Inflation and Price Gouging

If corporations are forced to lower prices, they will respond with cost-cutting measures, which will include hiring freezes, layoffs, and salary/wage reductions. It doesn't take an economics professor to make this conclusion.

But....this tactic by the Dems WILL help them get elected, as they are playing off the assumed stupidly of voters. Sadly, many voters will vote based on such a false promise that cannot be achieved.

I'm actually offended that the Dens think we are stupid enough to fall for this. Sadly, though, many ARE stupid enough to fall for it.

2 things. First of all the margin on groceries is only 2% at your national chains, so gouging is absent since its based on overall costs from all sectors/industries to bring product to market. Secondly, even if elected the chances of getting any those policies passed are quite low. I don’t see democrats taking the house and the senate, so there’s that.

The price gouging, IMO isnt occurring in these grocery stores but on the contrary occurring in smaller mom and pop shops and restaurants.

Things aren’t adding up. Places like five guys, cheesecake factory, and i think even mcdonalds, have been constantly raising prices on their beef containing items and other items, since 2019 or 2020.

Yet you go to the grocery store, and the prices of things like milk, cheese, beef, have remained pretty much exactly the same.

So there is an element of dishonesty involved when places like five guys or mcdonalds claim they are raising prices due to rising material costs or inflation.

The only thing that has really gone up in price is gas prices. I think these restaurants are basically trying to push things as far as they can. They understand that fast food and restaurant dining is a matter of convenience, and luxury. And theyve found that even as they raise prices, people continue paying those higher prices.

Food costs are around 30-35%. 30% or so is labor. 10% rent. Food inflation may be slowing but all the other inputs are still rising.

The democrats plan will just lead to more inflation.

Building 3m homes will cause building materials and labor costs to rise.
Price controls on food leads to lower production and inflation.

And so on and so on. The only way to squash inflation is through demand destruction or massive increases in supply efficiency

I just know 2019.... best year. 2024 one of the worst, 32 years in my biz.

I find that most people who blame price gouging by businesses have never owned a business or know the inputs that go into pricing of goods and services.

"I think this move is smart."

Politically, she's playing to a younger, enthusiastic, and entitled base that lacks real world experience. It gives them someone to blame, and deflect from the fact that she was #2 in the most powerful country in the world for the last 3.5 years. It might convince the low-information voters who are just starting to tune in now. They're out there. But we've already heard this line of attack--it didn't work to sell "Bidenomics."

Yes, corporate profits have gone up, but (1) a lot of that is the result of government distortions, including regulations and subsidies. "Too big to fail" isn't just for banks. Amazon and Wal-Mart played critical roles in the pandemic, not to mention they have the ears of politicians. Meanwhile, mom and pop businesses got screwed, and (2) corporations have always increased prices to what the market can bear. They didn't just do it during Biden's term to spite him. Supermarkets operate on very thin margins anyways. (3) I agree that they should start getting more aggressively enforcing antitrust, but why haven't they been doing that already?

"Dems are big on these types of economic analyses and wouldn't have moved on it without supporting data."

LOL no. It might be smart politics but this is dogshit economics. Paul Krugman has been wrong on everything for decades now; he's effectively a liberal columnist and rationalizer.

No one could pass Intro to Economics without learning that price controls lead to shortages. That $25k in down payment assistance tells sellers they can hike the price by $25k. That so many Americans are "house-poor" (have a disproportionate amount of wealth in the value of their homes) that anything that lowers their housing values will get them murdered at the ballot box.

And that inflation isn't that complex--too much money chasing too few goods. Trump bears some blame, but he spent during an artificial drop in demand, without which we would have deflation. It's hard to dial up just the right amount of inflation (2% according to economics experts).

But Biden saw this money trickling in--if his advisors weren't stupid, they should have known this alone might generate inflation--and threw kerosene on the flames. A lot of it wasn't even related to the pandemic. Dems lose all sense of restraint when the word "green" gets tossed around, and threw more at that.

Then, those advisors started lying out their fat mouths. From "inflation isn't happening" to "inflation is transitory" to "inflation is only hitting the rich" to "inflation is actually a good thing" to "inflation was caused by everyone but us."

Now it's "we brought inflation down." That's like saying "I weighed 200 pounds in 2020, I put on 20 in 2021, 10 in 2022, 7 in 2023, and 3 in 2024, so I slowed my rate of weight gain." Well, you're still 240 pounds rather than 200!

Hey, Janet Yellen even said "nobody saw inflation coming." Lying bitch, I and many others saw inflation coming and invested accordingly. I'm a highly educated man but I'm sure Yellen had more education than I did. Only conclusion is she's become a PR flak for the administration, not an economist.


I still think Trump wins, as Harris is forced to stake out policy platforms like this that even Obama administration officials are denouncing. The Democrat stans are going gaga over it, but Harris could queef into the mic and they'd still go gaga over it.

But if she does win, thankfully we're looking at a likely Republican Senate (the map is horrible for Dems this year) and House that will blunt this nonsense. And a Supreme Court that Democrats loved when it rubber stamped progressive priorities...less so now.

“I think this move is smart”

—

Don’t know how old the OP is, but guessing he wasn’t around the last time this was attempted. (Early 70’s)

Total disaster

Except for the child tax credit (which thankfully seems to have broad bipartisan support), it's BS. The housing issue can't be solved at the Federal level. Making zero down payment loans available makes more sense than just giving people a down payment. The people who work full time but still can't afford a monthly mortgage payment are more in need of help. Anti-trust action is almost always the best solution if there is price gouging. Not price controls if that's what she's proposing. At least, with Democrat BS populism, it only asks you to hate corporations and the 1%, instead of the least fortunate people. Better to not hate anybody for dubious reasons though.

$25,000 down payment assistance- didn't the OP try to blame solely Trump for the stimulus COVID checks which really started this inflation mess and housing bubble?

3,000,000 new housing units- just deport the 10,000,000 illegals you let in and gave free housing to and there will be a 7,000,000 unit surplus

New child tax credit- paying unemployed welfare leeches more money to have more children has already caused enough problems

Crackdown on grocery price gouging- this is transfer of blame for the Biden-Harris- democrat party inflation disaster. These bureaucrats have no idea how business works and how thin margins are in the competitive groceries market. The result will be scarcity, failed mom and pop stores, and rising unemployment as the few remaining stores consolidate under corporations and automate as fully as possible. Quality and availability will plummet and another pillar of our standard of living will be demolished by the liberal left.

Why is it no surprise that wld4testes would be the first to come out and suck Kammy's ass to promote what even CNN has blasted as an awful idea.

Price fixing for foods will just cause shortages and price hikes in non price controlled groceries

You can't reduce prices addressing the root cause of the price increases. Fuel, rent, insurance, labor, raw materials, and taxes have all increased significantly. You have to find ways to reduce those costs first. Allow more domestic production of fuel lumber, farming, and mining would be a good start. Punishing criminals again could help drive down the cost of insurance and finding ways to reduce medical costs could help reduce the price of labor through lower benefits cost.

Forcing price controls without dealing with any of those issues will just cause corporations to stop producing

Price fixing will reduce supply because producers will not make products if they lose money or can't hit hit their minimum acceptable margins. Empty shelves, unemployment, more gov't spending, etc, etc. Duh

"Punishing criminals again could help drive down the cost of insurance"

Executing them would reduce costs even more.

If there is a pagan god of kool aide drinkers, wild4testes is its avatar.

Credit to Puddy Tat

@Puddy tat comon now… if youve taken those econ courses you know that this isnt how inflation or the economy works

“ That $25k in down payment assistance tells sellers they can hike the price by $25k. That so many Americans are "house-poor" (have a disproportionate amount of wealth in the value of their homes) that anything that lowers their housing values will get them murdered at the ballot box.”


Would the seller of a house raise their price by 25k if you told them the government or your uncle is covering 25k…? They wouldnt care… as long as they get their asking price

If everyone gets 25k, theres more dollars and spending power available, which can raise demand and raise the money supply. But its nowhere near as simple as people being given 25k, therefore house prices instantly go up 25k.

If a seller has a house listed at 750k, and they learn people are being given 25k free, they would have to be an absolute buffoon of a seller to raise their price to 775k in response.

This will be a fun topic to debate.

We don't have specific details yet, so it's wayyy premature to be drawing conclusions. Harris is just painting broad strokes at this point - penalties for large food and grocery corporations that engage in price gouging to pad their profits, and support for smaller food businesses that are trying to get ahead.

We can already see this stimulating some actual real discussion on policy, which no doubt was part of the purpose, and what I referred to as smart. It moves the discussion past the moronic right wing talking point "It's all Biden/Harris' fault". We can't say the policy itself is smart yet because it will depend on the details which will get debated and sorted out.

Of course, Harris needs to show that price gouging in the food industry is real, and that her proposal is not some empty populist gimmick. I expect we will be learning much more about this.

@TheeOSU - wld4puddytat's reasoning above (whether or not you agree with it) is so horrible that I thought this was a troll thread. But when WaPo, CNN, and Obama's senior economist Jason Furman agree this plan sucks, perhaps Harris should consider retreating from it.

@RMD - be quiet when the adults are talking.

@Wild4tatas: Apparently, you were around for Nixon's Phase 1/2 Wage and Price Controls or Carter's hot mess of gas lines.

The USSR had bread and toilet paper lines with their wage/price controls. The USSR after about 70 years.

In the early 1990s, Venezuela was one the richest per capita countries in the world and a huge OPEC oil supplier. Once Chavez was voted in, and then nationalized oil production an others, it became a shit hole country. And, now Maduro gets re-elected for what the 3x time, and was down 25% in polling then announced he won with "51%" hours after polls closed.

Cuba: Castro's Revolution offered so "much" when he took over in the 1950s - my sister-in-law was a Peter Pan Baby (look it up). Now, Cuba is known for cigars and 1950s Chevys.

Getting into Socialism is easy. Getting out is not. This is how it happens, and we are on that slippery slope. Voting for Harris is like asking an arson for help putting out fires. Leopards don't change their spots - this goes for Harris, Walz and the Democrat Machine.

As as it pains me to do so, I agree with bigdickrick...companies are raising prices because they believe that they can get away with it/

"We don't have specific details yet, so it's wayyy premature to be drawing conclusions."

The only details that would make this palatable are "we're going to enforce antitrust like I should have started 3.5 years ago and not implement a single price control."

Given their catastrophic consequences of similar actions in the past, the basic laws of economics, and the only definition of "price gouging" being "whatever I think is unfair," the burden of proof lies on her to show this won't be a cluster fuck.

She doesn't seem to want to get into specifics anywhere (other than taking Trump proposals like no tax on tips or an even greater child tax credit) because she's essentially a cipher for Dems to project their hopes and dreams on.

Trump needs to make her account for every hard left proposal she espoused in her first run. Green New Deal (aka Green Leap Forward). Abolition of private health insurance. Defending the police. Banning fracking (which would lose her Pennsylvania).

If I were running Trump's campaign I would nail her to the wall on that. And question her "evolution" on such topics which always seems to come right before a general election. I don't believe her for a New York minute.

"bigdickrick...companies are raising prices because they believe that they can get away with it"

Always been the case, @funontheside, but the way the Democrats talk, they've only become "greedy" to spite Biden.

“ I just know 2019.... best year. 2024 one of the worst, 32 years in my biz. “

You said it right brother!!!


To note, the prices of your Cheerios are not going back down, get used to it, those prices are here to stay. All these “wage increases” many people received in the last 4 years hasn’t even enabled them to keep up with all the inflation. Are you better off than now than you were in 2019?

Puddy thats simply not how economics Or inflation works. No seller of a home raises prices by 25k in response to a government tax credit of 25k. A government tax credit of 25k will create inflation and increased demand for house purchases to some extent, but its not as linear and straightforward as a 25k tax credit = all house prices increase by 25k.

That would be the equivalent of a seller listing a house for 750k, then, after finding out your grandpa is giving you 100k to help purchase the house, they change their price to 850k. Only a complete buffoon of a seller would do something like that.

@Puddy

Your response to the OP was good. Balanced. I liked it. (I'm a fiscal conservative)

And I know you are looking for my approval. :)

Price controls are not Socialism (unless you simply don't care what the definition of words are). Harris has not proposed putting private businesses under government ownership.

Once again the party of “equality” is proposing programs of inequality.

I graduated with zero student loan debt. Where’s my equitable bailout?

I didn’t get $25k for buying my home. Where’s my equitable reward.

Ibbi-

Correct - price controls are not socialism but it is a flawed economic policy that has a proven track record of failure.

@motorhead: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. You don't need, you don't get. However, if you work hard, plan ahead, sacrifice, and restrain your impulses, you definitely need to be punished and have the reapings of your hard work given to others who did no such thing.

New phenomenon! Corporations and businesses are trying to make as much money as they can. Never happened before in history. Poor Joe Biden!

Call it what it is. The democrat party buying votes. It worked in 2022 and they're running the same illegal play. It's criminal.

^^
We need that “like” button back.

Simple formula. If you can’t talk about your policies - you buy votes.

The more the government spends the more inflation we have. That’s the simple truth. There is a thought that alll democracies evolve or devolve into socialist societies

Price Controls should have been implemented when car dealers began to add "market price adjustments" to the MSRP of new cars. The car manufacturers and dealers took advantage of the so called "chip shortage" and "supply chain problems" to raise prices and gouge the public. But not a peep from Harris then.

25K for first time home buyers. What she really means is the illegals as they cross the border from Mexico will be handed a 25K voucher because obviously they don't own a home. Everyone else will have to jump through hoops and will most likely be disqualified unless they belong to some alphabet minority group.

'However, if you work hard, plan ahead, sacrifice, and restrain your impulses, you definitely need to be punished and have the reapings of your hard work given to others who did no such thing.'

Excellent spot on comment!

Nixon did this in 1971. It failed in a most spectacular manner. Inflation in the 70s was far worse than it is now, and we had double digit unemployment as well. Price controls cause inflation, destroy the economy, put people out of work and take 2 decades to recover. They have NEVER worked anywhere on earth, ever. All they do is increase central power and make people reliant on government. That is the reason for everything the Democrats do. Anyone who votes Democrat on an economic issue must take prode in being called fucking stupid.

^ Yet Nixon was a Republican

^ As an American I care about the present day and results. Nixon fucked up and so did Carter. We all know this and yet democrats are cheering the same fucking plan that has never once worked anywhere on earth. Change the subject all you like to avoid facts. Look at the party and vote, not at the country? No thanks. Fuck Kamal and Waltz. Two fucking commies.

@25

and just to play Devil’s Advocate - George Wallace was a Democrat (except for his 1968 run as an independent).

^ I’m not changing the subject, just pointing it out to everyone who gives a fuck.
I’m not particularly interested in this subject, probably because I’m spending money not hoarding it any more, plus there’s so much misinformation in this thread that it’s impossible to find anything here that is economically useful.

"democrats are cheering the same fucking plan that has never once worked anywhere on earth". Socialism in America was a bold, old, idea when Barry tried it, and it is a bold, old, idea for Kammy. Progressives have additional incentive to support socialist market and social services because of the excellent results Socialists have achieved in Europe and Canada. There, when you say something that big brother does not approve of, you can be sentenced to reeducation counseling like Jordan Peterson or simply imprisoned like so many innocent British citizens. 1984 is here and now, and you're likely holding it in your hand.

^ yet you proposed to push price controls in an earlier post, you aren’t very consistent, but that’s nothing new to you.
P. S. You’ve not even read Orwell’s book ‘1984’
You don’t even know what it’s about, like all of your moronic posts you don’t know what the fuck your talking about.

I saw TheeOSU mentioned... I've had that turd on ignore for a long time now

>The only details that would make this palatable are "we're going to enforce antitrust like I should have started 3.5 years ago.... "

I'll assume Puddy Tat is thus highly supportive of the FTC antitrust effort mentioned in the article below.

US sues to block merger of grocery giants Kroger and Albertsons, saying it could push prices higher
February 26, 2024
https://apnews.com/article/kroger-albert…

^

Awwww and i'm so broke up about that testesboi.
fact is i know you're reading what i post but you still show your weakness by proclaiming you have me ignored. Lol
OK go back to sticking your head in the sand shitbrain.

"I'll assume Puddy Tat is thus highly supportive of the FTC antitrust effort mentioned in the article below."

I don't know the relative market power of the two entrants, but in theory, yes. Food producers too have gotten to the point where 3-4 giants control everything.

In the past few years there has clearly been a steady movement of raising prices, its like one place increased their beer cost and everyone follows. The one thing you can do is make a stand with your feet, when a place clearly is raising prices for no reason, I stop going and go somewhere else. I have clearly noticed places that raise too much lose customers.

Western European countries backed away from taking over more private companies back in the 80s. What's hard to get out of is putting people like Trump or Maduro in power. Who don't want to hold elections with transparent vote counting, and respect the result.

I thought 25iq might have pulled his head out.of his ass and realized there is more to TUSCL than hating on me. Nope, every single time he proves that I am the most important person in his life. His whole retirement revolves around me. He is all the more pathetic because he is just an online prison bitch for me. He is just a small dick energy loser.

"What's hard to get out of is putting people like Trump or Maduro in power."

Bullshit, we got Trump out of power once.

Maduro would be a mainstream democrat if he lived here. The idea Democrats care about democracy is just so fucked up. Letting in useless illegals and then trying to make them voters. They had a primary season 4 years ago. There was no douchebag named Joe Biden running, but the cast of democrats was terrible so after the voting started, everyone dropped out and the elites chose Alzheimer Joe. Now we have Alzheiner Joe getting virtually every vote cast, but the elites decide that he is too old to run, but not govern us into a nuclear war scenario, bully him out of the race and choose a 5th place loser when she quit the last primary, who didn't run, doesn't give interviews or speak to the press, but hey the elites run this democracy. Democrats like Maduro are just more honest than the fucks called democrats here. Hopefully the terrorists protesting will riot, burn, loot, attack people and put an end to this farce called democracy by democrats.

@skibum - Democrats are waving the full freak flag in Chicago.
A "land acknowledgement."
"Reproductive justice means Palestinian liberation." (stupid fucks, abortion is ILLEGAL IN PALESTINE)
They're literally offering free vasectomies and abortions outside the convention center.
They're activating the National Guard and police, in order to protect the left from the left.
Store owners have boarded up stores.

I can only imagine what tonight, and the next few days, will bring!

@gammanu
I don’t hate anyone not even you, what I do is pity you, you’re a genuine weirdo, for a supposedly young man you have very few friends and here, you have a reputation as a jackass.

"They're literally offering free vasectomies and abortions outside the convention center."

Sterilize the dumb fucks so they won't breed sounds.good to me.

^ Too bad your mom didn’t get the message

25k for homes is an inflationary measure all else being equal, no two ways about it. Will home sellers raise their price $25k? No, most likely not, unless some other factor in play. What will happen is that more people will be in the market for that house, i.e. those that were $25k short. Increase competition will raise prices. Spread this around to the entire market and now you have inflation, i.e. too many dollars chasing too few goods. Additionally, those with money in certain markets will just up there offer price $25k.

I don’t know if I agree with your theory about how it would affect inflation, but your math is underestimating the effect. Figuring the plan is for first time home buyers, a $25k bump to a down payment could add up to $250k to purchasing power once you increase the mortgage.

Prices for dances in Portland, OR are too high. They should look into price fixing and get them back down to more reasonable rate.

Inflation is something that takes time to accomplish. The people who move on it the fastest benefit the most. They clearly demonstrate this in econ classes. Printing money creates inflation, yet the government still does it and still benefits from it. The purchasing power of the money goes down the more it travels around the society/economy. Its the people who end up with the cash last who are hurt the most by it. For instance someone prints a billion dollars, goes out and buys 5 houses worth 200 mil each. They got their moneys worth. But then those sellers of those 5 houses will then go and spread the money further, either buying other products or services or investing. Which will spread the money further. And as the money trickles down further, it will lose more and more value.
So as far as the 25k tax credit, the sooner you buy the more you benefit. Home prices would rise by a certain % amount based on the level of inflation. It certainly wouldnt be as simplistic as all house prices going up by 25k each.

I wonder if there is an established link between the supply of tattoo parlors and the price of VIP?

>Bullshit, we got Trump out of power once.

Only because Mike Pence didn't yield to the pressure from Trump and did the right thing. That won't happen again with Vance.

^^^^^^your first wife got the message

"Only because Mike Pence didn't yield to the pressure from Trump and did the right thing."

Whatever. I guess they were a few more grandma's in wheelchairs from turning America into an authoritarian state.

Here's part of why grocery prices haven't come down. One company needed the money to support a $4 Billion special dividend to shareholders.

Albertsons wants to issue a $4 billion ‘special dividend.’ Critics call it ‘looting.’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/…

Wld4testes clearly believes that private companies should not be allowed to earn profits and share them with shareholders

^ Another dumb lie, but par for the course for gammanu.

Capitalism, profits and getting rich are good things, but a $4B special dividend at a time of record inflation in groceries is beyond the pale, and clear evidence of what funonthaside said earlier... "companies are raising prices because they believe that they can get away with it".

When Republicans talk about inflation, remember that your higher grocery bills are supporting additional payouts to the corporate executives and hedge funds who are the largest shareholders in giant companies like Albertsons.

^ Corporations didn't just start getting greedy and raising prices to spite Democrats.

The stupidest comments are the ones that claim corporations are republican. Corporations are the democratic party street dealers and the DNC is the cartel. Democrats of today are fucking useless commies and need to be treated as such.

Wld4testes is king of the stupidest comments. He is do desperate for a reach around from Kamala ass fucking whole he sucks Biden's testes. Stop with the lies, you are the only one who believes yourself. Democrats are in bed with Wall Street in deep blue NYC, democrat congressmen enriching themselves with stock trades while in office, all the whole turning their titles into for- profit operations. Everyone but the useful idiots knows this. You don't know this.

A review just came through of a Stars in Bend, OR. They wanted $60 a dance with no touching. If there was ever a case for government mandated price caps, this is it.

The $60 LD is a good example to use to learn about price elasticity. Demand will go down with fhat pricing. Capital markets are self-governing. There is no need for government interference.

How many people have stopped/reduced visits to restaurants once prices increased? McDonald's recently learned the lesson the hard way. There are others, as well. There have been multiple cases recently where I was going to buy something, then changed my mind after considering the excessive cost.

I suppose a dancer would rather spend 4 minutes doing a $60 than to spend 12 minutes to make the same amount at $20/song. But, at the lower price point, I likely wouldn't stop at 3 songs, so the dancer would earn more.

One example is La Pearl in Philly. I regularly turn away the $10 girls, as I know there will be $5 girls coming along behind her. One particularly intelligent girl countered with "ok...I'll agree to $5....if you get at least 4 songs of dances". I ended up getting far more than 4 songs....so I got my $5 dances, and she made a good amount of money. Meanhile, the $10 girls were playing with their phones while my girl was making money.

One topic that is a bit more tough is price gouging during an emergency such as a hurricane. There is/was a gas station near Detroit airport than was charged with price gouging, as they had higher prices than some competitors due to their closest proximity to the airport. Well, most people were onto them, and simply chose to purchase gas elsewhere. Of others didn't have the foresight to use a gas pricing app to sing cheaper gas, that's on the customers. Why shouldn't the gas station be rewarded for operating in an advantageous location? There was no reason for government. interference.

There are already price gouging laws which are triggered by an emergency declaration. At least in Florida they come with a hotline, and I have used it when I found businesses trying to gouge customers before Hurricanes, etc. The claim that grocery stores are price gouging is laughably stupid.

Wal-mart, Target, Publix, and Winn-Dixie are the four big players in my area.
We have membership clubs like CostCo, BJ's, and Sam's club. There is also Fresh Market and Whole Foods. The longer I sit here, the more I will think of. The point is that the market is too saturated with competition for price gouging. It is an idiotic statement.

Even in a "food desert", the big chains have legal counsel which will protect the brand and organization from a price gouging claim and prohibit individual stores from deviating from whatever market-relevant pricing brackets have been determined market research and purchasing.

Prices are up, but that is because of post-pandemic and supply chain inflation, $15-$20 minimum wage laws, the Biden/Harris war on fuel, rising insurance costs, rising interest rates on business loans, and not because of corporate greed. It is a populist applause line that would have catastrophic effects on the nation if ever enacted into policy. It just shows how ignorant and desperate for headlines the Kammy campaign really is.

What we need is to start prosecuting profiteering. Make examples out of a few CEOs. If course that won't happen. Nor will we get national rent control legislation nor price controls for basic necessities. The economy needs to crash and reset. All we'll get from any politician is telling us to be happy that prices aren't going up as fast...

Price gouging is basically capitalist cannibalism. They're pricing themselves out of business. And society is collapsing because you can't have a consumer society where no one can afford to consume.

No politician will do anything because the gov gets increased tax revenue and the private sector owns the gov

We live in a capitalist kleptocracy

@Icee - rent control has fucked over a million cities. Price controls = shortages. If Harris controls "price gouging" in groceries, get ready for shortages. But hey, instead of the poor not getting food, EVERYONE doesn't get food.

We need to build housing over the NIMBYs and enforce antitrust.

Of course Harris wants to pretend like she had nothing to do with the problems of the last 3.5 years.

Stop calling the person who lives rent free in your head.

Right wing what if scenarios don't dictate present day reality

I don't humor far right extremist delusions

@Icee - They aren't "what if" scenarios, they're basic economics. If you stepped into an economics classroom, you'd learn this by the third week.

Let me explain in terms you'd understand. If the government capped the price of crack whores, there wouldn't be enough degenerate druggie pimps to supply them to customers.

No they're right wing interpretations and scare tactics based on what if scenarios.

And whoever icee is really lives in your head. You're as obsessed with him as you are with trans women and the alt right.

Needless to say price gouging is the number one problem in the US today.

I'm sure all of you see the impact of profiteering on clubs. When people barely have disposable income anymore

@Icee - no, it's basic economics, of which you are impressively ignorant. It's no more right wing than the earth going around the sun.

A social market is basic economics. You're just talking about far right extremist paradigms.

@Icee - neutral site. I'm spoon feeding you knowledge...here comes the airplane!

"Despite the frequent use of price controls, however, and despite their appeal, economists are generally opposed to them, except perhaps for very brief periods during emergencies."

"Because controls prevent the price system from rationing the available supply, some other mechanism must take its place. A queue, once a familiar sight in the controlled economies of Eastern Europe, is one possibility. When the United States set maximum prices for gasoline in 1973 and 1979, dealers sold gas on a first-come-first-served basis, and drivers had to wait in long lines to buy gasoline, receiving in the process a taste of life in the Soviet Union."

"The incentives to evade controls are ever present, and the forms that evasion can take are limitless."

"Not only do producers have an incentive to raise prices, but some consumers also have an incentive to pay them. The result may be payments on the side to distributors (a bribe for the superintendent of a rent-controlled building, for example), or it may be a full-fledged black market in which goods are bought and sold clandestinely."

"The obvious costs of queuing, evasion, and black markets often lead governments to impose some form of rationing."

"With all of the problems generated by controls, we can well ask why they are ever imposed and why they are sometimes maintained for so long. The answer, in part, is that the public does not always see the links between controls and the problems they create."

"However, most inflation, even in wartime, is due to inflationary monetary and fiscal policies rather than to panic buying."

"Inflation is extremely difficult to contain through general controls, in part because the attempt to limit control to a manageable sector of the economy is usually hopeless."

https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Pric…

It's bs. That's a right wing view of the invisible hand of the market bs. It's as much a fairytale as Bidenomics. The US needs a social market and focus on sustainable development. Profit loss industry is sometimes needed . You can't have a consumer society without consumers.

Decades of economic science and the ideology that has brought more people out of poverty than any other vs the Vegas pimp who gets suicidal when a girl leaves him.

Hmm, tough one, Icee.

You're citing cold war Red scare McCarthyist propaganda . 😂

And again please. Stop obsessing over icee whoever that is. You sound delusional calling me icee.

@Icee - economic facts are not subject to your approval.

I wouldn't anyone to know I were you, either. But we do.

You stated right wing theory not facts. You really are obsessed with that icee.

Right wing nothing, Icee. Universally agreed upon except by anti-intellectual socialist nincompoops.

You are Icee. So I call you that. I wouldn't want me to remember you either.

Its not a consumer society. Its a consumer and producer society. The market is meant for everyone, not just consumers. “Cant have consumer society without consumers”

Also price gouging only works if all the producers of the item work with each other in unison. Or, it works for products that are difficult to recreate or cant be recreated. Usually products protected by patent laws. For instance pokemon cards, even though theyre pieces of cardboard… can become very valuable because of artificially restricting the supply. Many of the watch brands, car brands can similarly restrict supply.
But a milk seller cant. Even if all the grocery stores worked together, if prices rise even a dollar per gallon, someone else will just start their own milk company and enter the market.

Price gouging is not the number one problem. If you read my earlier comments i pointed out grocery store prices of things like beef and milk remained almost exactly the same. Yet a bunch of different chains, even places like mcdonalds and five guys, increased their prices several times. The reason they could raise prices is because theyre selling more than just a bottle of milk or piece of beef that anyone can sell. They have a unique product that they maintain monopoly over, thus can get away with raising prices and blaming it all on inflation even though some of it is just raising the price because they could not because rising costs caused it.

Universally agreed upon by far right jackanapes

You make yourself look crazy calling me icee.

Grocery store prices for many goods didnt go up so you definitely arent in the morally clear if you do something like purchase organic fruits at whole foods but ring them up as non organic in the self checkout. Grocery stores have slim margins and likely engaged in no price gouging

Rickmacrodong. You're pretty far on the spectrum. Do you spaz in clubs?

That all you've got, Icee?
Try disapproving a thing I said, if your pot-addled brain can comprehend it.

You're asking me to prove a negative. That's a retarded argument. Its all right wing B's like your tranny rants

Persian what about self checkout at stores like whole foods? If they’re price gouging can you self checkout lower prices on the goods

You can't disprove science, Icee.

@RMD - That's something else Icee has bragged about, ripping off even mom and pop grocery stores. Because the only honest business is pimping.

Your definition of fact is any statement skewed to validate your hegemonic paradigms. You're not as clever as you think you are

Someone learned a few ten dollar words. Cute.

That's good Marxist nonsense. Skewed to validate your hegemonic paradigms.

While we're at it, your definition of fact is whatever lets you rationalize your morally and ethically bankrupt lifestyle. Hey, you think pimping is the only honest profession, Icee.

@Puddy true

I just went through a McDonalds drive-thru and was charged $5.21 for a large fries. It was lower a few months ago, $4.89 I think.

Do I blame Biden and Harris for this?

You guys see Joe Kernan going off on Warren and Gottlieb to their faces on CNBC? He was not taking that price gouging routine, good for Kernan.

Kernan vs Sorkin dialogues are often entertaining. I love watching Kernan school Sorkin's whiny liberal ass.

Only a fag uses words like "hegemonic" on a strip club board.

'I just went through a McDonalds drive-thru and was charged $5.21 for a large fries. It was lower a few months ago, $4.89 I think.'


wild4testes I think we have the evidence explaining your faulty outlook on politics and life in general. All those greasy fries have clogged your maggot brain and likely led to your drinking excessive kool aide to wash them down. At minimum you should downsize from large to small fries.

You can thank me later dipshit. Lol

Biden didn't make 2 chicken sandwiches and some fries $32 at Carl's Jr. Their employees only make like $14 an hour .

There was a recent review of Cadillac lounge in Providence that said that $45 dances are "reasonably priced." For reference, they are $30 at Foxy (recently increased), $30 at RI Dolls, Desire is $25 (topless)/$35 (nude), Boardroom is $20 or 2 for $30 promo. Towards Boston, Golden Banana and Glass Slipper are $30. Mickey's is cheaper still.

That isn't even price gouging if there are clear high quality competitors with largely transparent pricing nearby.

^^So fucking stupid. Everyone in the country other than the retards called progressives knows that Biden pumping money into the economy and following up with give aways to lazy young people who owe money for college caused all of this.

"Price gouging," "corporate greed" are liberal excuses for their own fuckups.

There is not enough money to fund the left's agenda. Not enough rich, not enough corporations.

“A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.”
- President Gerald Ford

Come on Puddy,

By quoting President Ford you aren't helping your argument. Find a better quote.

^^SkiBum,
Are you arguing that by Biden pumping money into the economy, fewer recent post college girls feel the need to work, and the supply of dancers has decreased?

"I have never understood why it is ‘greed’ to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else’s money.”

“The old adage about giving a man a fish versus teaching him how to fish has been updated by a reader: Give a man a fish and he will ask for tartar sauce and French fries! Moreover, some politician who wants his vote will declare all these things to be among his ‘basic rights.’”

Continuing transactions between buyer and seller make sense only if value is subjective, each getting what is worth more subjectively. Economic transactions are not a zero-sum process, where one person loses whatever the other person gains.”

-Thomas Sowell

I think there are more strippers than ever. The market is oversaturated. The problem is there are too many who shouldn't be stripping

We seem to have forgotten Trump’s two checks one for $1400. that was Covid relief then a $2000. Check called economic stimulus remember his bullshit about having his name on the signature line, then of course who can forget the PPP of which 75% was stolen never put to it’s intended purpose but sure it’s all about good governance Trump was a prince.
This ain’t bean ball folks, this is grift and you guys want to put the biggest grifter of all back in the White House.

the ignorance in 25's post is astounding. First- it was all due to the Chinese Wuhan lab leaked coronavirus. They manufactured a global pandemic so that the rest of the world would not be able to pass them economically while they struggled with a domestic virus. Second- read this wikipedia link which explains all of the "experts" who went to the Presidency and the Congress and convinced them that a lack of stimulus funds and bailouts would lead to second Great Depression. Third- President Trump only signed bills that had been passed by House of Representatives controlled by the democrat party and passed by a razor-thin Republican majority in the Senate. Assigning all of the blame to the Oval Office is intellectually bankrupt, factually fale, and purposefully dishonest. You are a hack.

wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CARES_Act

^ LOL your still a weirdo, and funny too!

There's some law of TUSCL thermodynamics in which any thread in which @twentyfive or @gammanu make an appearance will degenerate into a flame war between the two.

Take that law and square it if it's about politics.

square it, hell. Cube it.