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US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money

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131–136 of 136 posts

Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money

#131
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I very much disagree that it's a worse product.

i mean that cant be true if you also admit to only buying it because your preferred product became too expensive.

I never said beef was my preferred product, nor that I'm only buying pork because I can't justify buying beef. I like beef and pork equally, and have always bought both.

What I said was that the price of beef reached a point where it's not worth the money for me, so I'm not buying it. I've mostly replaced it with pork (and to a lesser degree, chicken).

Just to head off another potential misunderstanding, this also isn't a case of being unable to afford beef. I'm doing fine on the money front. It's a case of the cost/benefit ratio of beef no longer being favorable for me.

Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money

#132
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A person eating one single hamburger uses more water than an entire year of LLM use for the same person. Yet we are very concerned about water use in data centers, but nobody cares about McDonalds.

Respectfully, I would like to see a source or at least the math for that.

Here it is:

[The water footprint of a single hamburger is *significantly higher than* that of using a large language model (LLM) for a year. For example, the water used for one hamburger is primarily due to the irrigation of cattle feed crops, while data centers like xAI's Colossus 2 consume much less water overall.](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=A+person+eating+one+single+hamburg...)

States that it's significantly higher but the breakdown shows a 660gal vs 1000gal (Single Burger vs 1yr LLM Usage) water usage...

Item Water Footprint (Gallons)

Single Hamburger Approximately 660 gallons

Year of LLM Usage Approximately 1,000 gallons

Results also contain an important disclaimer: "Auto-generated based on listed sources. May contain inaccuracies."

You be the judge ;)

Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "greed" aspect is always bullshit unless there is a specific instance of market failure like monopoly power or collusion. This has definitely happened, so I'm not discounting it, but in those cases folks should just say the issue is monopoly concentration or collusion. Saying "greed" comes from people who fundamentally believe economics doesn't exist, or don't understand it. Everyone in the economy is "greedy". C…

Name one thing cheaper than it was 6 years ago…

[dead]

Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only McDonalds charges $20 for a burger instead of $10, people will go elsewhere. If everyone charges $20 for a burger, people will still go to McDonalds. In such a state, no individual place would dare charge $10 again. Why cut revenue to nearly half? It’s not like they have the capacity to sell 20x the usual volume… I’m not convinced that basic economics works when output capacity isn’t fully scalable. Same reas…

> Why cut revenue to nearly half? Because, to quote Jeff Bezos, your margin is my opportunity. And did he ever squeeze every drop from that opportunity. Just ask the brick and mortar stores in your street. > I’m not convinced that basic economics works when output capacity isn’t fully scalable. Economics works for land, which isn't scalable. > Same reason no lawn care team tries to deeply undercut competitors That wo…

> Because, to quote Jeff Bezos, your margin is my opportunity. And did he ever squeeze every drop from that opportunity. Just ask the brick and mortar stores in your street.

Sure and now after having become the Shoggoth monopoly, Amazon is now increasing fees. Squeeze your competitors out via unlimited money and then begin to squeeze your customers after you become of the lone poles in the forest.

Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why cut revenue to nearly half? Because, to quote Jeff Bezos, your margin is my opportunity. And did he ever squeeze every drop from that opportunity. Just ask the brick and mortar stores in your street. > I’m not convinced that basic economics works when output capacity isn’t fully scalable. Economics works for land, which isn't scalable. > Same reason no lawn care team tries to deeply undercut competitors That wo…

> Because, to quote Jeff Bezos, your margin is my opportunity. And did he ever squeeze every drop from that opportunity. Just ask the brick and mortar stores in your street. Sure and now after having become the Shoggoth monopoly, Amazon is now increasing fees. Squeeze your competitors out via unlimited money and then begin to squeeze your customers after you become of the lone poles in the forest.

What part of "Amazon's margin is a competitors opportunity" aren't you groking?

Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because, to quote Jeff Bezos, your margin is my opportunity. And did he ever squeeze every drop from that opportunity. Just ask the brick and mortar stores in your street. Sure and now after having become the Shoggoth monopoly, Amazon is now increasing fees. Squeeze your competitors out via unlimited money and then begin to squeeze your customers after you become of the lone poles in the forest.

What part of "Amazon's margin is a competitors opportunity" aren't you groking?

The one where being the dominant player and executing anti-competitive practices removes any opportunity. Being a sufficiently big bullying tree chokes out all future undergrowth for others
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