even lucky enough not to be laid off. They are finding their earning power to be closer to that of a fast food worker than the corporate ladder they aspired to. The uncomfortable truth is that the market actually calls for much more makers and doers than thinkers and analyzers. And this is doubly unfortunate for people who took out student loans to get into the knowledge economy. We'll see where AI fits into the mix but really, recession-era millennials were really sold a bad batch of goods when they were told that college degrees and knowledge economy were the surefire tickets to the American Dream. Hustle, skills, and luck are, and there is nothing the government can do to change that.