Submitted 10 months ago by DichotoDeezNutz@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
They keep raising prices, stating that it’s due to inflation, but then they keep having record profits.
Meanwhile, the average American can barely afford rent or food nowadays.
What are we to do? Vote? I have been but that doesn’t seem to do much since I’m just voting for a representative that makes the actual decisions.
If you can’t afford food, heat, rent, etc., apply for assistance from things like SNAP and other programs (local, state and federal). Call 211 for information on available resources in your area.
Move to another country
Easier said than done.
I know but it’s the only real solution
When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich.
Here's what I'm doing:
Some things I'm considering:
Ah, landowner class, checking in with bullshit as per usual
I'm not going to apologize for who I am but I'm no1%er.
Sorry you have to hate.
The vast majority of Americans own houses
skill issue
Not American, but I try to buy most of my daily stuff from independent places instead of supermarkets. The social contacts at my local butcher, bakery, vegetable shop, fish shop, … is also much more enjoyable than stressing in the Colruyt or whatever. And the produce is way better.
The problem in the states is that many of the local grocery stores went out of business when wally world rolled into town.
O, I see. I guess that makes it even more important to support your local baker/butcher/…, if you’ve still got one. But yeah, that’s a shitty situation.
There’s usually still farmers markets within driving distance. Granted they’re not a replacement for a grocery store, but they have a lot of the essentials. There’s no middle ma getting a cut when buying from them. But also it’s important to go because otherwise the local markets won’t get any bigger.
Ask for a raise.
Join a union, demand at minimum an inflation matching raise.
Asking will do nothing if they are not giving you a raise he default.
Not sure of your means, but we can boycott. Organizations like Trader Joe’s and Aldi are a bit cheaper than their competitors while offering also using different sources. Likewise organizations like H Mart or your local farmers market source locally, giving the middle finger to Tyson (who claims inflation and profits) and Kellogs (who uses shrinkflation to claim profits). Obviously this doesn’t work for everyone, but I think the majority of city dwellers can make these moves. This also is a fuck you to any local grocery stores trying to do the same bullshit (Walmart).
In the same vein, and what I’ve done, alternative meal companies have come A LONG way. The company Huel has a instant noodles, pasta, and candy bars that are macro balanced with vitamins and nutrients all for about $5/meal. I know most people will skip this, but they’re actually really good. Mac N Cheese, pasta Bolognese and Cajun pasta have actually gotten me to go mostly vegan. There’s another one called Outstanding Foods that has cheese puffs, cookies and pork rinds that are macro balanced and delicious as well. My daily meals are often some pasta like Mac N Cheese, one of the Huel shakes (I have a ninja creami so this is ice cream in the summer), and coffee mocha cookies, and another shake. That’s 1800 calories with balanced macros and vegan that I didn’t have the really cook or think about. If I’m working out, I swap the last shake for a protein shake.
Trader Joe’s is just one more shitty company with a nice face.
Ask their warehouse workers. Who will also let you know that where Trader Joe’s sources there stuff isn’t different than other places, actually.
You will be paying the same companies, in the end.
For cheap food, rice and bulk Indian lentil packets can be around $2.50/meal for good sized portions, $1.50 - $2 for smaller portions and 3 meals/day. See also: ramen, potatoes, off-brand soy sauce, bulk dried seaweed (very healthy and cheap). use an app to track macros yourself and you can save a lot of money. This is assuming you have what you need to boil water, but even a hotplate can do ramen and rice, and potatoes microwave well. Bulk frozen chicken breasts can work for meat if you have a little more money.
Aldi appears to be a good place to work, too 👍
partly because the German Aldi union forces them to abide by minimum standards around the world
What we should do is collectively stop paying what the corporations are asking and start negotiating the price of absolutely everything.
For example when we’re at the car dealership instead of saying “oh my God I want that car so bad I’ll pay anything you want” you say " I’ll give you $10,000 less than you’re asking for or I’m not going to buy anything from you"
Somehow the corporate elite of not just America but of all other major countries in the world have convinced the populace that you must pay what they’re asking when you actually don’t have to.
As the consumer you hold all the power you are not required to buy anything you are doing a favor by purchasing products from these corporations.
oh my God I want that car so bad I’ll pay anything you want” you say " I’ll give you $10,000 less than you’re asking for or I’m not going to buy anything from you"
That’s only works if there is a surplus. Manufacturers have gotten really good at only producing exactly what is needed and no more to keep their products in demand.
At some point you will need a new car. My 15 year old Sienna was having more and more expensive problems. Technically I could have kept going but I wanted a car I could trust to make long trips with my family. If it was just me, being stranded for a day wouldn’t be a problem.
So I waited 2years for the supply chain to get better before giving up and buying a new Sienna. It was the only one on the lot. I could pay full price or not buy it at all. The dealer didn’t have to negotiate because someone else would buy it immediately.
Yes. That’s a problem, that guy right behind you is the issue. He’s the one that should be negotiating the price.
We need to stop allowing the manufacturer to set whatever price they want.
To an extent, this is already happening. I work in manufacturing, and the last couple of years there was more demand for our product than our factories were physically capable of producing, and prices were raised to weed out the number of customer orders to what we could handle. Projections for this year are for softened demand, and sales expects to have to offer significant price cuts to keep enough orders for our manufacturing lines to stay busy.
Collective “we have enough stuff and will buy less” at work.
you are not required to buy anything
As long as we keep capitalism tightly regulated!
Every day when going to your corporate job find creative ways to sabotage and monkeywrench the corporation you have access to. Nothing illegal, lose paperwork, lose files, foment miscommunication and misunderstanding, make mistakes at your specific tasks, misplace items, sow distrust in management. Cost them time, money, and efficiency. And above all unionize. Direct action on the ground where you have access.
Because nothing helps with the rising cost of living more than deliberately pissing away any chance of promotion and likely eventually being laid off and jobless.
You do realize how much privilege one has to have in order to casually jeopardize your income without sweating over it, right?
The problem is people’s finances are being jeopardized by corporate price gouging in the first place.
Better to simply stop reelecting politicians who support corporate bailouts for failing companies.
General strikes, shut shit down.
you are suppose to live with it or die according to the law.
Starve.
Be more proactive: light yourself on fire in a Walmart.
You have to take action and I don’t mean wear an arm band and commit violence. The people in the driver’s seat are still people for now. Human beings with families and feelings. Call their companies, say their crimes to their frontline people, ask how they sleep at night. Call the executive offices. Do the same. Keep making noise. Keep protesting. Do not be silent, ever. Keep doing it in en masse until these greedy pigs realize they’re killing their own kind through apathy and greed.
Sit ins, phone line jamming, and socially ostracizing. Hold them to task any way you’re comfortable. Companies were freaking out over Twitter users and they only represented 3% of the internet at its peak. You have more power than you think.
Ask for a raise, get a better job. If the balance sheet is up then that means they have more money to pay workers. They only get to keep it if the workers do nothing. If workers rise up together then they will take back the gains.
Apathy and hopelessness is what they want you to feel when you should feel empowered instead.
My company gave a temporary 2% raise to everyone last year due to inflation. This year they said inflation was not up, so they took away the raise. The audacity!
Bad business leadership. It costs more than 2% to replace workers leaving en-masse because of salary.
I sure hope take away doesn’t mean they literally decreased salaries back to the level they were at 2 years ago. Thats a literal pay decrease when raises below inflation are already functional pay decreases.
Move to another country?
I’m trying to figure out the same question.
Moving rocks. You should do that. I did that.
I want to move to one of the EU countries maybe even Australia, New Zealand, or Canada. But I have no skills to offer these countries. Can I still move?
Iniquity will hit a critical mass, we’ll start a 3rd world war, if we survive the war we’ll have another post war economy boomer world.
is that a Battletech Atlas?
Make more money. Your income should be going up over time in line with inflation. This is easier if you don’t work a dead-end job and are willing to change jobs every once in a while.
Basically if you work in a retail or food service job, your main priority in life should be to get out of that industry and into something else. Even something as simple as working in a warehouse or construction will get you a lot more $$$ with much more leverage for raises and forward-moving promotions.
Me and my girlfriend both work full time and we are able to more or less easily afford rent and food. It helps to have two incomes. Although I will say, it’s sad that she got pregnant with twins and we ultimately decided we couldn’t keep them because of the financial situation. I wanted them but she didn’t feel like we were financially stable enough.
So yeah, people gotta learn to live like it’s a third world country. It’s not the 1950s anymore where everyone can work whatever job and make ends meet.
Or stop promoting a system where the only way forward is always “more”, designed to leave a majority in the dust. Inflation is artificial, people getting more miserable by just not wanting to abide to that system is also artificial.
i don’t think the system is fair or ethical. if it were up to me, it would be different.
but the system isn’t fair or ethical and i am forced to live in it, so i’m going to live in it in such a way that puts me in a better position.
yes, the majority of the population gets fucked. if you are asking for my advice though, i’d say position yourself in a way where you are not that majority
if you have a politician i could vote for that would actually change things or some sort of organization i could support then i would support them
if your solution involves not having a family because you can’t afford them it’s not really a solution. I’m not here to shame yall’s decision not to complete the pregnancy, I’m here to shame the people who put you in a position where you’re both working full time and still had to make that decision.
I think it’s an interesting thing. My parents had me at a much younger age, with much less money, in a country with a much more chaotic economic situation.
We had a peak of 10% inflation in my state (Florida) in the last couple of years. The year I was born, my country was going through 2,000% inflation.
Yet my parents provided regardless and here I am, just fine with my little brother doing just fine as well.
So I think ultimately if me and my girlfriend really went for it, we would make it work. But she wants to have a mortgage, be able to pay for nannies and daycare and whatnot. We’re just not there yet.
I agree with you that the economic situation needs to improve. It’s like the powers that be are actively trying to suppress the population growth.
Bend over and take it. We can vote corrupt people out, but they generally just get replaced by the same people that can be swayed by lobbyists.
I’m sick right now and went to buy cold medicine… It’s fucking TWENTY DOLLARS for a 12 ounce bottle of Vick’s Cold and Flu medicine here in Miami. Pretty much every other brand was between $15-25. There was a pack of DayQuil that was $6… It had like 5 doses in it and you’re supposed to take it every 4 hours, so like a day’s worth… For $6.
A few weeks ago I had to buy laxatives and it was the same thing, everything was $17-$40! I almost shit myself when looking at the prices 🤣
If you had shit yourself looking at the prices you would have saved yourself $17-$40.
I’m sick right now and went to buy cold medicine… It’s fucking TWENTY DOLLARS for a 12 ounce bottle of Vick’s Cold and Flu medicine here in Miami.
You realize that it doesn’t help you survive, right? You don’t need cold medicine. It’s just a luxury item because you don’t want to have to deal with a little uncomfortable for a short period of time. You’re not “supposed to” take it at all. They just sold you on it, and you bought it.
Captain Obvious to the rescue!
Die in a ditch?
I’m building a chicken coop and turning my monoculture lawn into a native wildflower/vegetable garden.
If I’m still struggling to feed my family when that’s established I will be violently entering the local government offices to issue a complaint.
Honestly, owning a house/property puts you in a better spot than a lot of people. What state are you in?
I’m in an extremely overtaxed state in the central US. I’m currently renting from a very cool landlord for almost a decade. The owner respects the environment and is in full support of my proposed additions, I reside in an unincorporated area so there aren’t any HOAs or policing bodies to bother with.
Die
Pay more. Be good little consumer drones. Not be so selfish when a corporation thinks they should have all your money instead of you.
Earn more.
Didn’t have this problem under Trump.
My dude, we had covid prices and insane global shortages under Trump.
Not that the huge supply chains were his fault, but my 4 year old GPU appreciated 300% during that period.
That’s a fucking stupid thing to say (or even think).
Look at their post history, lol
What?? The inflation problems literally STARTED under Trump. He’s not to blame for the covid supply chain issues, sure, but “didn’t have this problem under Trump” is an easily fact checked lie.
People started complaining about inflation when Trump was still president, after people started hoarding toilet paper, then at a larger scale after the first stimulus cheques. I’m not blaming him personally for that specifically, COVID was hard for all countries on Earth, but facts are facts.
Bullcrap. Nice revisionist history. Inflation was non-existent under Trump. This is all on Biden and his doing everything his feeble mind is able to tank the economy.
Don’t you get tired from losing?
No one loses because of the ranting of fools. I take the down votes here for what they are, the desperate clinging of a false narrative by people that refuse to see reality and instead of thinking for themselves rely on others to do it for them.
Didn’t have this problem under Trump.
That depends very much on your exact position under him… and what exactly you were doing there under him.
And maybe if he’d done a better job with COVID we’d still not have this problem
Maybe if Fauci hadn’t lied from the get go Covid wouldn’t have been a problem either.
It’s always in the term after mismanagement that the effects are felt, eg. in the UK how the tories are raising funding sky high for everything, then will inevitably blame Labour for both underspending and making cuts when they get in later this year
Reason 3674 why representative democracy absolutely sucks
Move. Why stay somewhere that is taking advantage of you?
If you aren’t receiving benefits for the taxes you’re paying or representation for your votes, you can run for office or move and find immediate relief in less expensive countries, which is almost every country.
If you have the knowledge, means and time, make your own stuff.
Buy stock in the companies posting record profits.
Inflation means money is worth less than before. Record profits are only records because the nominal value is higher, but the real value isn’t.
Companies operate on gross margin, so 30% margin is always 30% of the total price. The actual value is irrelevant.
J12@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Demand that our politicians to stop allowing corporations from buying up all single family housing.
Thats where I would start.
nbafantest@lemmy.world 10 months ago
We can literally build as much housing as we want. If a corporation want to invest in housing, it is a good thing. Build baby build.