Open Questions to Leftists About Inflation and Kammunism

[WestCanMan]

5 hours ago, Michael Hardner said:

https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2024/03/26/high-food-prices-consolidation/

 

Some top level stats:

"we found that from 2020 to 2024, the cost to feed a family of four grew 2.5 more than the rate of inflation. 

 

Meanwhile, corporate profits rose five times faster than inflation from 2020 to 2022 — some to record highs. What’s more, a recent report from the Biden administration shows how big companies benefited from worsening the supply chain problems that raised prices during the pandemic. 

 

This trend has been enabled by lax antitrust enforcement that has let corporate giants get bigger."

The Populist movement has straddled the line between being against "corporate greed" (that term was actually SPOKEN at a speech at the RNC this year) and promotion of free enterprise, reduction in bureaucracy etc.

The devil is in the details.

All of that is misleading in one way or other.

1. For starters, "record profits" doesn't mean anything when the dollar's value is at a record low. $200M 4 years ago buys more than $220M in 2024. You need $240M 2024 dollars to have the same amount of buying power as you had with 200M in 2020. 
2. Also, a profit of $220M sounds like a lot but it is only a profit of $4M for each state in the US. Imagine having a company that sells to everyone in California, all year long, and just makes $4M there...
3. In case you can't figure this out for yourself,  $220M isn't even $1 from everyone in America. How many pieces of chicken does every American buy from that company in a year? How many pieces of chicken do they buy from that company just for that company to make a $1 profit from each person? 
4. Last thing: if price controls are coming, then closing factories is the right thing to do. 

Edited August 19, 2024 by WestCanMan

[impartialobserver]

Corporate balance sheets are .. well.. complicated. Just because they report a profit of $200 Million.. you have to know exactly how that $200 M is composed. Second, its really hard to parse out the price paid at the store and say just what part of that price is the profit of the producer. 

[robosmith]

19 hours ago, WestCanMan said:

Leftists: can you explain how price controls (Kamala calls it ending price-gauging, but I think she means price-gouging) actually cause food prices to go up?

I don't want to lecture you guys, you always like to pretend to know everything, so do you think price-fixing will work, and if not, why?

Just cause your right wing propaganda sites tells you it's "price-fixing" does not make that Harris' POLICY proposal. Duh

What are anti gouging laws?

 

 

California Penal Code section 396 prohibits excessive and unjustified increases in the prices of essential consumer goods and services, construction services, hotel lodging, and residential rental properties during and shortly after a declared state of emergency or local emergency.

 

Price Gouging | California Governor's Office of Emergency Services

California Governor's Office of Emergency Services - CA.gov

https://www.caloes.ca.gov › legal-affairs › price-gouging

Edited August 20, 2024 by robosmith

[Matthew]

1 hour ago, CdnFox said:

Where has that ever worked though? The government simply isn't capable of figuring out what a fair market value is

As far as I can tell it's working just fine with insulin. The production costs fluctuates between $2-10, so right now $35 is plenty to still make a profit. For such a big health necessity the government and the industry itself can monitor for recommending when updating the price ceiling is necessary.

[CouchPotato]

Snatching away patents from drug companies so that "we will take over"?

She has the will to do that. She sounds so creepy here, too.

Edited August 20, 2024 by CouchPotato

[CdnFox]

2 hours ago, Matthew said:

As far as I can tell it's working just fine with insulin. The production costs fluctuates between $2-10, so right now $35 is plenty to still make a profit. For such a big health necessity the government and the industry itself can monitor for recommending when updating the price ceiling is necessary.

No, insulin costs are not capped.  What was capped is what insurance companies can charge as i understand it. It only applies to "part d" plans and cosharing on part b.  those plans will be tweaked to make sure they're still making lots of money, they just are now required to cover insulin to a certain dollar value.  So they can still up their insurance or make other adjustments. 

So not the same thing. 

What she's talked about is basically telling stores what they can sell eggs for. 

 

 

[Matthew]

19 hours ago, CdnFox said:

No, insulin costs are not capped.  What was capped is what insurance companies can charge as i understand it. It only applies to "part d" plans and cosharing on part b. 

I buy insulin for my cat. My cat has no health insurance and is not on Medicare part D and uses the same insulin humans do. A standard wee 20ml vial went from over $300 to $35 at every pharmacy in town regardless of the brand/manufacturer.

[ironstone]

According to this survey, Democrat supporters are rather clueless about their preferred candidate.

 

[Nationalist]

On 8/19/2024 at 1:24 PM, CdnFox said:

So here's the kind of lie the left loves to spin. 

Mention that food inflation went up.  Then mention corporate profit went up.  And in doing so suggest that somehow one is connected to the other directly without any data or logic. 

The reader is SUPPOSED to gasp and say "AHA !! PROOF THEY"RE FLEECING US!!!"

Inflation does not directly relate to the cost of food production, or shipping or importing. 

But in typical leftist fashion (here's another example for you mike) you're promoting the idea that if someone made money, the ONLY POSSILBE EXPLANATION is that big corporate is stealing from the people. 

Did costs of production go up? Did population go up? Did people eat at home more during the pandemic and buy more groceries? Are their shortages? were there labour issues during the pandemic? Etc etc?

Nope - couldn't be ANY of that - MUST be corporate greed. Only possible answer 

Tell us all about how you're a dispassionate conservative again mike 

Nor does Mike...or any Libbie...mention stock prices.

30 minutes ago, Matthew said:

I buy insulin for my cat. My cat has no health insurance and is not on Medicare part D and uses the same insulin humans do. A standard wee 20ml vial went from over $300 to $35 at every pharmacy in town regardless of the brand/manufacturer.

Hey isn't that a deal Trump struck which just came into effect while Brandon was in office?

[CdnFox]

1 minute ago, Nationalist said:

Nor does Mike...or any Libbie...mention stock prices.

The selective memory switch is right about where the thumb rests on the handguard to these guys

[Matthew]

44 minutes ago, Nationalist said:

Hey isn't that a deal Trump struck which just came into effect while Brandon was in office?

No it was a law passed by democrats and signed by Biden. But it wouldn't surprise me if republicans had floated a similar idea under trump. The price of insulin was so obviously exploititive.

[CdnFox]

25 minutes ago, Matthew said:

No it was a law passed by democrats and signed by Biden. But it wouldn't surprise me if republicans had floated a similar idea under trump. The price of insulin was so obviously exploititive.

You're not quite right. 

@Nationalist Is correct, It was indeed something trump brought in originally.  He intended it to be a pilot project. So his verson was voluntary for the insurers to sign on to for various reasons and was only to last for a limited time and then they'd tweak it. 

SO that was in place and many many of the insurers did sign on.  But it was time limited and voluntary. 

Biden passed it into permanent law and made it manditory. 

So yes - trump absolutely did start that ball rolling, but  yes biden locked it down after the industry basically said it was fine. 

But again - this has nothing to do with the price of insulin, this was strictly how much EXTRA insurers were allowed to charge INDIVIDUALS on top of their insulin coverages as a 'Deductible" if you will.  By forcing this, the cost of the insulin deductible was stabilize,d but the cost of the policies would go up accordingly.  Meanwhile actually buying insulin cost the same amount the whole time.