Anonymous wrote:PPI. https://www.worlddata.info/cost-of-living.php

Note that the U.S. is one of only 7 countries with a PPI of 100 or greater. And people try to argue that we’re poor and that capitalism doesn’t work. Ha!

I want to point out that the reason the US is 100 is that the US is the benchmark, not because we achieved some third-party standard.

However, it is indeed very useful to see just how much purchasing power the US enjoys given that we are a large, populous, and diverse nation. The only other countries that rank higher are much smaller and highly homogenous countries, and usually with an economy that is largely dependent or targeted narrowly at some specific industry.

PPI. https://www.worlddata.info/cost-of-living.php

Note that the U.S. is one of only 7 countries with a PPI of 100 or greater. And people try to argue that we’re poor and that capitalism doesn’t work. Ha!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The poor become more irrelevant every day as technology advances. It’s the way it’s always been and always will be. The labor shift away from low skilled workers to automation is happening now. Great thing about robots and software is that they don’t require benefits, higher wages, or join unions. They also can be programmed to take out rebellious masses of the poor. Inflation is the modern day culling under the planet’s survival of the fittest playbook.

Then the poor start robbing your stores by smashing and grabbing items.

Yeah but that’s where the cops of today who shot and beat the looters will turn into armed drones and robots tomorrow. The moral of the story is don’t get caught being poor. Study hard, work hard, be smart in your choices and if you live in the US you have an extremely high chance of not being poor, despite inflation.

That is a cherished Republican myth. The only place you have an "extremely high chance of not being poor" is in a socialist-style democracy. You do not have that chance in a capitalist democracy like ours that values profit over people. It is what it is.

Yet the Haitian and Hispanic immigrants in my area are generally home owners within 15 years of coming to the US. They buy older housing stock but generally can afford older brick ranchers or concrete block homes. They work hard and while they are saving are also sending money back to the home country to more distant relatives.

The experience of immigrants is different than that of native-born Americans. Immigrants from poor countries tend to put up with work conditions that native-born Americans won’t accept. Which is why they are over-represented in many undesirable jobs. Saying that someone from Haiti – – the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere – – can succeed in the US is like saying water is wet; they literally have nowhere to go but up.

You are a moron. Are you a teenager?

Anonymous wrote:There IS no inflation beyond price hikes by capitalist corporatists.

Our current situation is the perfect illustration of why private sector producers of essential items (food, energy, etc) should be nationalized so that prices can be stabilized.

Yea, because that worked out so well everywhere that had tried it that you are able to give us multiple examples of it. Right?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The poor become more irrelevant every day as technology advances. It’s the way it’s always been and always will be. The labor shift away from low skilled workers to automation is happening now. Great thing about robots and software is that they don’t require benefits, higher wages, or join unions. They also can be programmed to take out rebellious masses of the poor. Inflation is the modern day culling under the planet’s survival of the fittest playbook.

Then the poor start robbing your stores by smashing and grabbing items.

Yeah but that’s where the cops of today who shot and beat the looters will turn into armed drones and robots tomorrow. The moral of the story is don’t get caught being poor. Study hard, work hard, be smart in your choices and if you live in the US you have an extremely high chance of not being poor, despite inflation.

That is a cherished Republican myth. The only place you have an "extremely high chance of not being poor" is in a socialist-style democracy. You do not have that chance in a capitalist democracy like ours that values profit over people. It is what it is.

Yet the Haitian and Hispanic immigrants in my area are generally home owners within 15 years of coming to the US. They buy older housing stock but generally can afford older brick ranchers or concrete block homes. They work hard and while they are saving are also sending money back to the home country to more distant relatives.

The experience of immigrants is different than that of native-born Americans. Immigrants from poor countries tend to put up with work conditions that native-born Americans won’t accept. Which is why they are over-represented in many undesirable jobs. Saying that someone from Haiti – – the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere – – can succeed in the US is like saying water is wet; they literally have nowhere to go but up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The poor become more irrelevant every day as technology advances. It’s the way it’s always been and always will be. The labor shift away from low skilled workers to automation is happening now. Great thing about robots and software is that they don’t require benefits, higher wages, or join unions. They also can be programmed to take out rebellious masses of the poor. Inflation is the modern day culling under the planet’s survival of the fittest playbook.

I live in Maryland and I consistently have to self checkout my groceries.

Acme--I regularly have to self checkout with my cart full of $450 in groceries. They generally only one human working a checkout lane. If you don't do self checkout you can't exit the store.

Walmart Market--I have to self checkout there. I only pick up a few things here. They only have two human checkout operators here. You funnel through to the self checkout kiosks to exit the store.

Food Lion--still employs checkout operators--no self checkout here.

This is one reason why I like Publix in Florida. I've never seen a self checkout in a store.

No self checkout for me. I will wait on a line and read the National Enquirer before buying something at a store and being put to work. To the CEO earning $25 M a year off of this, screw you.

I suspect much of the shipping in of self checkout kiosks is due to shortage of workers. In a way it is a what came first the chicken or the egg.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:bUt InFlAtIoN

All of these companies had record low profits in 2020.

There was very low demand for gas in 2020 because of COVID.
We didn't have 6.8% inflation in 2020
Gas prices is now one of the top things contributing to inflation.
Gas companies jacked costs up to greedily boost their profits and it's cascaded into cost increases in other sectors.
Our inflation crisis is being manufactured, by the private sector.

Accusations of price gouging are ridiculous. Nobody was saying this when oil was negative in 2020.

Oil and gas is an incredibly capital intensive industry. When demand falls, you cannot quickly just shut down say, the Permian Basin, in a day. That's why the price for oil dropped negative for a short period of time in 2020. There's still a risk for another dramatic drop in demand (a new COVID variant), risk of war with a major oil producer (Russia), and risk of rising interest rates (oil and gas companies need loans to maintain their capital intensive industry). Companies need to price in this risk somehow.

Chicken pricing started going up when Biden extended the extreme unemployment checks. The chicken processing plants are competing against the governments free money for workers. If the government pays people to stay home then the price to work as a chicken processor rises. Prior to Covid the chicken processing plants on Delmarva were paying $12 - $15 per hour to process your chicken. Due to government policies implemented during Covid the chicken processing companies now are paying $18 - $20 per hour to work in the factories for unskilled labor to process your chicken.

Poorly implemented government policy has a significant effect on inflation.

The farmers on Delmarva can keep up with your demand for chicken. The bottleneck is keeping factory workers on the factory floor to process your chicken. If there is not enough factory workers then chickens in the chicken get euthanized. This is costly to the farmers and to the banks who lend to the farmers. It is another factor driving up the price of your chickens.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The poor become more irrelevant every day as technology advances. It’s the way it’s always been and always will be. The labor shift away from low skilled workers to automation is happening now. Great thing about robots and software is that they don’t require benefits, higher wages, or join unions. They also can be programmed to take out rebellious masses of the poor. Inflation is the modern day culling under the planet’s survival of the fittest playbook.

Then the poor start robbing your stores by smashing and grabbing items.

Yeah but that’s where the cops of today who shot and beat the looters will turn into armed drones and robots tomorrow. The moral of the story is don’t get caught being poor. Study hard, work hard, be smart in your choices and if you live in the US you have an extremely high chance of not being poor, despite inflation.

That is a cherished Republican myth. The only place you have an "extremely high chance of not being poor" is in a socialist-style democracy. You do not have that chance in a capitalist democracy like ours that values profit over people. It is what it is.

Yet the Haitian and Hispanic immigrants in my area are generally home owners within 15 years of coming to the US. They buy older housing stock but generally can afford older brick ranchers or concrete block homes. They work hard and while they are saving are also sending money back to the home country to more distant relatives.

There IS no inflation beyond price hikes by capitalist corporatists.

Our current situation is the perfect illustration of why private sector producers of essential items (food, energy, etc) should be nationalized so that prices can be stabilized.

Avocados today were $1.29 *each*. And that's on sale, supposedly...down from $1.99 per avocado. Since when did they become a luxury item now? They used to be 3 for $2 only a few years ago. Truly absurd.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The poor become more irrelevant every day as technology advances. It’s the way it’s always been and always will be. The labor shift away from low skilled workers to automation is happening now. Great thing about robots and software is that they don’t require benefits, higher wages, or join unions. They also can be programmed to take out rebellious masses of the poor. Inflation is the modern day culling under the planet’s survival of the fittest playbook.

Then the poor start robbing your stores by smashing and grabbing items.

Yeah but that’s where the cops of today who shot and beat the looters will turn into armed drones and robots tomorrow. The moral of the story is don’t get caught being poor. Study hard, work hard, be smart in your choices and if you live in the US you have an extremely high chance of not being poor, despite inflation.

That is a cherished Republican myth. The only place you have an "extremely high chance of not being poor" is in a socialist-style democracy. You do not have that chance in a capitalist democracy like ours that values profit over people. It is what it is.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:bUt InFlAtIoN

All of these companies had record low profits in 2020.

There was very low demand for gas in 2020 because of COVID.
We didn't have 6.8% inflation in 2020
Gas prices is now one of the top things contributing to inflation.
Gas companies jacked costs up to greedily boost their profits and it's cascaded into cost increases in other sectors.
Our inflation crisis is being manufactured, by the private sector.

Accusations of price gouging are ridiculous. Nobody was saying this when oil was negative in 2020.

Oil and gas is an incredibly capital intensive industry. When demand falls, you cannot quickly just shut down say, the Permian Basin, in a day. That's why the price for oil dropped negative for a short period of time in 2020. There's still a risk for another dramatic drop in demand (a new COVID variant), risk of war with a major oil producer (Russia), and risk of rising interest rates (oil and gas companies need loans to maintain their capital intensive industry). Companies need to price in this risk somehow.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:bUt InFlAtIoN

All of these companies had record low profits in 2020.

There was very low demand for gas in 2020 because of COVID.
We didn't have 6.8% inflation in 2020
Gas prices is now one of the top things contributing to inflation.
Gas companies jacked costs up to greedily boost their profits and it's cascaded into cost increases in other sectors.
Our inflation crisis is being manufactured, by the private sector.

I'm pretty sure you never took Econ 101 and have no idea what inflation really is.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:bUt InFlAtIoN

All of these companies had record low profits in 2020.

There was very low demand for gas in 2020 because of COVID.
We didn't have 6.8% inflation in 2020
Gas prices is now one of the top things contributing to inflation.
Gas companies jacked costs up to greedily boost their profits and it's cascaded into cost increases in other sectors.
Our inflation crisis is being manufactured, by the private sector.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The poor become more irrelevant every day as technology advances. It’s the way it’s always been and always will be. The labor shift away from low skilled workers to automation is happening now. Great thing about robots and software is that they don’t require benefits, higher wages, or join unions. They also can be programmed to take out rebellious masses of the poor. Inflation is the modern day culling under the planet’s survival of the fittest playbook.

I live in Maryland and I consistently have to self checkout my groceries.

Acme--I regularly have to self checkout with my cart full of $450 in groceries. They generally only one human working a checkout lane. If you don't do self checkout you can't exit the store.

Walmart Market--I have to self checkout there. I only pick up a few things here. They only have two human checkout operators here. You funnel through to the self checkout kiosks to exit the store.

Food Lion--still employs checkout operators--no self checkout here.

This is one reason why I like Publix in Florida. I've never seen a self checkout in a store.

No self checkout for me. I will wait on a line and read the National Enquirer before buying something at a store and being put to work. To the CEO earning $25 M a year off of this, screw you.