Random Thoughts

[disneysteve]

It's basically a race to the bottom, and you see that as wages no longer keep pace with inflation, productivity, or even time spent working. There is no moralism in capitalism and a lot of people and businesses hide behind that fact and only do things in self-interest or profit. We've played the game long enough to start to see how it ends. Just like the game of Monopoly.

There are countless examples, most notably throughout the pandemic and period of high inflation, where prices got higher and higher, wages remained relatively stagnant, but corporate profits skyrocketed to record highs. What does that tell you? It's tough to pretend that you're raising prices because of inflationary issues when you're making higher profits than ever before in the process. Clearly you could have kept prices lower and just "settled" for however many billions you earned last year.

[skives]

It's basically a race to the bottom, and you see that as wages no longer keep pace with inflation, productivity, or even time spent working. There is no moralism in capitalism and a lot of people and businesses hide behind that fact and only do things in self-interest or profit. We've played the game long enough to start to see how it ends. Just like the game of Monopoly.

I was thinking this exact thing. Is capitalism like monopoly. It’s over when one person has all the money.

[disneysteve]

What I was saying is do you think full time employment in day a fast food or grocery store entitles those works to a living wage?

I definitely understand the games employers play to keep workers from obtaining full time status but just like everyone can’t be doctors not every employer needs all full timers but as I type this I am rethinking that statement.

I think someone working a full time job ought to be able to afford to live a basic life without a bunch of frills and luxuries without having to work a 2nd job and have 3 roommates in a 2-room apartment.

As for what employers need, it's definitely a game. At my daughter's last job, only the managers were full time with benefits. Every other employee was part time with no benefits. They could have chosen to have 10 full timers instead of 20-25 part timers but that wouldn't have been nearly as profitable for them.

[disneysteve]

Housing costs are definitely a part of this. We often see data showing that the median income worker earns nowhere near enough to afford the median priced home in a given area. Nobody builds affordable homes anymore because that's not where the money is. The average new home today is something like 3 times the size of the average new home in 1950 even though the average family size is smaller. There's a disconnect that just keeps getting worse and making it harder and harder for lower income people to get ahead.

[skives]

Is the simple answer greed?

[disneysteve]

Is the simple answer greed?

I suppose it comes down to that, but it's not entirely that simple either.

As I said, there are many people who tend to blame poverty on the poor. Their standpoint is that anyone can be successful in life if they try. While that may be true to an extent, it's also grossly oversimplifying how the world works.

But sure, greed plays a part. Look OPEC and Russia recently agreed to cut oil production to boost prices. Is it because their business was suffering? Not at all. They've actually been booking record profits. So why cut production? Because they control the market and can ratchet down the supply to make even more money. Do you think that additional revenue is going to support charitable work or maybe to raise the wages of front line workers? Of course not. But I'm sure executive compensation will go up nicely.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

It's so really hard to get poverty unfortunately. Strangely it was easier before. But now things in the US are becoming classist. It's a matter of where you are born zip code that determine your success in life. So born in rich area? more likely to be rich. Before people used to move up and down. It doesn't appear to be so anymore.

[ua_guy]

Is the simple answer greed?

Like others, I don't think the answer is simple. If I were to choose one answer to describe it all, it would be "This is the human condition". Yeah, that's dark, isn't it? ...

[QuarterMillionMan]

So what’s the solution? Socialism. Maybe Communism? Look at Venezuela or N Korea where amputees are crawling on the road begging for food. Or 1000s in line for a loaf of bread, etc.

[myrdale]

So what’s the solution? Socialism. Maybe Communism? Look at Venezuela or N Korea where amputees are crawling on the road begging for food. Or 1000s in line for a loaf of bread, etc.

The whole thing is a balance. We continue to print money like there is no tomorrow and we continue to borrow at an exponential rate. Nothing exponential last forever.

[ua_guy]

No... The -isms aren't going to help, nor is allowing a dictator to rise to power.

What if there isn't an answer? Maybe we live in a world where better outcomes are determined by being better people, and there's no real way to enforce or control that?

[Fishindude77]

Maybe we live in a world where better outcomes are determined by being better people, and there's no real way to enforce or control that?

I think this is what it all boils down to. How much are you willing to personally give up to boost others?
Many of us could get by fine on a fraction of the $$ we have / make, yet none of us are stepping to the front of the line to give that percentage away and help someone else get ahead.

More government control is never the answer. For every dollar they take from us, we're lucky if a nickel of it trickles through their hands and finds it's way to a good cause.

Beating up the corporations and griping about corporate greed isn't the answer either. They're easy to pick on, but nearly all of us depend on successful, profitable corporations in our investment portfolios to keep earning and making our retirement plans, 401K's, etc. solvent.
We can gripe about record profits by the oil companies (or others), but many of us have benefited from that in our investments. Thankfully there are a few making record profits, because the current environment has many businesses in the toilet.

Control what you can. How much do you give annually to charity or share with others? How much of your time do you donate to noble causes?
When you give personally, rather than count on some type of mandate or tax, at least you can control exactly where it goes and the majority of it won't get skimmed up by overhead.

We all tend to vote with our pocketbooks and do what's best for us.

[disneysteve]

We all tend to vote with our pocketbooks and do what's best for us.

Logically, you would think so, but unfortunately it isn't true in reality. Millions of people vote in a way that is absolutely against their best interests. I can never make any sense of it or comprehend why people do it, but it happens in every election. They vote based on ideology rather than what's actually best for them personally.

If people would actually start voting with their own best interests in mind, things would be quite different. And that goes for both sides of the political spectrum.

[myrdale]

I can never make any sense of it or comprehend why people do it, but it happens in every election. They vote based on ideology rather than what's actually best for them personally.

Its funny how only the people who voted for your candidate are correct and everyone else is operating out of some cognitive dissonance. Maybe other peoples core values and believes differ from your own.

[disneysteve]

Its funny how only the people who voted for your candidate are correct and everyone else is operating out of some cognitive dissonance. Maybe other peoples core values and believes differ from your own.

Funny that’s not at all what my post says. Thanks for totally twisting my words. I completely understand that people have different values and beliefs. What I don’t understand is repeatedly voting against those values and beliefs. If you aren’t using your vote to support what you believe in, what’s the point?