All Things Economic

“In a free economy corporate greed is impossible."

Not when the corporations have politicians on the payroll.

Fidium is looking to be an internet provider in my town. If that happens, they have 100 Mbps for $25/mth for the first year. Xfinity has something similar for new customers. If Fidium was available, I could switch every year and get the new customer price. That's nearly $500/yr in savings.

Eventually they may figure out it's better to offer the lower price to their loyal customers than to new ones, but if not, I have no problem switching once a year to get the new customer intro price. Since Xfinity is a monopoly right now I have little choice.

Not sure if it's subsidized in Europe, but internet in places like England is less than half what it is by me.

You said, “In a free economy corporate greed is impossible."

I gave you examples of why that is simply not true so now you are spinning the argument to be about who buys cereal.

Congrats, your indoctrination is complete.

~Scamp

<p><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:open sans,sans-serif; font-size:14px">"Are you being deliberately obtuse or are you that far down la la land's gaslighting?"</span></p>

<p><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:open sans,sans-serif; font-size:14px">I said that people would not continue to buy something that was overpriced. At least, not a great number of people. So if people are still buying cereal (according to you), it must not be overpriced. Who even buys cereal anymore? </span></p>

<p>"Not<span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:tahoma,verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:14px"> by a lot, but I'm paying $68/mth for JUST internet."</span></p>

<p><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:tahoma,verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:14px">I consider $68 for internet to be cheap. I pay $112 per month just for internet.</span></p>

"Because it wasn't overpriced and there was no corporate greed. Scamp, thanks for agreeing with me and posting an example that supports what I said."

Are you being deliberately obtuse or are you that far down la la land's gaslighting?

Your cult leader is the one saying food is overpriced and blaming inflation, I gave you one example of how corporations are blaming inflation for jacking up prices when the motive is pure greed.

~Scamp

<p>"Pay them whatever they say, or generate your own electricity and supply your own gas. </p>

<p>Did it get thru your skull's thickness? Need more examples?"</p>

<p>The above also supports what I said. If it was too expensive, people would switch to other sources, just like you are saying. So I still need an actual example.</p>

Sometimes it's hard to distinguish gouging vs "normal" profits. Xfinity has a monopoly by us. It's that, or satellite for many, and satellite sucks. Xfinity goes up every year. Not by a lot, but I'm paying $68/mth for JUST internet. They are the only game in town for now, so they can do whatever the hell they want, to a degree.

The employees that work for Xfinity all want raises, because the cost of everything is going up. The raises contribute to the cost of everything going up. Pretty much every employee in every company want raises, so this adds to the cost of everything. Could anyone imagine no raises justified by having their $$$ worth more instead of making more money? I don't see that happening in my lifetime, if ever. Even if you could make someone's $$$ worth more, they'll still want raises.

I'm not a big conspiracy theorist, but I would tend to agree that big oil has long since figured out how to do collusion. They've been making obscene profits for so long and it's just a given now that there will be an increase in fuel prices just before any holiday that people travel. I seems to go beyond just "supply and demand".

Another good example of gouging is big pharma. A lot of drug prices are out of control. Look at what happened with epi pens not all that long ago because someone was able to essentially corner the market on them. Gouging is alive and well under the guise of capitalism.

Internet scams have increased as people have gotten more tech savvy. More people are doing it because they can, and the tech is more readily available and better understood by the kids that grew up on it vs the "desperation" argument. You can also find out how to do nearly anything by Goggling it and/or watching YouTubes. There has always been and always will be that bad element that would rather con someone out of their money than to actually work for it. IMHO this is just the modern day equivalent of that bad element.

<p>"People<span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:open sans,sans-serif; font-size:14px"> still bought cereal. Why?"</span></p>

<p><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:open sans,sans-serif; font-size:14px">Because it wasn't overpriced and there was no corporate greed. Scamp, thanks for agreeing with me and posting an example that supports what I said.</span></p>

"In a free economy corporate greed is impossible."

Welcome to la la land.

When big oil raises prices to pump up profits, people can't stop driving to work so they pay the price.

When General Mills raised the price of cereal by 20% while raking in $ 2.1 billion per year in profits and rewarding investors with $300 million in dividends, and bought back $150 million in stock to enrich execs and investors, people still bought cereal. Why? Because the big corporations have a virtual monopoly, especially in the food industry.

If you want to be cynical, the case could be made that large corporations are intentionally raising prices now and blaming inflation to harm the chances of Harris winning the election because she wants to tax them while their buddy trump will give them billions more in tax breaks if he gets back in office.

But that would imply corporate greed and in la la land, that doesn't exist.

~Scamp

Anyone here bringing home 5-10k per month post taxes will be alright. I'm good.

What about ppl in areas where rent averages $1,800 to $3,500 and they can't afford to move out of state? Lots of property owners saw Covid and post as an opportunities to price gauge.

The avg 30-50 yr old can't afford to go to back to school. Especially if they have kids

There's millions living check to to check. Let's talk about the avg Joe that is priced out of his local housing market.

"Can you give an example? If a company is over-charging, people should stop buying the product."

Are you serious?

Ok....

In Wisconsin, we have WE Energy.

Pay them whatever they say, or generate your own electricity and supply your own gas.

Did it get thru your skull's thickness?
Need more examples?

<p>"I <span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:tahoma,verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:14px">can't recall a time when people weren't saying some variant of one or all of the following:"</span></p>

<p><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:tahoma,verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:14px">Really? I've never heard anyone complaining about that stuff to the extent they are now. Maybe all the way back in the early 70's, but I barely remember that far back.</span></p>

<p><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:tahoma,verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:14px">Something very concerning to me is the drastic increase in internet scammers. Pre-COVID I was probably deleting 5, maybe 10 scam profiles per month. Now I am deleting over 200-300 per month! To me, that is a sign of desperation. Not just here but around the world.</span></p>

<p>What corporate greed?</p>

<p>Can you give an example? If a company is over-charging, people should stop buying the product. In a free economy corporate greed is impossible.</p>

I can't recall a time when people weren't saying some variant of one or all of the following:

The economy is shit

The system is broken

Everything's so expensive

It was better in the past

After 40+ years of hearing the same messages, I can't take them seriously anymore if offered without some supported specifics.

The economy always seems to be a struggle. At one point there were not enough jobs. Now there are plenty of jobs, but the cost of everything has gotten so expensive that people are still struggling. If you try to ease the financial burden with subsidies, people complain. If you don't do subsidies, people complain.

Perhaps instead of trying to politicize the issue, people could suggest and/or rally around actual workable improvements so that things might actually get better, though personally, I am doing OK financially. Of course the best ideas are the ones untested because they are tied to politics that are not in power. Then it becomes more about politics than solutions, and that's a real problem.

Another problem is that I don't think the average person understands the mechanisms needed to solve these problems. I know I don't. In theory, inflation driven by the corporate greed that 8inch mentioned "should" result in more taxes and that extra tax money could help struggling families, but it is of course not that easy.

VP Harris has no knowledge of how economics works at all.Just spend all the money you want and we can print more money than we ever have.That’s the VP Harris way

In my opinion, the fall of America will be corporate and property greed.

It's not the government's fault that food, products, gas, utilities, property costs, rent or loan rates are out of control.

These skyrocketing costs are causing ppl to struggle to survive. Desperate times create desperate people, mental health issues and crime.

Harris is now talking about price gouging . I would like for her to give examples. She is going to give 25,000 to first time home buyers . We have seen government rebate programs before . A good example was on cars the seller just raises the price. . More inflation … Does anyone remember price controls from the 70s. ? Madura had price controls in Venezuela . Shelf’s emptied pretty soon. …

Its a total socialism concept.. ALL her policies. Just ask my son in law who fled from Cuba with his family.. this is only worse!

Maybe ask any Venezuelan who fled to.. they are all over Miami.. Its why they fled!

Amazing .... dont look at what I have said and we DEMS stand for .. LOL we have changed our ways to win.. MY ASS!

@R&K , listen to Tilman Fertitta sometime he is going nuts screaming about inflation ….But get ready for this , increase in taxes Harris wants a tax realized capital gains tax . Now as we all know investments go up and go down . Even if you don’t sell your NVIDIA went up 15% this year you pay capital gains . Next year it goes down you don’t sell nobody cares….

Taxes , in Holland they pay 21% sales tax and 51%. Income tax. Because of their refugee problem they are rising sales tax next year to 23% …The poor people suffer .

"Yes, the Oracle of Omaha has done well by me over the years."

I closed out all but two or three of my positions about three weeks before the NASDAQ hit its high in 2000. The two I can remember keeping are BRK.B and Starbucks, but I'm not really a fan of holding individual stocks long term so they eventually paid for a mutual fund purchase. I loved getting the letters, which were a master class in investing.

"BRK.B and let Warren figure it out for you"

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Yes, the Oracle of Omaha has done well by me over the years.

"I do think trading stocks for the short term is a bit more akin to gambling. But maybe more like craps or poker than roulette."

It's all gambling. Whether you're investing for the long term or trading on momentum. This isn't a minority opinion or something unique to me. It's a widely held view amongst those who make their living in the financial markets. And while some widely held views are wrong - the standard pie chart for how to distribute your investment dollars is largely bullshit - this one is true. You're resisting because it conflicts with how you see yourself (and some of that has to do with thinking investing is more controllable than it actually is), but that doesn't mean you're correct.

Craps and blackjack are both gambling. One just has worse odds. That's similar to the difference between meme stocks and blue chips.

"So which, if any, index actually represents the US economy over the long term?"

You'd need a basket of indices to do that and even then you'd miss some things that are acting as predictors in an unpredictable fashion. Or you could just buy BRK.B and let Warren figure it out for you, since Berkshire Hathaway reliably beats the S&P.

A major restaurant CEO was just on the financial news stations.. owns 60 restaurants around USA and said its Crazy that they say inflation is down.. his costs of FOOD is up 38% no way to spin that one .. its a fact!