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0 pointsrzazueta3y ago0 comments

A lot of the "inflation" is straight up corporate profiteering at this point. How else do you explain the record profits many companies experienced during and after the pandemic before the threat of rate hikes?

The answer to the why of all of this is super easy: greed.

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throwawaylinux3y ago

I don't find that answer very satisfactory at all. Did they suddenly become greedy in 2020 where previously they were foregoing profit out of the goodness of their hearts?

Corporations are a tool, like a hammer. They're not good or evil. They exist and operate as they are permitted to. And human nature hasn't changed either, everyone is "greedy" to a first order approximation. So what has changed? What conditions have changed between now and then?

bcassedy3y ago

An inflation narrative gives cover for price hikes driven by greed.

throwawaylinux3y ago

It could do. And a greed narrative gives (poor) cover for price hikes driven by any number of other things. Just stating these things does not help us get an understanding though. I want to know what changed.

I'd be more inclined to believe the disruption from production to supply chains to storage and demand, migration, etc due to covid regulations (not just the Chinese lockdowns) to have had the major impact. But it could also be for example energy costs due to expensive green regulations, or cartel behavior from energy producers because energy prices have been a major leader in price increases and those affect virtually everything else. Just saying "greed" doesn't help understand anything. People are greedy, we already knew that. Aristotle knew that.

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CamperBob23y ago

For any company making things -- well, to be fair, I can only speak for one of them -- the costs of goods sold has gone to the stratosphere.

This is not a joke, or an excuse, or an apology, just a statement of indisputable fact. Inflation hasn't really gotten started yet. And it's not (just) greed. An FPGA that cost us $40 at DigiKey two years ago is now $700 at $SKETCHY_CHINESE_BROKER. Somebody^WEverybody is going to pay for this.

refurb3y ago

You realize that inflation hit corporate profits too?

If a company has a profit of $10M and inflation is 10%, then the following year a profit of $11M is a "real profit" of $0.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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throwawaylinux3y ago

I don't find that answer very satisfactory at all. Did they suddenly become greedy in 2020 where previously they were foregoing profit out of the goodness of their hearts?

bcassedy3y ago

An inflation narrative gives cover for price hikes driven by greed.

throwawaylinux3y ago

1 more reply

CamperBob23y ago

For any company making things -- well, to be fair, I can only speak for one of them -- the costs of goods sold has gone to the stratosphere.

refurb3y ago

You realize that inflation hit corporate profits too?

If a company has a profit of $10M and inflation is 10%, then the following year a profit of $11M is a "real profit" of $0.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse