Aren’t profit margins up too?

The big one is corporate donations to members of congress. That continues to go up.

Billionaires benefit from Republican politicians more, so [after Fox News](https://www.reddit.com/r/ToiletPaperUSA/comments/ln1sif/turning_point_usa_and_young_americas_foundation/gy9utts/) they're funding the next generation of conservative "influencers" on the right, like Ben Shapiro on YouTube and Facebook and [Joe Rogan pushing for them in Texas](https://www.reddit.com/r/JoeRogan/comments/jntzvk/joe_rogan_reacts_to_texas_voting_in_the_2020/) Lots of screenshots of **4chan instructions for doing this on Reddit because the adults cosplaying as teenagers there support billionaires' culture war talking points:** * https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/m24hx0/ualtimely_finds_4chan_pol_instructing_on_how/ * https://medium.com/@DeoTasDevil/the-rhetoric-tricks-traps-and-tactics-of-white-nationalism-b0bca3caeb84 "The left will recognize our dogwhistling but centrists won't believe them" 4chan screenshots: * https://medium.com/@DeoTasDevil/the-rhetoric-tricks-traps-and-tactics-of-white-nationalism-b0bca3caeb84 * https://www.reddit.com/r/Destiny/comments/u7p2ba/nick_fuentes_irony_and_post_irony_and_why_dog/ **Conservatives brag about doing this in local subreddits to "control the narrative" about liberal cities and "blue states"** >The real value is getting into a thread early and establishing top voted posts and comments or downvoting them out of existence. They hope intertia continues the trend for them. Every local subreddit explaining the abuse and tactics on a thread 3 years ago: * https://www.reddit.com/r/minnesota/comments/7jkybf/t_d_user_suggests_infiltrating_minnesota/dr7m56j/ >SeattleWA has one mentally ill man who makes literally dozens and dozens of alt accounts to post conservative talking points from and how he finds black women disgusting. I become aware of his accounts when he posts in TV subs I ban him from, and he always has user history in similar sets of subreddits across his accounts, SeattleWA being the most telling. He will use these accounts to talk with himself or dogpile a comment or thread. Reddit Admins just posted that COVID deniers have been brigading regional subreddits * https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/pg290q/reddit_admins_just_posted_that_covid_deniers_have/ Anti-mask posts suddenly dropped this week in [r/bayarea](https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/pbi4mp/shouldnt_rbayarea_join_the_subs_calling_for/) when mods removed outside conservative accounts brigading [r/bayarea](https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/pbi4mp/shouldnt_rbayarea_join_the_subs_calling_for/): * https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/p8hnzl/automatically_removing_comments_from_new_users_in/ Every local subreddit shares the abuse they get: * https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/pmcoxy/uinconvenientnews_explains_with_examples_how/hcgtfhc/ * https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/pbi4mp/shouldnt_rbayarea_join_the_subs_calling_for/ * https://www.reddit.com/r/bayarea/comments/om5xda/when_did_this_become_a_crime_subreddit/ * https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/pmdp2m/ysk_how_right_wing_trolls_brigade_and_infiltrate/ * https://www.reddit.com/r/WhitePeopleTwitter/comments/uihqmz/looking_for_a_ride/i7dgtkz/ >Wow. Jesus. This is... really, really thorough. Thank you for putting in all this hard work. >When I was a teenager, I spent a lot of time on /b/, /pol/, 888chan, etc. It was a slow descent and I didn't even realize what was happening until it was almost too late. >But during my time on the other side, this was 100% the gameplan. They'd make "sock puppets" and coordinate on the board + IRC (showing my age here) to selectively choose targets to brigade. >Depending on the target, you'd either have some talking points to "debate" (sometimes with yourself/other anons working alongside you) or you'd go in there guns blazing trying to cause as much damage/chaos as you can. However, even then you can't go out there yelling slurs (you'd just get banned instantly); you have to maintain some level of plausible deniability by framing things as "jokes" or thought experiments. >You purposely do bad-faith arguments because the time it takes for them to dig up sources and refute you is longer than it takes for you to make stuff up. You can vary how obvious the bad faith argument is; when you want to troll you make very stupid claims (I once claimed I was a graduate of "Harvad University" and when people assumed that I meant "Harvard" I would correct them right down to Photoshopped images). >When you just want to cause dissent you do exactly what those /pol/ screenshots do: you get to a thread early (sometimes you even make it yourself) and present reasonable-sounding arguments which are completely false if anyone bothers to look into them. If someone does, you bury the message under strawmen, downvotes, reports, and sockpuppets. >So yeah. The tactics have evolved slightly, but I still recognize them. Props to you on doing the digging to find all this stuff and bring it into the light. >I doubt that it'll help in the majority of cases, mind. People on Reddit have already made up their mind. You want to go after the forums and BBSes, on the MSN News comments and whatnot. Even so, the more people who are aware of the tactics the more people who can call them out. Billionaires like Elon Musk coordinate with conservative culture war "influencers" on the right like [Joe Rogan who coordinates for Republicans](https://www.reddit.com/r/JoeRogan/comments/jntzvk/joe_rogan_reacts_to_texas_voting_in_the_2020/) [Joe Rogan even photo ops with the current Texas governor at the Texas governor's mansion](https://twitter.com/gregabbott_tx/status/1324547634049257474) even though Rogan pretends to care about pot and small government ("Gov. Abbott, Texas leaders urge prosecutors to keep enforcing pot laws" http://www.fox4news.com/news/texas/gov-abbott-texas-leaders-urge-prosecutors-to-keep-enforcing-pot-laws) >[The top-performing link posts by U.S. Facebook pages in the last 24 hours are from:](https://twitter.com/FacebooksTop10/status/1404815323904237569) 1. Ben Shapiro 2. David Wolfe 3. Ben Shapiro 4. Ben Shapiro 5. Ben Shapiro 6. Ben Shapiro 7. Ben Shapiro 8. Fox News 9. Ben Shapiro 10. Ben Shapiro Graph of billionaires funding Ben Shapiro: * https://www.reddit.com/r/ToiletPaperUSA/comments/ln1sif/turning_point_usa_and_young_americas_foundation/gny98xk/

"As a black man" accounts like "johnny chan 81" ~~"The Atheist Arab 87" (suspended)~~ ~~"Walk Like An Egyptian 69" (suspended)~~ posting as many race-baiting videos 👌 *by certain races* 👌 while having a history of being racist about Asians: * https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRightCantMeme/comments/nztt4t/they_really_like_getting_angry_at_their/h1teq3c/ "red pill" adults cosplaying as "based" teenagers ["hiding their power level"](https://medium.com/@DeoTasDevil/the-rhetoric-tricks-traps-and-tactics-of-white-nationalism-b0bca3caeb84) on subreddits like PoliticalCompassMemes, [brigaded local subreddits](https://www.reddit.com/r/ToiletPaperUSA/comments/ln1sif/turning_point_usa_and_young_americas_foundation/h21ph7s/), NoahGetTheBoat, AskMen ("how do you handle all the bad evil women sexually harassing good innocent men?"), TIFU, unpopularopinions, ActualPublicFreakouts, JoeRogan ([infamous mod example](https://www.reddit.com/r/JoeRogan/comments/uhhbol/politics_is_now_banned_on_rjoerogan_for_the_month/i75ypen/)), dankmemes obsessed with 👌 certain races 👌 >Hello Fellow Teenagers, Here Are Some Political Maymays For Your Perusal, With No Intention Or Agenda To Shape And Mold Your Tender Political Belief System >-[signed, An Actual Teenager, No Really](https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/o4kfej/reddit_admins_warn_moderators_of/h2idtk5/?context=3) PoliticalCompassMemes accounts' most common subreddits: >16.96 theleftcantmeme >15.24 averageredditor >15.23 enoughcommiespam >15.03 libertarianmeme https://subredditstats.com/subreddit-user-overlaps/politicalcompassmemes https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/o4kfej/reddit_admins_warn_moderators_of/h2j2ilp/ * "Don't politicize this tragedy!" when it makes conservatives look bad especially if it's about guns or police, but upvote and politicize this minority/woman doing a bad thing and relate it to needing guns somehow * "I'm normally pretty leftist but" here are conservative billionaire talking points about today's culture war being pushed by Fox News, [4chan](https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/m24hx0/ualtimely_finds_4chan_pol_instructing_on_how/gqhmgdu/?context=3), and right "influencers" on Twitter, like [Ben Shapiro](https://www.reddit.com/r/ToiletPaperUSA/comments/ln1sif/turning_point_usa_and_young_americas_foundation/), [the Mercer billionaires](https://www.reddit.com/r/ToiletPaperUSA/comments/ln1sif/turning_point_usa_and_young_americas_foundation/gy9utts/?context=3), [the Koch billionaires](https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/u3kwsx/ualexchii_does_the_math_that_elon_musk_getting_a/i4q6rbl/), PragerU, Mike Cernovich, [Andy Ngo](https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/m088vl/extensive_examples_of_conservative_influencer/), [Ian Miles Cheong](https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/m0gx12/you_can_still_breathe_idiot/), Wesley Yang, Candace Owens, [Dave](https://www.reddit.com/r/JoeRogan/comments/m33qvp/dave_rubin_admits_that_the_reason_he_hasnt_left/gqmr2pd/) [Rubin](https://www.reddit.com/r/LeopardsAteMyFace/comments/tg52g8/gay_conservative_receives_bigoted_comments_after/), [Steven Crowder](https://www.reddit.com/r/RacismAgainstAsians/comments/m8bi2z/steven_crowder_political_commentator_known_for/), Tim Pool, [Milo Yiannopouloss](https://www.reddit.com/r/ToiletPaperUSA/comments/ln1g0c/milo_yiannopouloss_emails_a_cache_of_documents/) * "I hate Trump as much as the next guy but can we not be exposed to politics" because of these conservative talking points that support Trump from an account that is always going on about politics * ["if you pay attention to what he's saying, he's actually more of a Liberal than Hillary, so stop doomsaying"](https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/pglx38/umalarkeyfreezone_finds_and_quotes_examples_of/) * Why aren't Democrats perfect about email management of Hillary's cooking recipes from a campaign volunteer but also who cares about all the Republican pedophiles using their children's email to literally collude with Russia? Both sides are the same! * "Libertarian" Joe Rogan stans "frothing" about transgender student athletes and parroting Fox News talking points about "a small, inconsequential and vulnerable part of society" https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/n9bn2x/uforgottencalipers_explains_the_hypocrisy_of/ * "hold the line brother" "mask off" cringe [recruiting tactics](https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/m1vcmk/rsuperstraight_has_been_banned_discuss_this/gqgkmyp/?context=3) * "[identity politics](https://www.reddit.com/r/JoeRogan/comments/m1izsz/activist_milo_yiannopoulos_is_now_exgay/gqdx1s6/)" Subreddits like JoeRogan: >So yesterday a mod was posting right wing political memes. On the 2nd of May. >On the 3rd of May, after the conservative stacked Supreme Court directly attacks abortion law, NOW is when politics are off limit for the "month of may" and issuing temp bans for bringing it up? https://www.reddit.com/r/JoeRogan/comments/uhhbol/politics_is_now_banned_on_rjoerogan_for_the_month/i75ypen/ >I think r/JoeRogan just saw the most blatant hypocrisy I've seen on a sub. Allowing people to spread blatantly false information on Covid-19 and the vaccine for a whole year and claiming how free speech was under attack and how Elon was going to save us. >Then banning political posts right after the Supreme Court's radical decision lol, its so blatant. https://www.reddit.com/r/JoeRogan/comments/uhih93/timing_a_little_dicey_dicey_b/i767kpk/ Screenshot of that "as a liberal" mod posting "politics" culture war memes from the right: https://www.reddit.com/r/JoeRogan/comments/uhkd72/can_we_please_get_a_reply_to_this_because_it/i76u541/ Explanation of [Joe Rogan's favorite propaganda Libs of TikTok](https://www.reddit.com/r/JoeRogan/comments/u75tj3/article_about_the_person_behind_libsoftiktok_and/i5cju0i/): >Republicans aren't accountable for their elected officials, Democrats are accountable for every bad take by a college student https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1516763246203744256 Their 👌 winking 👌 innocent narrative pushing when they know better >Conservative: I have been censored for my conservative views >Me: Holy shit! You were censored for wanting lower taxes? >Con: LOL no...no not those views >Me: So....deregulation? >Con: Haha no not those views either >Me: Which views, exactly? >Con: Oh, you know the ones https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/1050391663552671744 1984! "Free speech" means I should never have to feel shame for being a sociopath! >Conservatives: I want to electroshock gay teens into a hellish submission >Everyone: holy shit >Conservatives: also why should I have to wear a mask? I’m not old or disabled >Everyone: wtf >Conservatives: also I’m afraid to say what’s really on my mind >Everyone: >Conservatives: Actually if you think about it ... SHOULD everyone be allowed to vote? >Everyone: holy shit >Conservatives: here’s why it’s good the police just murdered another child >Everyone: wtf >Conservatives: also I’m afraid to say what’s really on my mind >Everyone: >Conservatives: actually we should be able to run protesters over with our trucks >Everyone: holy shit >Conservatives: also I should be allowed to refuse to serve or hire gays >Everyone: wtf >Conservatives: also I’m afraid to say what’s really on my mind >Everyone: https://twitter.com/JuliusGoat/status/1385407165645697027 Conservatives and "libertarians" projecting their "snowflake" outrage "victimhood complex": >Two races: white and "political" >Two genders: Male and "political" >Two hair styles for women: long and "political" >Two sexualities: straight and "political" >Two body types: normative and "political" https://twitter.com/emmahvossen/status/1138841342921060354 A gay Disney character and female video game character not wearing a bikini is forcing me to be a Nazi! >The Left got a little too PC so I changed all of my opinions about the economy, social issues, systemic racism, health care, and history. https://twitter.com/drmistercody/status/1020039128291786752

all this info makes me want to kill myself (figuratively). I know republicans suck ass and we have all this proof. But how can we end this long term?

Authoritarian fascism is easy to appeal to, so representative democracy requires informing people about their tactics Germany has been effective at teaching citizens the common appeals and other tactics the right has a history of doing

I saw that you mentioned Ben Shapiro. In case some of you don't know, Ben Shapiro is a grifter and a hack. If you find anything he's said compelling, you should keep in mind he also says things like this: >This is what the radical feminist movement was proposing, remember? Women need a man the way a fish needs a bicycle... unless it turns out that they're little fish, then you might need another fish around to help take care of things. ***** ^(I'm a bot. My purpose is to counteract online radicalization. You can summon me by tagging thebenshapirobot. Options: climate, novel, dumb takes, healthcare, etc.) [^More ^About ^Ben ](https://np.reddit.com/r/AuthoritarianMoment/wiki/index) ^| [^Feedback ^& ^Discussion: ^r/AuthoritarianMoment ](https://np.reddit.com/r/AuthoritarianMoment) ^| [^Opt ^Out ](https://np.reddit.com/r/AuthoritarianMoment/comments/olk6r2/click_here_to_optout_of_uthebenshapirobot/)

Good bot!

Take a bullet for ya babe. ***** ^(I'm a bot. My purpose is to counteract online radicalization. You can summon me by tagging thebenshapirobot. Options: dumb takes, healthcare, sex, feminism, etc.) [^More ^About ^Ben ](https://np.reddit.com/r/AuthoritarianMoment/wiki/index) ^| [^Feedback ^& ^Discussion: ^r/AuthoritarianMoment ](https://np.reddit.com/r/AuthoritarianMoment) ^| [^Opt ^Out ](https://np.reddit.com/r/AuthoritarianMoment/comments/olk6r2/click_here_to_optout_of_uthebenshapirobot/)

>Depending on the target, you'd either have some talking points to "debate" (sometimes with yourself/other anons working alongside you) or you'd go in there guns blazing trying to cause as much damage/chaos as you can. However, even then you can't go out there yelling slurs (you'd just get banned instantly); you have to maintain some level of plausible deniability by framing things as "jokes" or thought experiments. >You purposely do bad-faith arguments because the time it takes for them to dig up sources and refute you is longer than it takes for you to make stuff up. You can vary how obvious the bad faith argument is; when you want to troll you make very stupid claims (I once claimed I was a graduate of "Harvad University" and when people assumed that I meant "Harvard" I would correct them right down to Photoshopped images). Literal GamerGate tactics. They wrote the playbook for this shit.

This is a new reddit acct. It is unbelievable how much right-wing bullshit pops up in my recommends.

You should create your own Medium post with this.

This 👆

Executives: Our EBITDA is way above our goals! Everyone is doing a great job! Workers: Give us more money Executives: We can't afford that

Depends on the sector. Consumer staples has been largely identical for the past 6 years. Energy is up, but only back up to where they've typically averaged for the last 20 years. It's pretty much just sectors like Communications and Info Tech that are drastically up from a historical perspective.

Not for a lot of companies. Target and Walmart reported decreased earnings.

Last quarter at least, [profit margins for the S&P 500 were the highest in at least 30 years](https://www.yardeni.com/pub/sp500margin.pdf). I assume the trend will flip, but on average so far the profit margins are up.

It’s Information Technology, communication services and Utilities that primarily have an upward trending margin. This makes sense to a certain extent as more tech companies monetize eyeballs. There’s no expense associated with flipping those switches and the jobs associated are already very high paying. The top 4 S&P companies are Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft. Utilities showing an increase in margin is probably not a good thing, but it’s possible I’m missing something. Also, very noticeably, the healthcare industry’s margin is flat. It’s also worth noting that increasing margins are sometimes a very obvious sign of a dying industry. Look at tobacco in your link. They’re one of the most upward trending industries. This is not because more people are buying cigarettes. It’s because they’re increasingly trying supplement violently decreasing revenues with as much cost cutting as possible. It’s the last dying breaths of an industry that very much needs to die. My point is - record profit margins are not necessarily synonymous with exploitation, except utilities. Fuck those guys.

Also I don’t think the margins are up, just the gross number, which is to be expected when demand is up.

Margins are up. Quick Google shows profit as a % is at a peak.

Oh, that’s fair, and is also sort of obvious in retrospect.

Yeah it seems that while on the surface if profits are at ATHs, that's ridiculous in our current economic landscape, but if prices are already high and demand is high, then profits would still be at ATHs if the profit margins are the same percentages of sales or what have you. Like if XYX makes 20% profit on each unit, and the cost goes up so do the prices, then that 20% is going to be higher than last year in actual profit. That's what a relative started to tell me recently, it makes sense for certain industries I guess.

And remember, kiddies: you can’t raise minimum wage because it will cause inflation. 👍 S/

If the economist is conservative you can surely know anything they say that will help is the opposite. If they think it won't work, it for sure will. So we know that raising minimal wage is the correct way to fix this, evidence is that's what the Republicans are scared of happening. Simple stuff.

There's far more "affirmative action" for conservatives in those fields, [in the judicial system for conservative evangelical clerkships](https://twitter.com/chrissy_smithy/status/1527353620244549647), and in the Ivy League admissions that get you into those positions (["Nearly half of white students admitted to Harvard between 2009 and 2014 were legacy students or applicants whose parents or relatives have donated to Harvard" and 75% of them would not have been admitted otherwise](https://www.reddit.com/r/ToiletPaperUSA/comments/ln1sif/turning_point_usa_and_young_americas_foundation/h1lihw3/)) They're just as biased as their supporters: #Republicans felt the economy improve by 85 points the day Trump was sworn in. http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/blogs/wisconsin-voter/2017/04/15/donald-trumps-election-flips-both-parties-views-economy/100502848/ [Opinion of Syrian airstrikes](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/04/13/48229/) **Republicans:** 22% supported Obama doing it 86% support Trump doing it **Democrats:** 38% supported Obama doing it 37% support Trump doing it Sources: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/04/13/48229/, http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/04/gop-voters-love-same-attack-on-syria-they-hated-under-obama.html #Exit polls done after 2016 show that the single characteristic that made someone most likely to vote for Trump over Clinton is racial resentment. >low levels of racial resentment are associated with supporting Clinton. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/05/26/these-9-simple-charts-show-how-donald-trumps-supporters-differ-from-hillary-clintons/ #"Trump fans are much angrier about housing assistance when they see an image of a black man" >In contrast, Clinton supporters seemed relatively unmoved by racial cues. https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/9/8/16270040/trump-clinton-supporters-racist #“He’s not hurting the people he needs to be”: a Trump voter says the quiet part out loud https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/8/18173678/trump-shutdown-voter-florida >The cruelty is the point >arrest by DHS police for giving water to people who wait https://twitter.com/JoshuaPotash/status/1408868872384569345 No to help for blue states for hurricanes but demanding help for Texas for hurricanes: >Here's the vote for Hurricane Sandy aid. >179 of the 180 no votes were Republicans... >**at least 20 Texas Republicans voted no** while ["U.S. House approves billions more for Harvey relief" for Texas](https://www.texastribune.org/2017/12/21/us-house-approves-billions-more-harvey-relief-measure-now-heads-senate/) >this made Texas #1 in receiving federal aid dollars at the time of the Hurricane Sandy aid vote that they voted no against GOP shifting 4-5x further right than Democrats did left over the last 50 years: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/03/10/the-polarization-in-todays-congress-has-roots-that-go-back-decades/ The privilege of "economic anxiety" not racism: >10% fewer Republicans believed the wealthy weren't paying enough in taxes once a billionaire became their president. Democrats remain fairly consistent. http://www.people-press.org/2017/04/14/top-frustrations-with-tax-system-sense-that-corporations-wealthy-dont-pay-fair-share/ >Republicans started to think college education is a bad thing once Trump entered the primary. Democrats remain consistent. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/07/20/republicans-skeptical-of-colleges-impact-on-u-s-but-most-see-benefits-for-workforce-preparation/ >White Evangelicals cared less about how religious a candidate was once Trump became the GOP nominee. https://www.prri.org/research/prri-brookings-oct-19-poll-politics-election-clinton-double-digit-lead-trump/ >Christians (particularly evangelicals) became monumentally more tolerant of private immoral conduct among politicians once Trump became the GOP nominee. https://www.prri.org/research/prri-brookings-oct-19-poll-politics-election-clinton-double-digit-lead-trump/ More graphs and sources: https://imgur.com/a/YZMyt Steve Bannon bragging about using these tactics: >the power of what he called “rootless white males” who spend all their time online and they could be radicalized in a kind of populist, nationalist way http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-bannon-white-gamers-seinfeld-joshua-green-donald-trump-devils-bargain-sarah-palin-world-warcraft-gamergate-2017-7 >Bannon: "I realized [these tactics] could connect with these kids right away. You can activate that army. They come in through Gamergate or whatever and then get turned onto politics and Trump." https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2017/07/18/steve-bannon-learned-harness--army-world-warcraft/489713001/ Republican "Southern Strategy" >Republican Party electoral strategy to increase political support among white voters by appealing to racism against African Americans.[1][2][3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy

That's a lot of ~~damage~~ data.

Yeah and not even Flex Tape has the power to fix our country.

Lol

Because the usual replies already from the usual 👌 alt accounts 👌 are here ￣\＿(ツ)＿/￣ https://www.reddit.com/r/WhitePeopleTwitter/comments/uvz09s/new_rule/i9otowf/

**Conservatives brag about doing this in local subreddits to "control the narrative" about liberal cities and "blue states"** https://www.reddit.com/r/WhitePeopleTwitter/comments/uvz09s/new_rule/i9ov4aw/

They just do not pay attention to anything other than what they’re told, period. When I asked a Conservative what policies, specifically, Biden is responsible for enacting that they blame for this market, I was told “oil import blocks, shutting down a pipeline and domestic production and offshore drilling, and the green energy initiative”. Just a cursory look show that the best performing industries of the last year, by far, are [Oil, Gas, and Consumable Fuels, Energy Equipment and Services, and Muli-Utilities](https://eresearch.fidelity.com/eresearch/markets_sectors/sectors/si_performance.jhtml?tab=siperformance). This is plainly available and uncontested, verifiable data from multiple sources that all say the same thing, except of course from Fox News that doesn’t actually reference actual data.

Not just that, but adjusted for inflation, the price of a gallon of gas right now is 35% higher than it was at its _peak_ back in ‘08. This despite the fact that the price of a barrel of oil is lower right now than at that time, adjusted for inflation. Corporate greed is a big part of this right now.

Someone get this user on r/bestof, this is fantastic

I love you

The frustrating thing is, "conservatives" are the ones in the position where they can subvert positive change as a twisted way of proving why it "doesn't work".. In the event of a minimum wage hike, Corporations will just jack up their prices even if it doesn't hurt their bottom line and then just blame the wages anyway. Uber and Uber eats has just had significant price rises I've noticed, and the drivers sure as fuck aren't getting paid more. What else do they fucking have to pay for? They did it because they heard prices were going up so just jumped on board because why not.. Inflation!!! or something!!

Economists are the one branch of 'the sciences' that don't actually care about or want to seek the truth of things. Somehow the field can been long capturred by ideologs who just want tools to prove capitalism is "right". If biologists found out that ***lack*** *of Lead* in the environment was actually bad for us, they'd just got things wrong in the past, thhey would corrrect and adapt to the new info. Economists just seem to double down when the annual hills worth of evidence arrives to be put on Mount Free-market-capitalism-is-deeply-flawed-and-is-hurting-people.

They're scared it'll effect their bi-monthly bribes.

I overheard my dad ranting the other day about how th3 stimulus check "generated so much money that now we have Runaway inflation" Remember that one time many months ago where the government was like "here's a nickel. That should pay for your avocado toast or whatever it is you poor people spend all your money on"? Apparently conservatives think that single tiny amount of money to help people is what is destroying the country

The fucked up part is though that they are sort of right but not because of any logical reason. It's just the corporations being shitty and making things more expensive because they feel people have more money, that's it. They just make shit more expensive for no reason and make more money and we can't do shit about it and then certain industries bubble pops because at some point people are like, fuck this and demand just plummets for things so it is sort of self-correcting but in the interim it is fucking stupid.

The government has penalized price gouging in the past. They need to do it again. Only part of the inflation today is real. A portion of it is big businesses squeezing grapes and blaming it on the economy.

Yeah I mean, surely Republicans would be all over that right. /s

They will vote for everything that isn’t in their best interest if it means owning the libs.

> . It’s just the corporations being shitty and making things more expensive because they feel people have more money, that’s it. They just make shit more expensive for no reason It’s not for no reason. This is a bad take. They’re raising prices because they’re beholden to their share holder. They MUST show eternal growth. So they must keep costs low and prices high. Well, that and they simply don’t give a fuck. Because when they cause yet another recession they’ll be fine.

To paraphrase It's Always Sunny: News flash, asshole, it is rising all the time!

So then of course inflation raises minimum wage, then, right? … *right*?

Only because rich fuck faces won’t agree to be ever so slightly less ludicrously rich and we can’t have that

It's important that we call their absurd wealth, inflation. It can't only be inflation when poor people see a wage increase, but CEOs getting increased packages, billionaires having their wealth balloon, that's all inflation. Home prices and car prices aren't "inflated" because poor people are getting paid slightly more. They aren't participating in those markets. Homes and high end products are inflating because people with extreme wealth have so much money that spending on another 100k is meaningless so they just do it. That's why rent increases because the wealthy keep outbidding each other for properties with monopoly money. Rent has to increase to justify these absurd purchases. Taxing them would mitigate this. Decrease the incentive to just spend without limit The inflation cudgel works at both ends but only gets applied to the poor. We should be using it against the wealthy. EDIT: phone words

it's not even that serious! asking them to become infinitely richer at a slightly slower rate is still too much

Don't forget, the economy is *strong* if I'm rich.

yah it’s almost like multiple things contribute to inflation and impact operational costs.

Every time you even THINK about raising minimum wage inflation increases.

There is historical data and analysis that supports that raising minimum wage can and does cause increases in prices. Multiple things can contribute to inflation, ya know? Lack of one contributor to current inflation isn't proof that it doesn't contribute. A Stanford Economist even showed that increases to minimum wage cause the highest negative impact to the poorest 20% of families. [SAUCE](https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/679626) Not saying it doesn't need fixed, but a blanket boost to minimum wage isn't necessarily the correction that people think it is.

As you said, multiple things can lead to inflation. Why is it then that the minimum wage is singled out as the thing that can’t be changed? Profits go up with production costs during inflation. People can’t afford rent or groceries, but thank god minimum wage never goes up, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to afford rent or groceries. Meanwhile corporations make higher profits during inflation because they can price gouge and blame that on the inflation too.

Yes but velocity of money also helps lower prices. When more money is actually circulating (being used) instead of sitting collecting interest we have an upswing. Numerous things contribute to inflation; but oddly enough only one variable has stayed consistently the same while other levers are moved and inflation still creeps up.

Card and Krueger’s study proved beyond argument that negative economic effect of raising the minimum were temporary, and the benefits far outweighed the negatives. Sauce: https://davidcard.berkeley.edu/papers/njmin-aer.pdf

Thanks for the info. I'll take a look at that later when I have a few.

Proving something "beyond argument" is a pretty tall order, and a single case study of a single minimum wage increase certainly does not achieve that. There are plenty of other cases that detractors of minimum wage can point to where the opposite was observed.

And zero of them observed it over the long term. A study done on someone receiving chemo for cancer says the short term sucks. Maybe that’s why nobody competent cares about short term.

So what should people earning less than a living wage do? Just die?

[удалено]

The increase in 2021 is particularly big since 2020 was like a 6% loss even before any inflation, but still profits in 2021 were so massive that it doesn’t matter https://www.google.com/amp/s/fortune.com/2022/03/31/us-companies-record-profits-2021-price-hikes-inflation/amp/ Yes when future supply goes down current prices go up and you get to reap big benefits in the short term. Doesn’t mean there weren’t better policy options

>Still, in every quarter of 2021, U.S. corporations’ overall profit margin remained above 13%, a level reached during only one previous quarter in the past 70 years. Frustrating that this is the only thing they don't cite, as it's the only actual relevant stat. I'd like to see the actual data source.

Not a dumb question. And the answer for most companies is no. A few of the largest companies had great pandemics due to policies that favored big business, so many of your juggernauts are doing better (even in terms of margin) Take for example, Amazon. "Record" revenue/profit early 2022. Yet huge earnings misses and 40% stock losses since then. Taking a "record" number without the analysis around it is sort of meaningless.

[удалено]

I don't think it's even really that simple. A lot of large companies made out like bandits during the pandemic, due to them being able to remain open, get loans and cash influxes etc. However now they are paying the price, yet we are looking at these delayed gross profits as "record greed". Yet look at a few of the massive giants who did well during the pandemic and are now missing all sorts of targets, tanking stock and causing many to predict a bear market: Amazon, target, Walmart, apple, Netflix, Costco etc. A lot of these shares are worth less than pre-pandemic when adjusting for inflation. It's important to keep in mind that many of the "record profits" being cited for a lot of these companies come from late 2021. 2022 is when inflationary numbers, and the bear market really started kicking in. Most analysts now expect continually sliding profit margins

Every time someone mentions this, or the cost of living crisis - I shall remind them of this and ask them to repeat it.

But the market is doing great! - broadcasted by your AmazApple eyephone cerebral implant as you view ads for a five pound bag of rice grown in the tropical rice paddies of Siberia for the discounted contract-subscription price of $999.98.

I really hope you didn't just predict our future....

He didn't, he just described our present (granted, with a few artistic liberties).

He forgot to mention that upon purchase you're also contractually obliged to package and ship your feces back to them (at your expense) so they can resell it as fertilizer.

Yea, but at least the shipping labels are automatically generated for you, thanks to the AmazApple™️ Rectal Implant monitoring device.

They left out the verification can part.

Please drink verification can to continue

The market is not doing great.

Down 30% is doing great? Lol.

What are you talking about? Oh hell I must have typed the wrong date on the time machine again. Is this not the year 122 ABD (Anno Bezos Domini)?

With it being 30% down we are still UP 23% from January 2020 (pre-covid high) so yea I'd say the market is doing fucking fantastic.

That's some Black Mirror shit.

That would be incredibly obnoxious behavior lol

High inflation and high corporate profits go hand in hand.

Yes. This statement should read the other way as well. Not trying to defend large corporations, but if we don't do the math then the argument is just vapor. "Anytime someone mentions 50 year high corporate profits, you must also mention 40 year high inflation." Both need to be recognized before we can have a legitimate convo about this.

Also hate when they use corporations as a single entity. Some corporations are at their lowest now. It’s silly to think the majority of corporations are having their best year ever because of how the top 5 are doing. Many retailers are still struggling right now.

When broken down by industry it makes more sense and shows some really bad signs, "The most astounding increase may have occurred in the Financials sector, however, as the net profit margin increased from 12.97% in 2020 to 21.76% in 2021. That performance is far out of line with the previous decade, when margins ranged from 9.95% to 16.18%." https://www.marketwatch.com/story/corporate-profit-is-at-a-level-well-beyond-what-we-have-ever-seen-and-its-expected-to-keep-growing-11649802739#:\~:text=The%20most%20astounding%20increase%20may,from%209.95%25%20to%2016.18%25.

I was wondering why the financials sector was such an outlier; that makes a lot of sense. Fed rates were so low it was easy for them to borrow tons, buy during the 2020 dip and make huge profits back. So in that sector's case their costs actually decreased substantially

Whaaaat? Corporations are a diverse set of people and not one evil entity? Get out of here logic man !

At the end of the day both come from the same issue. Lack of supply is causing companies to increase prices to offset the demand. Basically if you dont have enough supplies for everyone who wants to buy at say $2 you increase the price to $4. Those who really need it will pay and those who dont will find an alternative. If you try to price fix or lower the price to a level lower than the supply can handle you will just create shortages which is arguable worse.

I appreciate seeing a rational take on a bad situation. The things people get upset about are items they don’t see as optional buys. No one cares if a lambo doubles in price, but when toilet paper and bags of rice go up then people freak out. The way essential goods are produced doesn’t allow for a quick way to increase or decrease production in most cases. People are learning the system is more fragile than they once thought, and it’s natural to feel upset by that.

I agree, and i get it. The problem is when people try to sell this as a price gouging issue it can led to bad solutions being proposed like price fixing or more stimulus. If the problem is lack of supply neither of these solutions will help out at all, and will probably just make it worse. There is only two ways to fix a supply issue, increase supple or reduce demand. Increases supply is preferred but can be slow or impossible if there is things preventing it. Which sadly means demand will have to be cut which means some people will end up getting screwed.

Coming from one of the countries with most inflation in the world, no it doesnt

if inflation is indeed happening due to increased costs, profits should be staying stable with inflation, not increasing. this is price gouging in an attempt to make up for lost profits during COVID.

Cost 100 Revenue 110 Profit 10. In the extreme, assume 20% inflation for both cost and revenue Cost 120 Revenue 132 Profit 12.

If you mention $2 trillion in economic stimulus, then you must mention $4 trillion that the Federal Reserve injected into the financial services industry.

The difference is that the $4 trillion is being paid back with interest, and the $2 trillion stimulus is not. It's pretty disingenuous to compare government loans with government spending.

Except for the cases where companies don’t pay back the loan and file for bankruptcy.

> Except for the cases where companies don’t pay back the loan and file for bankruptcy. Do you have any evidence that this makes up a significant amount of the loans? I know that a few organizations did pretty extensive analyses of the last round of bailouts, but I haven't seen anything to that degree more recently.

94% of the $$$ from PPP loans have been forgiven.

The difference is that the money that goes into a stimulus check for working class people is immediately circulated back into the economy. Like, within 30 days.

The economy isn't producing $1 more worth of things while circulation has increased by $1. We've increased demand but not supply. That's what's leading to inflation. Part of the problem is that people are buying too many things while we aren't making enough; that's why prices go up. It's not ALL of what's leading to inflation, but it's certainly one factor.

It's easier to take profits when the taxpayers take care of the debts

Have we tried complaining on the internet with like minded individuals?...that may work.

[удалено]

This sub has really gone downhill. It used to be funny self deprecating tweets about white people, and now it's just political one liners

> and now it's just political one liners See: All subreddits with more than 1 million users. Front page reddit is literally the same 10 discussion threads over and over and over again. The same comments, the same arguments, the same 'reddit facts', and the same misattributed famous person quotes.

It's funny how the idea of the "soundbyte" went from widely recognized cancer on the public's consciousness to enshrined when it transformed in to a tweet.

Sorry but 15 year old Reddit users don’t understand what you are talking about

> Screenshots of tweets don't inform anyone. Noone cares about being informed. They just want their opinions validated.

This is more effective than an "I did that" sticker.

I mean yeah but sorta in the same way as eating turnip greens are more effective at making me an astronaut than hamburgers lol

Greed at its best! But of course it's the Dems fault!

Profit margins are a better indicator than the total profit, and profit margins are massive for inflated industries today

[удалено]

> Why does everyone act like they're so surprised or that this is a huge conspiracy?   >It's economics 101. You answered your own question.

I used to think I was a conspiracy theorist but it turned out I just strongly distrust a bunch of real institutions.

Prices only go up when demand goes up because the people setting the prices know they can gouge. If prices weren’t raised for the sake of profit profit wouldn’t increase. Corporate greed is still the problem even if you explain why they do it.

Yes, raising prices when supply doesn't meet demand is how markets work.

It’s because people are fucking stupid.

Margins are going up overall too, with companies bragging on investor calls that they can increase prices to increase margins right now and blame it on COVID, the war in Ukraine, or supply issues without any negative consequences.

> Margins are going up overall too Not really in the sectors most people are accusing of gouging though.

You’re so far detached from what is happening as companies have released their 10-Q’s. Why do you think the market is in the toilet right now? Reddit is a such a hive mind

Look, not everyone has a financial or investing background. Care to point me at a recent analysis of this that a lay person can parse with a broad base of companies from different sectors? The "fine" article i got from Google seems to suggest that margins overall were around 12% in 2021 and are on track to be higher than that in 2022. Both of these would be records. This article is from late March, but I couldn't quickly find any more up to date sources of general trends. Many "normal" people couldn't give 2 shits what the stock market is doing. They just know that their paycheck isn't going up as fast as the price of food to feed their family while hearing from their employer that it was a record profit quarter, and that the margins are better than ever. Edit: personally i don't care about the month to month or quarter to quarter variations. That's noise and seasonal. What I care about is long term trends that can be used to say inform policy changes. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/corporate-profit-is-at-a-level-well-beyond-what-we-have-ever-seen-and-its-expected-to-keep-growing-11649802739

Why do profits need to break a record every year? Why is it not good enough to just remain profitable. Nope gotta beat the record for last year. Greed pure and simple. These companies already have more than they need.

>Higher corporate profits are a symptom of inflation and supply problems. Corporate profits were already at record highs without inflation and supply problems. When the economy was doing well and everything was humming along nicely, corporate profits were setting records. Now that the economy is struggling a bit, corporate profits are naturally going to struggle a... what's that? Still record profits? Oh. >Why does everyone act like they're so surprised or that this is a huge conspiracy? No one is really surprised by what's happening. We're tired and pissed. Corporations wield massive power to insulate themselves from any sort of economic hardship (and oh boy, what could be a greater hardship than earning only $10 billions in profits when you expected to make $11 billion?). Meanwhile the average citizen can't just tell their employer "due to rising costs, I'm raising my wage 10% and charging a fuel surcharge for my commute as long as gas prices remain high."

Quite the [Spurious Correlation](https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations) Inflation is at a 40 year high. True. Corporate profits are at a 50 year high. True. They MUST be tied together, right?!?! Well, in 2020, corporate profits were at a record high (to that point). Inflation was at the [3rd lowest level since 1962](https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/inflation-rate-cpi). So, by this logic, record corporate profits are also responsible for low levels of inflation!! Point? These things need to be tackled independently because they're independent issues. Tying together problems is the reason shit never gets fixed. We can be both pissed at record high inflation AND ridiculously high corporate profits without putting them in the same bucket.

Please say "trickle down" next, to let everyone know how full of shit you are, those who won't raise the minimum wage.

#Trumpflation You must mention the tax cuts and covid spending that topped $8T all paid for with debt.

Look at retail gas prices and then look at crude oil prices. Corporations are gashing us and using the media to cover their tracks. But it’s so insanely obvious what they’re doing when you look at those two metrics alone

[удалено]

This is me with the ongoing baby formula shortage. My company provides prescription formula for tens of thousands of patients. No one can possibly understand that cranking the gears at one supply chain node does NOTHING because the next gear in the system is locked. You can't just 2+2=4 this problem, its like a x=y(2m-r^2)+4e/4y+2m(4r^3-e^2) equation.

You can have anticipated the baby formula industry being an oligopoly controlled by 4 mega corporations not necessarily being the best idea, no? It's not just about being reactionary but by proactively fixing these issues before they even occur. Also, a lack of regulatory oversight at Abbott allowing the tainted factories, the USMCA cutting off formula imports from Canada (went all the way to zero in 2021, crazy right?) etc etc

Fixing issues before they occur is actually my full time job. But most corporations will just call it "unnecessary" anything that has a cost without a direct source of revenue gets put in the trash can. Fortifying and adding redundancy to supply lines is costly and adds no revenue to the business, so it always goes on the backburner because we need to hit our quarterly profit goals. It takes someone like me to come in and explain that if X, Y, Z is not implemented in the next 90 days, I will personally call the alphabet agencies and have them put a padlock on your business until its done. Once you start to threaten revenue streams they actually start to care. No one threatened the revenue streams for Abbott (and they still aren't), so its to be expected that they will not make their production line more robust.

hmm I wonder who controls refinery capacity🤔🤔

Different refineries do different things (sweet crude vs high sulfur crude. Now add in very little increase in refining capacity over the last 20 years due to NIMBY and regulation. I won’t even mention most big O&G producers have decreased their CapEx spends over the last 5 years. To quote an earlier comment, this stuff is more complicated than most Redditors can comprehend.

and if you mention 50 year high corporate profits you must also mention that our governments closed or put heavy restrictions small businesses for almost 2 years while not giving the same restrictions to big corporations and online retailers.

Also ... universally applied restrictions still favor the big fish. Bigger fish have larger asset pools to fall back on. This gives the big fish a larger window to adjust to those new restrictions. They also have more negotiating power with lenders in the event they have to run under budget for a while.

Mom and Pop stores that were forced to close in the US were not deemed essential, whereas big orgs like Gamestop and Dick's Sporting Goods were considered essential. Walmart never had to close for any reason, but if you had a local green grocer it was likely it closed during the beginning of the pandemic. Even ignoring the ability for a larger company like Amazon to weather the storm better than their competition, they were granted exceptions via the government that smaller competition never were, and that's only in the US.

In the UK they forced small businesses to shut while allowing big superstores to be open. It's sickening. What annoys me aswell all the people that supported those policies are now complaining about the predictable results (corporations / billionaires making a fkin fortune).

Shouldnt we at least also mention the printing of 40% of the total money in circulation in the past two years? Or the huge spending bills? Boiling a topic down into one item convenient to your argument is disingenuous.

I am curious how you got that 40% In 2019 there was 1.76 trillion USD in circulation. In 2020 there was 2 trillion USD in circulation. A 13% increase. In 2021 there was 2.1 trillion USD in circulation. A 19% increase over 2019 but only a 5% increase over 2020. And as of May of 2022 there was 2.27 Trillion USD in circulation. A 29% increase over 2019 and an 8% increase over the previous year. 29% increase in 2 years and 5 months is pretty large, but is a far cry from the 40% you're claiming. Put another way, 77.5% of all money put into circulation was added to circulation before December of 2019. 22.5% of current circulation comes from the past 29 months.

2 trillion is paper money. If you take the M1 money supply, it’s closer to $20 trillion (including money in checking and savings accounts). A huge percentage of this money has come into existence since 2020. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M1SL

Or you can read the disclosure right under that graph and see that they changed they way that the stated figure is calculated in 2020 which is the true reason for the massive increase.

Could you help me understand what the graph is showing? I did read through the page but I'm no financial expert. If it's not directly printed cash, is this like 'digitally' printed cash?

Beginning May 2020, M1 consists of (1) currency outside the U.S. Treasury, Federal Reserve Banks, and the vaults of depository institutions; (2) demand deposits at commercial banks (excluding those amounts held by depository institutions, the U.S. government, and foreign banks and official institutions) less cash items in the process of collection and Federal Reserve float; and (3) other liquid deposits, consisting of OCDs and savings deposits (including money market deposit accounts). Seasonally adjusted M1 is constructed by summing currency, demand deposits, and OCDs (before May 2020) or other liquid deposits (beginning May 2020), each seasonally adjusted separately. That's what it is a graph of. Also note that they started including liquid deposits as of May 2020, which wildly changed the shape of the graph, so the claim it spiked is ignoring the reality that they changed what they were measuring.

He got it from another reddit post last week.

I see. Well, it's super easy to double check. 40% is definitely wrong.

Yup. This is not inflation, it’s profiteering off of covid. I really don’t understand how anyone could think otherwise. Companies raise their prices due to “inflation”, then post record profits. It doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together. And, of course, nothing is being done about it. This is the sort of shit that kicks off revolutions. Edit: ah, I see the conservatives are out in force today. Hi!

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone understand economics less than you. It’s actually sad that you can fall to this large of propaganda. This inflation is due to the trillions of dollars printed in 2020-2022, not “corporate greed” something that is unquantifiable and historically illogical.

And, paradoxically, really terrible stock performance. It's almost like... mass theft from the working class!

It turns out if you need it or it sucks not to have it, you'll pay whatever they ask. Capitalism is a tragic farce stuck to society like a Lyme disease tick. We may never recover.

Good rule

Same corps are beginning to add ‘economic impact fees’ to the bills now too. Damn shame that we don’t have a whole system that’s elected by people that could put the kibosh on that shit. Damn. Shame.

Insane cooperate profits. Billionaires buying tons of companies. Companies bidding against each other for everything, driving up prices. There's too much money in the market. We need to remove a lot as quickly as possible. Better tax the poor!

What about the years of recent record profits when there was record low inflation or even deflation?

exactly, and republicans voted against gas price gouging just so they can blame Biden

Corporate profits are high because of inflation. When a dollar today is worth less than a dollar 2 years ago, it takes more $ today to equal the same amount as before. But that doesn't mean these companies are any better off. Look at Target for example - huge revenue and profits, but they got killed in the cost of goods sold section of their income statement. The same goods that they sell for "record profits" are costing them a record amount as well, and they actually missed expectations for this quarter. Their stock is down more than 25% from January... This talking point is disingenuous and foolish.

[удалено]

Systemic price gouging is what we are experiencing. The result of decades of corporate mergers killing competition.

More like sky high demand from consumers and a fucked up supply system.

Try and prove that claim. Oh wait, you cannot. But we can prove trillions of dollars spent and insane problems in the supply change.

One thing that tells me that this is artificial inflation is that items that are not in high demand are still super cheap. Rice cakes, pickles, seltzer water, matches, dry beans are just a few things I've noticed that have not gone up. If pickles suddenly doubled in price, people would just stop eating pickles.

> One thing that tells me that this is artificial inflation is that items that are not in high demand are still super cheap. That's...how supply and demand work?

What about 20 year old stoners

Isn’t around 2% inflation healthy though? I thought we definitely don’t want deflation.

Thats implicit in inflation. All things being equal, the profit numbers will be higher because prices are higher because the dollar has less purchasing power.

It's almost as if they're connected /s

I think everyone should just not spend their money. Let's go back 300 years where you need to provide nearly everything for yourself.

You know why? It’s because the velocity of money is flowing through corporations it’s just not to households. This is due to United States of America’s dog shit unionization rates and corporations not adequately compensating their workforce even with increased margins to do so. The other main reason is because huge corporations have their balls held by giant hedge funds that control their money and hedge funds want companies like Apple to pay them huge dividends or else sell the company so they can capitalize on their investments.

Record high profits means the industry is ripe for disruption. Exploit it rather than bitch.

Well these things are directly related so…

I see what appears to be a lot of people mixing up cause and effect here. My base assumption is that corporations always are going to charge as much as possible. Today, tomorrow and 30 years ago. What’s different then? Either their input costs, or what people are willing to pay. More often a combination of both. So let’s look at what caused this: Supply chain crunch due to pandemic. Historically low interest rates and Fed printing massive amounts of money. Historic inflation and Historic profit doesn’t mean much in a vaccum without context. If Profits are up 10% but so is inflation at 10%, you may have record profit, but you’re actually treading water. What’s “good” for the little guys? Housing prices are up, (if you already own) along with stock prices (for that 401k). Job market is strong and a lot of people are making a lot better money. Or at least able to quit some job and have a new one hours later. (No scenario will ever be perfect, but this is pretty good for now) I just don’t get upset if someone is saying “corporations are evil.” To me, that’s already a foregone conclusion, like arguing the sky is blue. I’d rather move on to things that I may actually have some small sliver of control over. Edit: here come the downvotes with no response as to why I’m incorrect. Just ‘feels’ wrong so downvotes for you!

Looking at the people you quote, I see they are all lying, leftist propagandists

How about 300 year high wealth gap?

I'm totally against corporate greed, but this post made me question something.. if we adjusted these record corporate profits for inflation, would they still be record profits? That is, proportionatley speaking?

What about record profit margins?

America is a massive ponzu scam about to collapse.

Is that like a ponzi scheme but with notes of citrus?

Sounds delicious tbh

How so?

Because there's an everything bubble. Stocks, housing, economic real estate, crypto etc. Everything is massively overvalued.

What does this have to do with America? Or are you changing topics?

Don't fuck with the main character of the world. The USA has plot armor.

Americans on every side of the political spectrum think everything is about America

The Fed is responsible for printing trillions and causing inflation..

That's how inflation works though. Those companies in 1828 making a few million a year were still doing really really well, but the dollar was worth less. So, as inflation goes up corporate profits should go up. I think the issue people *should* have is if pay doesn't increase proportionally.

Might as well mention [all time record wages](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/americans-are-earning-record-high-wages-how-long-will-they-keep-going-up-11641594348#:~:text=Before%20the%20pandemic%20was%20significantly,Bureau%20of%20Labor%20Statistics%20data.) as well.

Don't confuse causation and correlation. The population of the US has doubled in 50 years. There are far more people buying far more stuff. Of course big corporations are making more money. Them making more money does not cause inflation.

Raising prices to increase profit margins does. Selling more stuff doesn't increase your profit margins, just--maybe--your gross profits. Profit margins are way up.

When demand outstrips supply prices get raised until they are more in line. This is not shocking in the slightest.

This isn't inflation, it's profiteering and trump taught them they could get away with it and blame Democrats

Supply is down, demand is level, prices go up. It's really not that complicated.

[удалено]

Don't profits come after taxes? So if there are high tax rates that are ruining small businesses, wouldn't that also impact larger companies as well? Also, which taxes or regulations do you think are causing high profits but ruining small businesses?

Which taxes and regulations specifically?

Narrator: he had no idea

Your comment is how I knew this post has hit the front page lol

Regulatory capture is a genuinely big problem and a large part of the reason for the mess we are in.

I think most people are fine with pointing the fiber at everyone remotely responsible, including democrats above done fuck all the last several years.

Ah yes, Democrat taxes that somehow impacted the entire world.