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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

#101

Post by whymauri »

rejectedandsad wrote: post #44
whymauri wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Wow I feel so sorry for those elites, what more can we do to avoid such a tragedy for them?

Students with full-ride scholarships (not just at Princeton and Stanford) typically come from households making I would hardly call that elite. For many of these students, these schools are the primary mechanism for class mobility -- taxing their scholarships is a hindrance that many can't afford. At this point, college is so expensive and so much of that is taxable that work study is an accounting trick to offset the tax liability -- this forces poor students, literally not the elite, to operate with unnecessary time and financial pressures.

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

#102

Post by gher-shyu3i »

blacksqr wrote: post #13
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-...

If so, the solution to the problem presented in the article is simple: tax the rich.

The problem is more fundamental. The financial system is based on the immoral and parasitic practice of usury. The fiat money we use today is controlled by the whim of the government, which borrows money from the Fed with usury. It has to print money to pay it back because due to usury, it keeps increasing.

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

#103

Post by whymauri »

tolbish wrote: post #72
whymauri wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What's happened over the last 15 years is that schools keep bumping room and board rates (at nearly 10% year-over-year, which is insane). Since anything outside tuition is taxable, that liability has been increasing. The 'income' of a full-ride scholarship student with parents making less than 25k could be 55-60k+ on paper, which then gets taxed. This leads to income that should be used for food and quality of life, like work study, being used to offset a growing tax liability instead.

So you have students who are poor and working way more than their wealthier counterparts not for savings, emergency funds, money for their family, or food, but simply to offset a tax liability they incur... because they are poor and smart. Absolutely bonkers.

I just don't understand why there isn't an income-based tax exemption on need-based full-rides. Like, ideally a need-based full-ride should have parity with the wealthy students with parents footing the entire bill. It could certainly help with the slightly higher attrition rate for poor students.

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

#104

Post by mywittyname »

sjg007 wrote: post #85
mywittyname wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nominal inflation is fairly well hidden from people. The prices of most goods remain relatively static, or at least stay within a narrow band over an annual cycle. Producers have contracts for fixed prices on inputs and often outputs, so their prices are often fixed for a term. Frosted Flakes may remain $3.99 a box for five years, while a price increase to $4.49 is introduced gradually through sales and promotions. S…

67% of field corn is used for ethanol or animal feed. But regardless, only 10% of the price change in wholesale corn is passed on to consumers: https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2008/february/corn-pric... And the government heavily subsidizes crops.

The issue is not really how much of the price increase are passed along to consumers, rather, are these prices increases permanent?

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

#106

Post by blacksqr »

swiley wrote: post #29
zardo wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anyone is going to argue that "supply-chain issues" don't cause price inflation. If less stuff is available the price of stuff goes up.

Many of the "supply-chain issues" are really just labor shortages because wages haven't kept up with the recent inflation.

That's an argument for increasing the minimum wage.

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

#107

Post by dragonwriter »

wolverine876 wrote: post #97
dragonwriter wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You talk about ways that the headline could be reconciled with inflation, but even if true, the headline certainly doesn't describe an inflationary situation. The headline describes a response to inflation, not a cause. You are criticizing it because the response it describes does not explain the cause. Which is a silly criticism; responses aren’t supposed to explain causes.

The response and cause are inputs in the same system. An economy of belt-tightening is not inflationary. > silly Enough said.

> The response and cause are inputs in the same system.

But not to the same state. The description is of inflation at T(n) producing belt-tightening at T(=n). You are complaining that the belt-tightening doesn’t explain the inflation. Of course it doesn’t.

Now, sure, there’s a valid question of “what is causing the inflation”; is it offsetting belt loosening in another group? Is it supply issues?

But

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

#108

Post by sjg007 »

mywittyname wrote: post #104
sjg007 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

67% of field corn is used for ethanol or animal feed. But regardless, only 10% of the price change in wholesale corn is passed on to consumers: https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2008/february/corn-pric... And the government heavily subsidizes crops.

The issue is not really how much of the price increase are passed along to consumers, rather, are these prices increases permanent?

Doubtful. Electric autos will decrease demand for ethanol. The Govt will increase subsidizes as well to provide price stability.

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

#109

Post by derekp7 »

thrwawy12345 wrote: post #94
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adding $10 Trillion should have created a great deal of inflation - much more than we see. Therefore, if it were not added, we probably would see much worse than no inflation - we would see significant deflation. That's far more ruinous than mild inflation is.

Why is deflation worse than inflation? I like it when the things that I buy get cheaper.

Because if you buy a $300k house and need to move 10 years later, and only sell it for $150k, you still have a big chunk of the loan to pay off.

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

#110

Post by mywittyname »

giantg2 wrote: post #59
mywittyname wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US government collects data about production capabilities of pretty much every industry in America. Major companies do talk frequently with government officials about potential problems and roadblocks the business are facing, especially internationally. In addition, they have an enormous spy apparatus operating in probably every country on earth. Military satellites can be used to gauge production around the worl…

So what would they know that we don't? Hedge fund and industry analysts also pay a lot of attention to domestic and international production. Even stuff like public company shareholders meetings have a lot of insight. The issue I would be more concerned with is the overall structure of the economy. For example, only 15% of money lending goes to actual production use. The other 85% is just a house of cards that is len…

The most obvious example would be military-related. The government would know a lot more than the private sector about troop movement, ordinance production, deployment of assets (fighter jets, naval fleets), sabotage plans. Pretty much anything that is being intentionally hidden from public view by other parties is potentially known about by the government.

Even things like water levels of various bodies around the world are data points the military tracks (food shortages lead to strife) but aren't really easy for civilians to get.

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