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83% of Americans Are Belt Tightening Due to Inflation Pressures

forbes.com

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Re: 83% of Americans Are Belt Tightening Due to Inflation Pressures

#71

Post by imtringued »

throwaway_kufu wrote: post #32
trey-jones wrote: post #2

Wow. Who could have foreseen this? I suppose that's different from "Who could have stopped this?" Our economic problems are not easy ones to solve, but when trillions of dollars of are created out of thin air and distributed to the populace, you had to know this was coming.

Trillions were not distributed to the populace, trillions were distributed to businesses and the Fed to leverage even further to prop up the stock market. The “populace” got billions. The printing isn’t really the problem either, it’s a symptom of policies from both parties for 50-60 years resulting in a nation that functions purely on debt from individual households, small businesses, publicly traded businesses, to…

A lot of large businesses had large cash reserves. It's the small ones that needed the support.

Re: 83% of Americans Are Belt Tightening Due to Inflation Pressures

#72

Post by tolbish »

whymauri wrote: post #18
fridif wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still waiting on mine!

Literally never got a stimulus. Students, especially poor students on scholarships, are so thoroughly fucked by the US tax system. It's gotten to the point that schools like Princeton and Stanford encourage low-income full-ride students to avoid declaring their tax liability at all, arguing that they're better off dealing with that monster when they actually have income (in software, finance, etc where the tax liabil…

Scholarship money is tax free, since it goes to tuition, books, etc.

Unless you are referring to money for housing? That is probably far more affordable of a tax bill relative to tuition.

Re: 83% of Americans Are Belt Tightening Due to Inflation Pressures

#74

Post by trey-jones »

blacksqr wrote: post #54
jrs235 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just more cash (increase "demand"), it's also reduced supplies due to many businesses shuttering or reducing output during covid.

GDP only dropped 2.3% last year [0], so there's approximately the same amount of stuff to buy. [0] https://www.bea.gov/news/2021/gross-domestic-product-4th-qua...

My rationale is simply that more dollars to go around means that one dollar is worth less. Simple logic, rather than fancy economics, I guess.

Re: 83% of Americans Are Belt Tightening Due to Inflation Pressures

#75

Post by toomuchtodo »

lainga wrote: post #58
markkanof wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or even just stop giving the rich money that is taken from regular people. The money may not be directly taken from us, but printing money causes inflation, which is not really different from taking money in the form of taxes. At the end of the day all of us regular people still have less purchasing power.

Well printing it and putting it into circulation causes inflation. If you give Bill Gates $1Tn and he hides it under his mattress, that does not cause inflation.

If Bill takes it and buys more farmland, that does cause trickle down inflation (depending on lease rates charges for farming).

Re: 83% of Americans Are Belt Tightening Due to Inflation Pressures

#76

Post by otnihoithiu »

lainga wrote: post #58
markkanof wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or even just stop giving the rich money that is taken from regular people. The money may not be directly taken from us, but printing money causes inflation, which is not really different from taking money in the form of taxes. At the end of the day all of us regular people still have less purchasing power.

Well printing it and putting it into circulation causes inflation. If you give Bill Gates $1Tn and he hides it under his mattress, that does not cause inflation.

He didn't hide it under his mattress, he purchased enormous amounts of farmland to rent seek off of your need to eat.

https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-land-portfolio-bi...

Re: 83% of Americans Are Belt Tightening Due to Inflation Pressures

#77

Post by blacksqr »

new_realist wrote: post #64
blacksqr wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but the article explicitly states that the vast majority of consumers don't have more cash to spend. So the cause of the inflation must be something else.

Yes, it is caused by something else: the 28% of consumers who do have more cash to spend.

Then the solution is simple: tax the rich.

Re: 83% of Americans Are Belt Tightening Due to Inflation Pressures

#78

Post by dragonwriter »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #70
new_realist wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inflating the money supply wouldn't do what you describe. It would just make everything more expensive.

Giving everyone $30k would. Just the extra $300 per week that people were getting is causing them to be dissuaded from subjecting themselves to the bottom tier of jobs. I’ve spoken to a lot of hotel owners and restaurateurs lamenting their inability to hire people for low wages part time work. And there are fast food restaurants around me that are closed at many times because they have no workers, especially for late…

> Just the extra $300 per week that people were getting is causing them to be dissuaded from subjecting themselves to the bottom tier of jobs

Giving people money that you take away if they work dissuades them from taking jobs, especially jobs that net them the same or less than they get without working.

That doesn’t really prove anything about how giving people money that you don’t take away if they work effects their willingness to work.

Re: 83% of Americans Are Belt Tightening Due to Inflation Pressures

#79

Post by ffggvv »

blacksqr wrote: post #8
trey-jones wrote: post #2

Wow. Who could have foreseen this? I suppose that's different from "Who could have stopped this?" Our economic problems are not easy ones to solve, but when trillions of dollars of are created out of thin air and distributed to the populace, you had to know this was coming.

The article reports that 72% of respondents said their income has not increased. So whatever trillions of dollars were created don't seem to have made it to the populace. Either the respondents are not a representative sample of consumers, in which case the article's conclusions are of little value; or something other than increased consumer spending, like supply chain issues, is causing the inflation.

actually median savings are at all time highs for the average person. thanks to stimulus payments and enhanced unemployment and also shutdowns preventing people from spending money even if they wanted.

Re: 83% of Americans Are Belt Tightening Due to Inflation Pressures

#80

Post by halsom »

lainga wrote: post #25
halsom wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of those trillions were delivered to the ruling/corporate class who has used it to secure assets instead of create value. That is the source of this inflation. For example: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/koch-e2-80-99s-foundation-...

How does buying up assets lead to price increases in "groceries (96%), gas (93%), dining out (57%), and clothing (42%)"? Are the Koch Brothers hitting up Costco every day?

Gas is up because of the recent pipeline shutdown.

Grocery prices have been rising since the start of the pandemic. Far more people are now accustomed to cooking at home. Anecdotally, I am one of them. I buy at least twice as many groceries as I did pre-pandemic and that is not going to change. Also the pandemic is still in full force internationally, especially in places where the US sources major food imports.

Clothing is up because commerce with the Chinese textile industry was shut down during the pandemic. It will take at least another year before clothing prices are restored.

Notice that the massive spikes in real estate prices are not even mentioned in the article. This is a propaganda piece. It cherrypicks items that poor people depend on in order to promote backlash against redistribution.

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